Lamentations 1:1-16: a reflection

1How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave! 2She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies. 3Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtook her in her distress. 4The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. 5Her adversaries have become the head. Her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary. 6All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They have gone without strength before the pursuer. 7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her. They mocked at her desolations. 8Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs and turns backward. 9Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, LORD, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.” 10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly. 11All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. “Look, LORD, and see, for I have become despised.” 12“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long. 14“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand. 15“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press. 16“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”

The book of Lamentations opens with the ruined city of Jerusalem pictured as a grieving widow, weeping bitterly in the night, with no one to comfort her. She has become desolate, and, worst of all, alone in her grief: among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously. And from the depths of her sorrow comes a cry that pierces: Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. It is the cry of suffering that feels utterly unseen.

Notice the particular pain the passage names: the loneliness of unnoticed grief. It is not only that the city suffers, but that she suffers alone, uncomforted, her friends gone, and passersby seemingly indifferent to her pain. Is it nothing to you? she cries. Do you not even notice? There is a special anguish in suffering that feels unseen, in grieving while the world passes by unmoved, in bearing a sorrow no one seems to notice or care about.

Many of us know something of that cry. There are seasons when our suffering feels unseen, when we grieve while others pass by, when we wonder whether anyone notices or cares. It is a real and heavy pain. But here is the deeper truth: even when others pass by unmoved, God sees. He is not indifferent to the unnoticed sufferer; he sees the grief the world overlooks. And Christians have long heard, in this cry, an echo of Christ's own suffering, the Man of Sorrows who bore a grief none fully saw. If your suffering feels unseen, cry out as the passage does, and know that though others pass by, God sees your sorrow, and does not count it nothing.

Lord, the grieving city cried, is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow. When my own suffering feels unseen, when I grieve while others pass by seemingly indifferent, meet me in that cry. Thank you that even when others do not notice, you see; you are not indifferent to the unnoticed sufferer. And thank you that Christ himself bore a sorrow none fully saw. When I feel that no one notices my grief, remind me that you see it, and do not count it nothing. Look on my affliction, Lord.