Man of Sorrow
This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together.
Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The
Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 41: Man of Sorrow
Opening Thought: A very profound reading from Zacharias today. He pulls attention
to the nuance of sorrow. How sorrow can not only point us towards God but is in itself holy ground. Exceptionally large claim, but if you ever felt genuine sorrow
there is something about it, it's not a place we would want to be, but it is also not
something we think we should reject. Often when I conduct funerals, I will tell
the family and friends of the deceased that the sorrow in their hearts that day
is a testament to the love they experienced for their person they've lost. If one
can welcome the sacredness of the sorrow they feel, often it can give them the
spiritual strength to move beyond the sorrow. Quoting Oscar Wilde, “Where
there is sorrow there is holy ground. Some day people will realize what that
means. They will know nothing of life till they do.”[1]
Zacharias notes a wonderful truth, the things we often seek in
life: unadulterated pleasures, happiness, or ecstasy, will always leave us unfulfilled
and longing so desperately for a fleeting state. No one seems to seek sorrow, (though
some due become clinically depressed and their neural pathways seem to create easements to
sorrow), at least not knowingly, though when sorrow finds us, it is better to express and live through the sorrow then try to run from it. Zacharias says, “while never pursued, [sorrow] comes into one’s life
and compels us to see our own finitude and frailty. It demands of us
seriousness and tenderness, if we are to live life the way it is meant to be
lived.”
The devotional begins with: Isaiah 53:3-4,6
He was despised
and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one
from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low
esteem. Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered
him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted … We all, like sheep, have
gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Second Thought: I remember back in 2004 when the movie the Passion of the
Christ came out. I had gone with my family to see the movie in the theaters. When
we had found our seats, I found myself listening to the conversations of the
people around me. One fellow was boasting loudly that he was an atheist and was
not into any of the “religious stuff”. I did not really think anything of the guy,
other than he seemed oddly excited by his lack of belief. As the movie started,
I got lost in the film, as it was a portrayal of an especially important
element in my life, but when we got to the scenes where Jesus was being arrested,
mistreated, and beaten, I noticed I could hear someone whimpering. Much to my
surprise, I looked over and saw the loud boasting man enthralled into the movie and weeping in sorrow to what was happening to Jesus. I found myself watching
this man for the rest of the film and even after, his loud boasting has ended
in favour of some quiet reflection. I do not know if he had never actually come
across the passion narrative before, or what happened to him that day. What I do
know is when you have genuine sorrow, it can help break down barriers in your
heart and move you towards the sacred.
Continual Work: Reflect on the idea of sorrow as sacred? How can a feeling we
wish to not feel bring us to a deeper understanding about ourselves and God?
What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I am one who struggles with emotion in
general, I tend to favour reason over emotions, facts over opinions, and the
like. Over the last decade I have really attempted to look upon my emotions as
a gift, including emotions I would not choose for myself under the definition of gifts from God.
Prayer for your day: Lord, let us feel Your gift of Being in all we
do and experience. Let us not assume You are only with us in the times of joy,
but also, if not more so with us when we struggle, when we call out to the
heavens and cry. Let our sorrow, grief, joy, celebration, calm, and frustration,
let all these emotions make us aware of Your presence, Your life, and You
justice. Amen.
Artistic Close: When you look upon Christ in the story of the passion, not only does one find sorrow, but one can find remorse, because as much as we would like to think that we would not have raised the whips, hammers, and horrors upon Christ ourselves - we likely would have at least watched it, allowed it to happen, or even justified i, saying this is what society needs to be calm and satiated.
But beyond our culpability, we can also know peace, because if we know
the whole story of Christ, we know God’s glory takes our sorrow and liberates
us to new life, it allows our sorrow and remorse to be steppingstones to
righteousness and peace.
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