Grieve in Hope, Like Christ
A Christian’s highest goal should always be to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9) by being like Christ (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). Can we do that even in times of deep sadness? Yes. Remember: Jesus was well-acquainted with sorrows and grief during the days of his flesh (Isaiah 53:3; Hebrews 5:7–8). Therefore, our sorrow can be Christlike.
What might that look like? A comprehensive study is beyond the scope of this blog.¹ Instead, I’ll draw just a few important lessons from the most poignant expression of Christ’s sorrow in the gospels: the garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus Grieved in Hope
Not long before Jesus was captured and crucified “He began to be sorrowful and troubled” (Matthew 26:37). He knew He would soon drink “the cup” of God’s wrath against our sins (Matthew 26:39, 42; cf. Isaiah 51:17, 22; Job 21:20; Jeremiah 25:15; Psalm 75:8, etc.). He told His disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Other English translations try to convey more strongly the intensity of the original language: “exceeding sorrowful” (KJV), “overwhelmed with sorrow” (NIV), “deeply grieved, to the point of death” (NASB). Clearly, even very deep sorrow can be Christlike.
But this confession of Christ wasn’t only meant to reveal the depth of His sorrow; it was also meant to signal the hope He maintained in the midst of it. When Jesus said, “My soul is very sorrowful” (Matthew 26:38), there is good reason to believe He was alluding intentionally to Psalms 42–43. The Greek words in that phrase in Matthew echo the Greek words that were used to translate the triple refrain in those Psalms: “Why are you cast down, O my soul?”² Surely, when Jesus spoke those words from the beginning of that familiar refrain, He also had the rest of the verse in mind—and expected His hearers would as well—“O my soul, why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
Jesus used language from Psalms 42–43 to signal His hope that “the cup” wouldn’t be the end of Him. He would again praise His Father, who would save Him from the grave. Thus, even when Jesus’s soul was overwhelmed with a sadness that felt heavy enough to kill Him (“even unto death”), He never grieved without hope.³ He remained the perfectly righteous Man, even through the deepest grief than any man has ever known.
The Roots of His Hope: Scripture and the End
The Bible says the Holy Spirit stirs hope in our hearts as we believe Scripture (Romans 15:4, 13). Accordingly, it makes sense that Jesus referenced Psalms 42–43 not only to communicate His hope to His disciples, but also to kindle it within Himself (i.e. in His sad and troubled human heart). It’s clear that Jesus had the Psalms running through His mind throughout His sufferings.⁴ He knew His sufferings were fulfilling the Scriptures (Matthew 26:54–56), but He also drew strength from the Scriptures, as a man, to persevere in hope through them.
Of course, the main reason Scripture gave Jesus such hope in His sufferings and grief is because it foretold His final victory. He walked through His sufferings carrying the hope of His future resurrection, reign, and return (Matthew 26:29, 31–32, 64), as promised by Scripture.⁵ Even His dreadful cry of desolation on the cross had the seeds of that hope in it (Matthew 27:46). Do we really think Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 out of context, that is, without remembering that the Psalm ends with joyful worship for God’s deliverance of the God-forsaken One?
Truly, through all His sorrows, Jesus grieved in hope. And now we see how He did. His hope, in His humanity, came from 1) His constant, trusting remembrance Scripture, and 2) His constant remembrance of the resurrection/eschatological realities proclaimed therein (cf. Hebrews 12:2 and “the joy set before Him”).⁶ If we draw from these same wells—abiding in Scripture and focusing on our eternal future—we will find the same hope in our sorrows.
The Fruits of His Hope: Prayer and Obedience
In Christ’s deepest sorrows, the first-fruit of His Scripture-fueled hope was prayer (Matthew 26:38–44).⁷ And since Jesus carried this hope with Him from Gethsemane to Calvary, He continued in a spirit of prayer through the horrors of the cross (note His words addressed to “My God” (Matthew 27:46) and “Father” (Luke 23:34, 46). It’s also important to notice what kind of prayers Christ’s hope inspired. Because He grieved in hope, Christ’s grief did not rob His prayers of any intimacy or faith. Rather, in Gethsemane (and only there in Scripture!) Jesus addressed God as “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36). Further, His hope in God steadied His heart enough to pray for consecration and submission to God’s will even more than rescue from sorrow (Matthew 26:39, 42; 1 Peter 2:23).
