There are moments that the words don't reach
There is suffering too terrible to name
You hold your child as tight as you can
And push away the unimaginable
The moments when you're in so deep
It feels easier to just swim down
These are a few verses from one of my favorite musicals, Hamilton. This song is sung after Alexander Hamilton and His wife Eliza buried their 19-year-old son. There was a lot of pain within the marriage of Alexander and Eliza and this song becomes a lament in the midst of the revolutionary play. It actually works similarly to a lament Psalm from the Bible.
If you have ever seen this portion of the play, this scene ends in forgiveness, and the Hamiltons walking together going through the “unimaginable.” I know that for many of us standing here around this graveside, unimaginable is probably a word you might have whispered these past couple of weeks.
So what do we do in the aftermath of the unimaginable? I find myself going back to the lament Psalms that remind me to pour out my grief, sadness, and anger toward a God who will lovingly take my emotion compassionately and seriously.
In the New Testament there is actually a tragic death that is recorded in three of the Gospels – the death of Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist. John the Baptist died an unjust death, a political casuality. And I imagine the followers and friends of John the Baptist might have whispered the same words we have used in the past few days. Here’s what Matthew 14 tells us that John’s friends did: “His disciples came and they buried his body, and they went and told Jesus.” Sometimes that is the best we can do – tell Jesus. And Jesus will listen and you will find compassion, grace, and your pain being taken seriously.
How do we know Jesus will take it seriously? Because of who Jesus is. Jesus, who was God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He emptied himself, making himself a servant, a human being. A human being who was obedient even unto death itself. On the cross Jesus took on human suffering. In doing so Jesus suffered with us and for us.
God is no stranger to the grief and sufferings of this world. Sometimes we wonder why they exist. Sometimes we struggle to grasp the harshness and brutality of our world, and sometimes even our inner world. Yet this broken and sin-filled world does not have the last say in God’s kingdom. Addictions do not have the last say. Suffering does not have the last say. Suffering may seem random and capricious, but not with God. Somehow, God can take our suffering and make purpose and redemption flow out of it. That does not make seasons of suffering any easier but does grant hope. A hope that this world in its current manifestation lacks the final authority. That authority belongs to God and God alone. So we suffer, we grieve with hope. We grieve with the word of Jesus, “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”