THE SORROW OF CHRIST

P. W. Hickmott

Lamentations 1: 12 (1st part)

These are the words of the prophet as he mourns over Jerusalem and the nation of Israel and what it had come to. The whole book is that, those

that are acquainted with it, would agree, but I just wanted to apply this section primarily to the Lord Jesus because there has been no sorrow like His. I have been acquainted with our brother since a youth, and closely in the last twelve years, and I thought I understood something of the depths of his sorrow, but since coming here, and finding in the last two days what he has left behind in his writings, I realise that I did not know much about it at all. What he has left behind includes some of the most affecting things I have ever been in close contact with and it brought this verse to my mind, “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow”. It refers to the Lord Jesus, but our brother understood it from prolonged experience. He carried not only his personal sorrows but the sorrows of the testimony.

Now the Lord Jesus suffered unjustly at the hands of men. Everyone here would know that that blessed Man was crucified unjustly. There was no justice in the crucifixion of Jesus.

There was hatred and bitterness and malice from every kind of person that was there, except perhaps a few standing by the cross. The sufferings that were imposed on Jesus by man were absolutely unjust. We would have to say that the sufferings that have been imposed on our brother have been unjust, but he has been able to carry them to where there is absolute and total resource. I found a diary entry which said, ‘What will it be today? Will the Lord take me, or will it, be the rapture?’. I am just relating these things because they display where our brother was, what he carried and where his heart was. But he was an overcomer, and now his sorrows are over for ever. What follows sorrow is joy, “At even weeping cometh for the night, and at morn there is rejoicing”, Psalm 30: 5. What a long night it was for our brother, but unclouded joy is: his now and eternally. It will

Be the portion of every one who trusts in Jesus; unclouded bliss and joy eternally, but before that is this sorrow.

I spoke of what was inflicted on Jesus unjustly by men, but the sorrow that cannot be fathomed is what Jesus bore at the hands of His God on your account and on my account.

That sorrow can never be fathomed by us. Think of that blessed Man, who was none less than the Son of God, coming down to this earth in lowly manhood; confining His activities, geographically, to a very small part of this world, and moving amongst men, close to them, taking up their sorrows. The people of Israel will come to that one day. Isaiah 53 tells us that it is the language this people will take up when they realize they have crucified their Messiah.

They will say, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; and we, we did regard him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”, Isaiah 53: 4. O, what a sorrow that will be for a nation! But that is the Man we have to do with. Our precious Saviour carried those sorrows; every one of them, with the effects and ravages of sin all around Him. He carried them through His life, but finally while hanging on that cross He bore in, its totality, the just wrath of God against sin, in order that God might be free to bless. God is a Holy God, He cannot have sin in His presence; but we can say to every one that God is free to bless, free to bring joy and happiness, on the basis, of the sufferings and death of Jesus. Somebody said yesterday, ‘A Christian should be happy’. How true! God has a basis to relieve you of your guilt and sin when you believe on Jesus, and bring inner happiness into your soul, such as you have never known. Why can God do that and freely love you? Because Jesus has suffered and died on Calvary’s cross. There are no sorrows like His. Only He could measure what that awful

time required. He sustained God’s judgment and exhausted God’s wrath completely; He said,

“It is finished”. He died, His precious blood was shed—“Without blood-shedding there is no remission”, Hebrews 9: 22. He was put into the grave, it says, “They took therefore the body of Jesus … and because the tomb was near, they laid Jesus”, John 19: 40, 42. Then God raised Him—He was “delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification”, Romans 4: 25. He is a living Man in glory now. Faith has not the slightest doubt about it. We love to speak of Him, and that God is free to bless. In the midst of sorrow He can bring joy into our hearts; He can bring victory into our hearts. O what a matter that is! We rejoice in that, and also that for our beloved brother, there is unclouded joy in the Saviour’s presence.

He quoted that verse when another dear brother was taken, what the Lord said to the thief on the cross, ‘Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise’. O, there is only one paradise! The body of glory that every believer will have awaits the Lord’s return. Think of the power of the voice of the Son of God. There is a voice in creation whether you listen to it or not. The Psalmist says, “their voice is heard”, Psalm 19: 3. There is a witness in creation to the fact that God has made everything and He made you, but the voice of the Son of God will raise the dead, all of them. The righteous, those that have trusted in Him, will have their part in the first resurrection, and have their future in glory. But all will be raised, all will hear the voice, all will have to do with Him finally. Think of that voice. O, how solemn that is! We only just refer to it briefly, but all will hear the voice of the Son of God. You will hear it, I will hear it.

I will love to hear it. O, may every one of us here today, be among those that rejoice to hear the voice of the Son of God—a voice that raises the dead.

“Lazarus, come forth”, He said, “And the dead came forth”, John 11: 43. Someone once said,

‘He could not see, he could not walk, but he could not stay because of the power of the voice of the Son of God’.

Well, that is all I have to say. Let us find comfort in inner joy in the midst of grief. Sorrow and joy are so close. We can take comfort and joy in that for our brother. In the time left to us here we can have that inner peace and joy, and find the spring of all that we do coming from what we have in our personal links with Jesus. Never neglect those. If you have a link with Jesus in your soul, do not let it ever weaken, renew it every day. Somebody said the other day in a preaching, ‘Never let Jesus out of your sight’. What good advice that is! That is what one had to say. May the Lord bless it for His name’s sake.