“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger”. Lamentations 1:12-14.
To find Christ in all the Scriptures is one of the most rewarding studies in the Word of God. It is said that Christ is to be found in every book of the Bible. Even if there is no sign of Him and the scripture does not seem to relate to Him, there will always be a road which leads to Him. A preacher said, if you search deeply you might find Him in every chapter.
In the book of Lamentations there seems to be a clear picture of His ordeal at Calvary. The context of the chapter reveals plainly the judgement which is to come upon the city of Jerusalem. The key note of this short book is destruction and desolation but as we look into it we cannot help but notice a foreshadowing of the sufferings which belong to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To the Christian reading these verses he doesn’t have to strain His eye to notice the scene of Calvary.
“IS IT NOTHING TO YOU ALL YE THAT PASS BY”
Reference is made to those who pass by. Some wanted to increase His agony with taunts and derision. To others it was a spectacle of weakness and failure, it was nothing to them. Attitudes of people these days are very much the same. Mockery and slighting and complete indifference are all too common. Christians people however see it in a completely different light. They view the cross as the only means by which they can be saved, bridging the gulf between a holy God and sinful man. Without it man remains dead in sin and separated from his Maker forever. It is the place where we find full and free forgiveness. The Christian has come to see that Christ our Saviour and His suffering at Calvary is relevant to every living soul.
Every individual is a wayfarer, a pilgrim on the journey of life. Today you are a passer by, you cannot escape passing the Cross of Christ. We refer to the message of the cross and the influence of the cross and the conviction of the cross. We will pass by those things throughout life.
Is it nothing to you? Is all that suffering and shame and sorrow to you meaningless? The Creator of the world, God incarnate, the Second Person of the Trinity suffered death by crucifixion. Wesley wrote:
Behold Him ye that pass by,
The bleeding prince of life and peace,
Come sinners see your maker die,
And say, WAS EVER GRIEF LIKE HIS.
Our message for this month is a collection of thoughts on the sorrows of Christ on Calvary’s cross. The following verses helps us to appreciate the grief He had to bare and the cost of our salvation. May we draw near, with God’s help, beneath the shadow of the cross.
THE PAINFULNESS OF HIS SORROW – “From above hath he sent fire into my bones.” Lamentations 1:13.
Notice this extreme suffering came from “above” not from below. From below came the scourging, the nailing, the crown of thorns, the reviling and spitting. What came from above we can hardly tell. God’s wrath “sent fire into His bones.” It can only infer to the intensity of His spiritual anguish which was far greater than anything man could inflict upon Him. One preacher said, “ from above came fire so hot not even the fire of hell could compare. The hottest fire ever kindled fell on God’s Son in the woe and grief of the cross. The fire of hell spreads over the eons of eternity but this fire was concentrated into that period of suffering at the cross of Calvary.”
THE DESTRUCTFULLNESS OF HIS SORROW – “It prevailed” vs.13.
It was prevailing sorrow, relentless and destructive. Crucifixion was a long drawn out process and the manner of death appointed for the Son of God. He could not die an instant death or a death that was relatively quick, Christ must suffer and die for the sin of millions and was put to death by a painful slow means. He must bare an eternal weight of punishment. His sorrow prevailed at Calvary as He saw His own body being destroyed. A body so pure. The writer to the Hebrews records, “a body hast thou prepared for me,” Hebrews 10:5. They destroyed His hands, they destroyed His feet, they destroyed His appearance. His visage was so marred more than any man, Isa 52:14. In modern terms we would probably use the word, mutilated. His spiritual sufferings were far deeper. The Lord had to endure an eternal punishment compressed into those sorrowful hours. The torments of His body and soul prevailed.
THE HELPLESSNESS OF HIS SORROW – “He hath spread a net for my feet.” vs.13.
He could do nothing to help Himself. He saw the “net” entangling His feet. He knew HE COULDN’T SAVE HIMSELF. The people in their mockery actually told the truth, “He saved others, himself he cannot save.” The net spread for His feet speaks of a snare (see Ezekiel 12:13.) There was no deliverance, no way out. Though he prayed in Gethsemane for that bitter cup of suffering to pass from Him, it was not to be. He resigned Himself to the agony, indeed to the will of God.
THE BITTERNESS OF HIS SORROW– “He hath turned me back.” vs13.
The Saviour is turned back to face the wrath of God. Never before was he ever turned back. There was always that perfect union and fellowship and oneness with the Father. Now He must turn to the abyss of abject suffering and isolation, and be punished. At Calvary the darkness that covered the land spoke of the awful spiritual darkness He entered into. Jeremiah the writer of Lamentations recorded the words, “was there any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” Can anything be compared to this?
THE LONILINESS OF HIS SORROW– “He hath made me desolate.” vs.13.
How lonely was the Saviour as he hung on the cross? Psalm 22 captures the loneliness of Calvary. “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent” vs 1-2. A lonely Saviour who was isolated, separated and desolated. Cut off from God and man, He says,” is it nothing to you all ye that pass by. Could the day and night seasons be speaking prophetically of the day and night of His ordeal at Calvary?
Isaiah 53: declares, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Grief of any kind can be an intolerable burden but our Saviour’s grief was endured in the deepest throes of loneliness and isolation. He entered into the experience He once described as “outer darkness” as He lingered on Calvary’s cross.
THE WEAKNESS OF HIS SORROW – “and faint all the day,” v13.
The Day of the Cross was the day of God’s fierce anger, vs.12. Our text says He was faint all the day. The Son of God in His sinlessness and purity suffered in a way we can hardly describe. God’s terrible wrath against sin was not uncontrolled anger but concentrated anger, it was intense, fierce and concentrated upon Him. “For he hath made him to be sin for us; who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. What love is seen at Calvary. He stood in our place and bore our punishment.
He was banished from God the Father, bearing His eternal wrath. He was made a propitiation for our sins, Rom 3:25. The word propitiate is a wonderful word which means to appease or placate or make peace with. Christ must placate the wrath of God the Father and indeed His own wrath against sin. He blunted the edge of God’s wrath for us. He shielded or covered all those who were to be forgiven. He endured the Day of the Cross bearing the wrath of God as our substitute. He endured the Desolation of the cross and now the Demand of the Cross is a crossroads for us all.
THE HEAVINESS OF HIS SORROW – “The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand,” v14.
The Lord Jesus Christ had no transgression, not one. At Calvary He bore OUR transgressions and was punished in our place.
William Williams, the great hymnwriter, penned these amazing words:
The enormous load of human guilt
Was on my Saviour laid;
With woes as with a garment He
For sinners was arrayed.
Our sin and guilt brought upon Christ unimaginable woe and suffering. Williams pictures woes that were like a garment, arraying His body. Our text in Lamentations speaks of them as a yoke, a great weight and burden which was bound by the hand of the Father. Isaac Watts as he viewed Calvary’s cross was inspired to write his famous hymn. He implores us to survey the wondrous cross.
“See from his head, his hands, His feet
sorrow and love flowed mingled down
Did ere’ such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown.”
His view of Calvary melted his heart and confessed, “My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.”
John Tonks (April 2023)
