Jeremiah (the presumed author of Lamentations) looks at the
ruined city of God and is devastated. It
is difficult to imagine what it would have looked like to see the city naked,
its walls torn down, the temple desecrated and destroyed, the houses ruined and
the city bereft of inhabitants. We have
seen pictures of the destruction of cities in Europe in WWI and WWII but even
then the destruction isn’t as complete as Jerusalem’s. Further, these cities, as dear as they were
to their inhabitants, cannot compare in import with Jerusalem as it was the
city of God, the place where His glory dwelt in the temple. Jeremiah is broken by what he sees there and
writes this ode to her glory and her fall due to sin, particularly idolatry. As we begin our turn towards Advent, this is
a good reminder for us to take stock of where we are spiritually. Have we allowed ourselves to worship idols
like political parties, money, or some other thing that we believe will make
our lives full? If so, now is a perfect
time to deal with those idols.
What is it that is causing you to labor and be heavy
laden? Perhaps it is a problem with
money or relationships or work but why are we allowing those things to burden
us so? Sometimes identifying our burdens
also helps us to identify our idols. Jesus
says that whatever your burden is you can bring them to Him and He will refresh
you. If we find our joy and peace and
hope in Him, we will lose our burdens. Most
often when I find myself heavy laden it is because I am not finding all in Him,
He is less important than something else in my life. Until we are able to be complete in Him we
will always be burdened and laboring. There
is no substitute for Jesus, the lover of our souls. The greatest need we have in life is Him.
When Paul speaks of a natural man and a spiritual man and
finishes with, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable,” is he
denigrating the life we now live in any way?
No, as he says, first there is the natural man and then the spiritual
man. Jesus redeemed us from death by His
life. This body may perish but that does
not mean what we do in this body is insignificant. The incarnation, God becoming flesh, tells us
that God considers this life important as well. We tend to make much of the death and resurrection
of Jesus and the creeds reinforce that idea but the life of Jesus was equally
important for it validated our own lives and he called us to live, not to
die. If life weren’t important why not
do away with it altogether? No, let us
have the mind Paul did concerning this life, “I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.” Let us live not for the
satisfaction of worldly desires but for the joy of pleasing Him.
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