Words about the Word - Michael Atmar - MMPC
“Man of Sorrows”
Throughout Holy Week, I have been attempting to regularly re-direct my thoughts to Jesus and what He did each day of the week that led up to His death on the cross on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday. I am writing this devotional on Monday as I have been pondering Jesus’ righteous indignation when He cleansed the temple. Matthew records these events in this way: “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:12-13).
It strikes me as profound to see Jesus’ use of His strength and authority to defend His Father’s glory and to protect people who had come to worship the Lord, but were being exploited by the greedy money-changers. It also occurs to me that Jesus is experiencing grief as He sees His Father’s house being misused. As we know from personal experience, there is often a very thin line between sadness and anger when we are grieving. Luke records that the previous day, Jesus had wept over Jerusalem: “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41-42). On Holy Monday, His sadness over the sin and hard-heartedness of the people of God is ignited into righteous anger at the systems of greed and oppression that are hindering people from worshipping the Lord. Can you relate to these complementary emotions of sadness and anger in the midst of grief?
As I have been meditating on these Scriptures, I have also been grieving the fact that my good friend and dear sister in Christ, Sandy Ingalls, is moving this week. I have had the opportunity to companion her and shepherd her through this season of transition as she prepares to move to Georgia to live with her son and daughter-in-law. While I am very excited about this new season for her and I deeply believe this is a wise and beautiful decision for her to get to live with her family, I will miss having her close by, as will our entire church family. One of my mentors often says: “All change involves loss.” That is why change is so difficult for many of us. We experience grief from the loss that comes with change. However, as another mentor of mine has said, “Grief is a measure of gratitude.” We are grieving because our time with Sandy here has been so good. We will miss having our dear friend right down the street from us.
One of the passages of Scripture that has greatly helped Sandy and me in our conversations about change and the grief that accompanies it is Isaiah 53:3-5, which I would like to share with you as I conclude:
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
May we lift our hearts to the Man of Sorrows in our time of need. He is acquainted with grief and He has carried our sorrows. He is the most faithful Friend we could ever know. May we rejoice in Him this week, even in our sorrows, and praise His holy name for all that He has done for us! Amen.
