Is lament appropriate for Christians today?

This quote conflates lament with complaint. Perhaps lament deals with complaining about one’s lot in life, but grief over loss of another human is a totally different concept. We grieve because that is the natural and human thing to do. If not we are sociopathic and numb to life around us swallowed up in our own selfish thoughts. In Christ, there is the hope of the resurrection, and all reasoning on why a hard event occured can eventually be replaced with hope. The deap underlying thought is that death is because of one humans “sin”. We can get past that as well. But grief over another human is a step up from just lamenting one’s own hardships in life. Personally I do not relish the inevitable fact that such grief is going to happen to me, because it is still selfish knowing that a loved one has passed on, when we know that they are way better off than being here in the flesh. I do not think that the grief happens because of our selfishness, but it can be construed, that we are only grieving out of selfish desires.

At a very basic level, we laugh with those who laugh and cry with those who cry.

I’m reminded of Arnold Bowler’s autobiography–a missionary to Africa. The title refers to him sitting quietly with those who had lost entire families to disease and/or Idi Amin. I don’t think he would have reduced the question of lament to a dispassionate theological argument.

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And yet…God can handle our complaint. There’s something disingenuous about “pretending to God” that we don’t have complaint in our hearts so we repress it. Better to get it out and have God apply the hope of the cross to it.

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Was Job complaining with: “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the Name of the Lord.”?

No.

Have you read the whole book?

“I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain.” Job 10:1

“Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb? Why didn’t you let me die at birth? It would be as though I had never existed, going directly from the womb to the grave. I have only a few days left, so leave me alone, that I may have a moment of comfort before I leave—never to return—for the land of darkness and utter gloom." Job 10:18-21

“Yet my friends laugh at me, for I call on God and expect an answer. I am a just and blameless man, yet they laugh at me.” Job 12:4

“Why do you turn away from me? Why do you treat me as your enemy? Would you terrify a leaf blown by the wind? Would you chase dry straw? You write bitter accusations against me and bring up all the sins of my youth. You put my feet in stocks. You examine all my paths. You trace all my footprints. I waste away like rotting wood, like a moth-eaten coat.” Job 13:24-28

“I was living quietly until he shattered me. He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces. Then he set me up as his target, and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood. Again and again he smashes against me,
charging at me like a warrior. I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust. My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes. Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure.” Job 16:12-17

I could probably add many more examples…

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“Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him.” Acts 8:2

“Jesus wept.” John 11:35

“For indeed [Epaphroditus] was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but on me also, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.” Phil 2:27

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There is a book (in the OT) of Lamentations, too :slight_smile:

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Hi Randy, the point that I was trying to make is lamenting is thing of the past. The Good News that Jesus brought replaced the lamenting with hope. I had quoted the only place in the NT were Jesus uses the term.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
John 16:20 - John 16:20 KJV - Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye - Bible Gateway

This is the message I try to deliver everywhere I go.

Lamentations 3 is one of my favorite chapters. As the NIV footnote says, “This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.” The NET Bible translation makes that clearer in English:

א ( Alef )

1 I am the man who has experienced affliction
from the rod of his wrath.
2 He drove me into captivity and made me walk
in darkness and not light.
3 He repeatedly attacks me,
he turns his hand against me all day long.

Recall that Jeremiah wrote the poem as the people were taken into exile in Babylon. Naturally, the prophet is bitter, but as Shawn says, there is still hope, and even in the midst of despair, Jeremiah writes the words that will inspire one of my favorite hymns, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.

ו ( Vav )

16 He ground my teeth in gravel;
he trampled me in the dust.
17 I am deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is.
18 So I said, “My endurance has expired;
I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord.”

ז ( Zayin )

19 Remember my impoverished and homeless condition,
which is a bitter poison.
20 I continually think about this,
and I am depressed.
21 But this I call to mind;
therefore I have hope:

ח ( Khet )

22 The Lord’s loyal kindness never ceases;
his compassions never end.
23 They are fresh every morning;
your faithfulness is abundant!
24 “My portion is the Lord,” I have said to myself,
so I will put my hope in him.

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“Is lament appropriate for Christians today?”

Judging from the number of articles about lamenting in a Christian context I’d think it’s widely considered a thing of the present.

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I wonder if we would agree that we do well to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. That is what Emmanuel did with us, and you are tres sympathique.

It does seem a lot of lament is a longing for justice. African Americans and other oppressed peoples resonate with it; Randal Rauser mentioned that that is the reason for Heaven in many folks’ minds. I just listened to a Rachel Held Evans Audible of “Inspired,” where an African American pastor said that if we have resurrection only in our minds, it’s not much help to his people.

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Lamentations 3 is like the “greatest hits” of prophetic complaint. All the themes are there: confession of sin, call for repentance, and, yes, the righteous sufferer who trusts in the Lord and cries out to him for justice:

ל ( Lamed )

34 To crush underfoot
all the earth’s prisoners,
35 to deprive a person of his rights
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to defraud a person in a lawsuit—
the Lord does not approve of such things!

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To me, lament gives voice to grief,while despair is grief left unexpressed through faith.

So I’d say lament is not only appropriate but vital to our spiritual health as Christians.

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Yes, @Argon many Christians today cannot see the New Covenant. The people who lived in the OT times had no hope of Heaven. When they died, they were dead and this is why there is a book of Lamentations. They had promised a Messiah that would change this, but He had not come yet, this is way they legitimately complained about. Even though the Messiah stood before His disciples, they could not comprehend how Jesus had changed everything.

It is okay to grieve, but we must rejoice that our loved ones are not dead, as they were in the OT. This is Jesus’ message, and not just in John 16:20.

This is running close to the “no true Scotsman” response. One should consider it possible that many have a different interpretation of what it is ‘to lament’. That it’s not so much an issue about the New Covenant but how to use a verb.: Elevating a semantic quibble to a theological heresy.

Aside: I’m not following the logic that the dead were dead in the Old Testament but are alive now. As you noted, the prophecy was that the Messiah would change this. So, for someone who believed that, their problem was that someone they loved hadn’t been returned to life between the time of their death until the Messiah’s appearance?

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Before Jesus conquered Death (Satan) the old covenant existed on earth. Earth belonged 100% to Satan, including each soul. Upon death, each soul returned to his realm, Hell. He also had a free hand to possess anyone he wanted to. The many demon possessions in the NT shown this. The Jesu said “It is Done,” He declared His victory over Death, and descended into Hell to pass final judgement over Satan. The New Covenant took much away from Satan and opened the gates to Heaven, so that each person who dies can go into the the Kingdom of God for the first time.

is that in the Old Testament? Back in college I took a course in Jewish history from a Rabbi. I’m sure he didn’t mention that.

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It is there the the OT for the enlightened reader to find. The Jews had lost the original teachings of Yahweh and went astray. They were led astray the god of the dead (Make 12:27) and the king of this world (John 18:36). So the answer is clearer in the NT when Jesus speaks about these topics. Like “Let the dead bury the dead.”

OK. I’m not trying to be confrontational or dismissive but given what I know and how I understand Jews and other Christians have processed the Old Testament, I’m going to walk away from this conversation with the idea that this is a somewhat idiosyncratic interpretation not widely shared by Christians or even a majority of Christian theologians.

To anyone else following this conversation: Is my opinion off based? Is Shawn’s interpretation widely held?

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