Sorrow can be difficult to describe, but it is never lacking in feeling. Often, the cuts of grief, loss, and pain can be devastating. As a result, sometimes, the only word our world knows to call it is “trauma.” The Bible, however, has more robust and rich language to describe the desperate longings of our hearts. The better news is that the Bible points us to deep wells of hope to find nourishment for our souls when we have been afflicted.
It's often occurred to me that our bodies and minds were not designed to carry the burdens that sin requires of us. As a result, sin weighs heavy on our hearts. Our souls are often vexed to the point of despair. It is all too easy to feel lost and without hope in the world. This is also why our only hope and greatest need is a savior. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. My hope in this article is to briefly give an outline for helping counsel others through deep sorrow and affliction from Isaiah 61:1-3.
I. Considering Israel’s Condition
One way to say it is that Israel had “been through the wringer.” In Israel’s case, their sin had caused the Lord to bring correction to them as a nation through captivity and exile. The Lord promised an eventual end to captivity and a purpose for the captivity in Jeremiah 29:10-14. In Isaiah 61, Israel is returning to their homeland from Babylonian exile. Yet, they arrive home to devastation and ruin. In one sense, their hardship had ended, yet in another sense, it became evident that they would be picking up the pieces for quite some time. The wall that once protected their beloved city was ruined. The temple that was once the epicenter of their religious life and practice is gone. The beloved community they once knew was now stricken with poverty and oppression. Their life as they knew it before was fractured. They needed a savior.
The prophet Isaiah spoke to this condition. He spoke to broken and impoverished people, people mourning over everything they once knew was now gone. Just read the language Isaiah uses of the very real affliction of Israel in verses 1-3. In other words, the promise of redemption wasn’t given in a vacuum. The hope Isaiah gives is against the backdrop of brokenness. Israel’s view toward redemption is from the perspective of their current affliction and pain. They are bound, broken, and oppressed, wearing the garments of mourning while being counseled by Isaiah to look upward to hope in a Redeemer. Beloved, this is the same invitation God extends to us in our suffering.
II. Considering Israel’s Savior
Isaiah speaks of one who will come, clothed in the Spirit of the Lord, to bring salvation to His people. Isaiah has described this servant of the Lord as one who is well acquainted with suffering, grief, and sorrow, yet through affliction, will redeem Israel from their afflictions (Isaiah 40-55). In Isaiah 61:1-3, this servant will bring good news despite their calamity. He will bring freedom despite their bondage. He will proclaim the jubilant release and forgiveness of the year of the Lord’s favor. He would replace their mourning for joy, beauty for ashes, joy for sorrow, courage for discouragement, and provide strength in their weakness.
Isaiah’s counsel was one of looking. It was counsel to look through the window of pain to joy. It was an invitation to look beyond the present circumstance to a coming promise of hope in a person. In other words, Isaiah’s counsel wasn’t just a form of positive thinking but a careful consideration of a coming hope as real as their pain found in the Messiah. The one coming in the Spirit of the Lord would bind up their wounds and restore their brokenness. This restoration was more than supernatural; it was tangible, real, and experienced in lives where pain and suffering once reigned. Yet, a better king was coming to reign over them, in whom they were invited to hope, a promise of a coming redeemer and savior.
III. Considering Christ’s Fulfillment
The New Testament is clear that Christ is the Messiah whom Isaiah anticipated. In shocking parallels, Jesus arrives back from Galilee in his hometown of Jerusalem, robed in the power of the Spirit of God (Luke 4:14-16). He arrived in the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach, reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Then, after quoting Isaiah 61, he sat down and declared, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21).
a. Resting in Christ’s Deliverance
The hope of Israel had come in flesh and blood. The Messiah had come to deliver His people from their brokenness and affliction. Good News has come to the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ! Certainly, this was a truth they would have to be grounded in continually. Does Jesus really bring the peace and resolve of our painful longings and hope? This appears to be the question even John the Baptist wrestled with personally upon his impending execution (Matthew 11:1-3). Jesus responds with an affirmation that He is the coming servant of the Lord as the fulfillment of hope for God’s people declared by the prophets. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers cleansed, and the poor receive the herald of good news (Matthew 11:4-6).
Beloved, it is true that Jesus is the fulfillment of the longings of the suffering of the human heart. He is the balm of our pain and brokenness. He is the rest and stay for the hope we attempt to cling to amidst the various false hopes of this world. The peace Jesus brings is as real as the pain you’ve suffered. The hope Jesus gives is as deep and abiding as the cuts you have experienced through affliction. He is sufficient, and we can cling to him alone to find the healing we desire.
b. Hoping In Christ’s Coming Kingdom
The fulfillment that Jesus points us to is present and abiding. The careful observer will notice that Jesus stops in verse 2 of Isaiah 61. What shall we say? Are there aspects of our brokenness that will not be met in Jesus? Does Jesus merely provide a proclamation of Good News without the final hope of applying redemption to our hearts? Not at all. The reality is that the hope we anticipate in the Lord takes place in two advents. In His first advent, Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the gospel for souls and hearts corrupted by sin and in need of salvation from the grip of sin and death.
Christ will bring about a full and final redemption of our brokenness in His second advent. The final consummation of hope will come in the second coming and the New Heavens and New Earth. We will experience the complete restoration of everything we’ve lost in the fall. All our brokenness will be mended. Our sorrow will be turned to joy, our weariness to praise, and our ashes for beauty. The same posture of faith that Isaiah gave to Israel is extended to us who hope in Jesus, our Messiah. There is coming a day when Jesus will right every wrong. He will bind up our wounds and give us comfort and rest in him. Until then, do we shift the foundation of our hope? Do we seek to find the rest we need someplace else, apart from Jesus or apart from His word? Not at all; we instead hope in him. Cling to him all the more. He is sufficient! His word is sufficient!
How deep is your pain? How much do you long for healing? How painful are your cuts from life in a broken world? Beloved, Jesus is the rest you need. He is the peace you need right now and the only hope that lasts for this life and the one to come. You can come to him. You can rest in Him. You can hope in Him. We need not look anywhere else. The healing of your broken heart and deep sorrows of this life is found in the all-sufficient savior of your soul, Jesus Christ!
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