What then was the fruit of praying in that manner? The way Jesus prayed in His sorrow gave Him strength to obey God through it. He needed it. When Jesus began praying, His sorrow was so overwhelming He fell on his face (Matthew 26:39). When Jesus finished praying, His grief wasn’t gone, but it was joined by fresh courage and resolve to do the Father’s will (Matthew 26:45–46). He gained strength of heart enough to become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 5:7–8). We are saved today because Jesus grieved in perfect hope, in a way that enabled His perfect obedience.
Conclusion
When we see Christ’s sorrow in Scripture, it reassures us that pleasing God does not mean we need to try and pretend nothing saddens us. Our Father does not expect His children to stand up smiling under all the sufferings of this age. In this life under the sun, there is a time to mourn (Ecclesiastes 3:4). But a hopeless, prayerless, listless sadness cannot please God, because it is not like Christ. So in your sorrow, follow Jesus: return again and again to the Bible. Let Scripture renew hope, hope inspire prayer, and prayer empower obedience.
Don’t hear that call without hope: that is a path you can take in your sadness, as long as you are united to Christ by faith. You can gain hope from the Bible because all its best promises are “yes” and “amen” for you in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:19–20; Hebrews 6:11–12, 19–20). You can pray with hope that God will hear and help and love you, just as He did for Christ, because the Holy Spirit seals our share in Christ’s relationship to the Father. By the Spirit of Christ, we cry, “Abba, Father,” just as Christ did in the garden of His great sorrow (compare Mark 14:36, Galatians 4:6, and Romans 8:15, the only three times in Scripture the word “Abba” is used).
Finally, you should abound with hope (Romans 15:13) that you can humbly accept and do God’s will, no matter how sad you are. Left to yourself, you would have no good reason to hope for something so wonderful in seasons of deep grief. But united to Jesus, you can find strength of heart to present yourself to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12:1–2, 6:11–14). You can follow Jesus in consecrated obedience through all of life’s sorrows. There is more power in His death and resurrection than in the most powerful sorrows you’ll ever face.
¹ An excellent survey and discussion of the various instances of Christ’s sorrows in Scripture can be found in B.B Warfield’s classic essay, “The Emotional Life of Our Lord” (available for free at monergism.com and many other places).
² As noted, for example, by: D.A. Carson: “Jesus’ next words—“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow” (v. 38)—are almost a quotation from the refrain of Pss 42–43 (LXX).” [Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 543]; Craig Blomberg: “As Jesus prays (26:38), the triple refrain of Ps. 42:5, 11; 43:5 appears to lie in the background.” [Blomberg, “Matthew,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007), 93]; R.T. France: “My soul is very sorrowful… is an echo of the lxx translation of the refrain of Psalms 42–43, ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul …?’, the lament of a righteous sufferer who knows his hope in God will ultimately be vindicated.” [R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 1, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 377.].
³ 1 Thessalonians 4:13 makes it clear that hope [and in particular hope for resurrection/eternity with Christ] is one of the distinguishing aspects of godly vs. worldly sadness: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers… that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (cf. Eph. 2:12).
⁴ For example, Jesus (we believe based on Jewish Passover traditions) would have sung Psalms 115-118 after the Passover Supper right before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt. 26:30). His prayer in the garden, “not my will, but yours be done” was perhaps informed by Ps. 40:8 (cf. Heb. 10:7) and/or Ps. 115:1 (cf. John 12:27–28). In His sham trial immediately afterwards, he quoted Ps. 110:1 (Mt. 26:64). On the cross, he quoted Ps. 22:1 (Mt. 22:46), Ps. 69:21 (Jn. 19:28), and Ps. 31:5 (Lk. 23:46).
⁵ To give another example, consider how Jesus quoted Ps. 118:22–23 the week of His crucifixion (Mt. 26:42), and then sang that verse again right before He went to be captured and crucified (as well as Ps. 116:3–9; see footnote 5).
⁶ Hope that is focused on this life, instead of eternal / eschatological realities, is a “pitiful” and “miserable” hope (1 Cor. 15:19, ESV and KJV)
⁷ As seen elsewhere in Scripture: hope begets prayer (cf. Heb. 7:19, 1 Tim. 5:5, Rom. 12:12).