Read: Lamentations 2:11-16
My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns. (v. 11)
It’s not easy being a prophet. Jeremiah’s ministry coincided with the decline and fall of the nation of Israel. Jeremiah’s job was warning his people of the consequences of their idolatry. Jeremiah knew that judgment was coming, but he didn’t escape it. Though he himself was innocent, Jeremiah endured as God’s mediator and suffered with his sinful people.
When I observe sin and evil in the world around me, I’m inclined to respond by condemning others’ wrongdoing while maintaining my own innocence. Or I complain that I’m suffering consequences I don’t feel I deserve. How quickly I forget the nature of God’s salvation and how desperately I need it.
As a suffering servant, Jeremiah provided a preview of the ultimate Savior. Jesus was truly innocent. He took upon himself the sinner’s death we deserve. In so doing, he secured an eternal future we don’t deserve. Jesus poured himself out for the world God so loved. All he asks is that we be willing to do the same. In Philippians 2, Paul writes, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who . . . emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant . . . And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).
To follow Jesus means to share his heartbreak over the brokenness of our world. Embrace the undeserved gift of his grace, and adopt his compassion for the world he died to save.
As you pray, ask God to extend his saving grace to your fellow sinners.
About the Author
Ben Van Arragon is the Minister of Worship and Leadership at Plymouth Heights Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He preaches and teaches the Bible in church, online, and anywhere else he has the opportunity.
