NOTES for Eze 19:1-14
Today’s reading presents us with a song written by the prophet in the genre of a funeral lament. It might seem that someone who perfectly understands the spiritual reasons for what is happening should bear the calamity that has befallen his people and country more easily than others. All the more so because Ezekiel, unlike many of his contemporaries, knew that the history of the Jewish people was not yet over, that they had a future, and that the exiles in Babylon had hope. But such knowledge, of course, though it eases the pain, does not remove it altogether.
On a human level, the prophet’s lament over Jerusalem and the people is entirely understandable. Yet this is not simply an outpouring of Ezekiel’s own feelings: it is God Himself who prompts him to lament over the people (v. 1). This raises a question: why does God need Ezekiel’s lament? God is not human, and He certainly knows perfectly everything concerning the historical destiny of His people, especially since that destiny lies entirely in His hands. And yet God weeps over His people; He weeps in Ezekiel. The time will come when, having become Man, He will weep over Jerusalem with literal human tears.
But now, while that time has not yet come, He weeps in Ezekiel. No future spiritual heights or achievements, not even the Coming of Christ itself, ease the pain of those who suffer here and now, just as the coming fullness of the Kingdom does not ease the pain of those who suffer from the evil and sin in which a world that has not yet touched the Kingdom lies. These tears and this pain do not devalue the Kingdom, but they do devalue every theodicy, every assertion that “everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.”
The Kingdom becomes possible only because every pain subsides within it. But pain in itself has no meaning at all, and theologians should therefore hardly seek what does not exist. Even God sees no meaning in pain itself. But He knows how to comfort everyone and wipe away every tear. And in the Kingdom He will do so. Meanwhile, He weeps as He looks upon human pain—for now, through the eyes of His prophet. But the day will come when He will weep through the eyes of His Son.