Good Grief (1)

Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly. Matthew 26.74, 75

Fun and games!
It’s easy for people in our churches these days to get the impression that Christianity is all about being happy. Our music is happy. Our worship services are happy. We sponsor every kind of program and activity to keep our members happy. We don’t use offensive words in our preaching because offensive words don’t make people happy. Christians are supposed to be a happy bunch, and that’s that. A happy heart is a well-kept heart, or so we like to think.

Except, of course, that’s not a very Biblical way of thinking about Christianity.

Jesus, after all, was described as the “Man of Sorrows” (Is. 53.3-5). He knew grief and pain, wept when it was appropriate, and felt deeply the confusion and lostness of the people of His day. Jesus would reject outright any idea that being a Christian means being in a state of unremitting, perpetual happiness. He would say there are good reasons for Christians to sorrow and grieve, and Peter would be the first to say, “Amen!”

In nurturing a well-kept heart as the foundation for a strong soul, we need a place for grief. Rather than expecting our Christian life to be one crescendo of happiness after another, what C. S. Lewis observed is more accurate: “I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can.” And not infrequently, tackling the evil in our lives can be cause for grieving and sorrowing.

These affections – grieving and sorrowing – are important, and we must neither deny them nor resign ourselves to experiencing them in merely worldly ways, especially when the grief we know is of our own making.

The sorrow of sin
The apostle Peter understood that evil in our souls and our world is no laughing matter. The power of sin – the law of sin that operates within us and causes us to do things contrary to our own best intentions (Rom. 7.18-23) – this is not a happy condition, and we ought not gloss it over with a few praise choruses or some cheap pastoral “attaboy.”

In that courtyard on that cold spring night, Peter was suddenly confronted with the terrible depths of his sin, and with his own inability, despite his best intentions, to resist temptation when it suddenly appeared before him. His fear having become misplaced, love for self kicked in, whatever thanks Peter may have felt for having known and followed Jesus evaporated, and the only hope he harbored was that of surviving this suddenly uncomfortable situation.

German theologian Helmut Thielicke described temptation as being “constantly in the situation of wanting to be untrue to God. It means being constantly on the point of freeing ourselves from God.” Falling through temptation into sin, therefore, is nothing short of outright rebellion against the Lord, rejecting His grace, denying His truth, defying His sovereignty, and asserting our own autonomous determination to do whatever we please.

Nothing happy about that.

This condition or inclination exists in every one of us. Even more, like Peter, we tend all too often to give in to that inward law of sin, to surrender to self-love rather than cling to the Law of God. The sin that continues within us ought to cause us to weep and cry before the Lord, filling us with sorrow at how long and slowly our sanctification proceeds, and how quick we can be to repudiate Jesus’ suffering to gain some momentary advantage for our fleshly desires.

The path to Godliness is paved with sorrowful confession of sin (Ps. 32.1-6). If we’re not grieving for our sins, we’re not growing in the Lord.

Grieving for our sin
Would you simply shrug off your sin and say, “Oh well, what can I do? I’m a sinner and God knows it. He will accept me anyway”?

You should grieve if you find such an attitude of defiance and presumption lingering in the halls of your soul. And you should repent of such flippancy regarding your walk with the Lord, and seek a better pavement for your path.

The immediate evil we must tackle every day begins in our own hearts. If we are not grieving and sorrowing for the sin that remains within us, for the easy way we add lashes to the back and thorns to the brow of our suffering Savior, then something is deeply wrong within our heart. Is it that we do not understand the extremity of Jesus’ suffering or the magnitude of His grace? Is it that we do not hate sin, as all believers are commanded (Ps. 97.10)? Or that we think we can be saved and continue to indulge the awful weight of sin, as if Jesus’ death and resurrection meant nothing more than a free ticket to heaven?

Grieving for our sins is good grief. Look at Peter. Look into your own soul. See there the very sorts of attitudes, affections, values, and thoughts that Peter – the prince of apostles! – knew, and cry out to our Lord with tears for mercy and grace to help in your time of need.

A strong soul requires a well-kept heart, with all the essential affections working in harmony. Without good grief, the symphony of affections in your soul will be discordant, incomplete, and stifling for spiritual growth.

For reflection
1.  Why do you suppose so much of contemporary Christianity focuses mainly on being happy? Is that entirely bad? Is it a problem?

2.  What did Isaiah mean by referring to Jesus as the “Man of Sorrows”? Should we share any of Jesus’ sorrows?

3.  Why did Peter weep when the cock crowed? Do you ever feel this way about your own sin? How do you respond when you do?

Next steps – Conversation: What are you harboring in your soul for which you should be grieving? Spend some time in prayer allowing the Lord to search you thoroughly (Ps. 139.23, 24). Confess and repent as He leads.

Focusing on Jesus
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.