Christ, A Lover Scorned
Throughout the Bible we see Jesus Christ given a number of titles from Shepherd of Israel to Lion of Judah, each one evoking a particular personality trait of our Savior. Even so I find that we all too often place Him at a distance, far above the human race that He so loved. Remember that He came in the flesh, and walked among us as the Son of Man. As such He was very much an individual being, with His own personality. This is often lost in the antiquity of the texts, especially so when it comes to the Old Testament, an area where I have struggled at times to see the face of Christ in the vengeful condemnation of the God of Israel.
And yet it is there that we find one of the most touching and human portrayals of Jesus Christ as that of a lover scorned. Nestled in the first several chapters of the book of Jeremiah we see a moving scenario play out between Christ the bride-groom and Israel His young bride. If we allow, the Holy Spirit will paint the picture for us: a troubled Christ, taking His young wife by the hand and sitting down opposite from her on the end of the marriage bed, perhaps brushing back her hair with His free hand and gazing deeply into her eyes as He begins to confront the heaviness that has fallen between them…
“I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert…” (Jeremiah 2:2) We can almost see the two lovers, hand in hand beneath the starry sky, walking together through the moonlit desert. “All who devoured [Israel] were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,” (v.3) Christ reminds her of how He fought for her as a jealous Husband. “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:14) Christ loved his bride with a burning, jealous desire.
“What have I done that you strayed so far from Me?”
Shaking His head, He looks down, “What fault did your fathers find in Me, that they strayed so far from Me?” (Jeremiah 2:5) “They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (v.13). The pain in Christ’s heart is so real, so relatable, have we not felt that very heartbreak before? “Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me.” (v.22) He knows what she has done, and even if He tried to ignore it, He could not. He wants to, but He can’t, the pain of her betrayal is too deep.
A burning, righteous indignation wells up within Him, the anger of a lover scorned, and He lashes out at her promiscuity, “See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are…a wild donkey…sniffing the wind in her craving — in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.” (vv.23-24) His analogy here of His young wife being a donkey in heat, who is so “easy” that her pursuers don’t need to tire themselves at mating time chasing after her, is also one that is so humanly relatable. Who, being hurt as Christ was, has not referred to their lover in a derogatory manner upon finding out about their betrayal?
“Where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.” (v.28) That last remark about having as many gods as towns may as well have read, “for you have as many lovers as you have pairs of shoes, O Judah!” I can’t help but chuckle a bit, knowing that Christ is displaying His hurt, His anger, His disappointment, and yet He retains His tongue-in-cheek wit. What personality our Savior has! He can be funny even when upset, and this shouldn’t surprise us, as we so often are ourselves. “How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.” (v.33) Christ rises, indignant, and begins to pace the bed chamber.
“You have lived as a prostitute with many lovers…look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place you have not been ravished?” (Jeremiah 3:1-2) Christ is unrelenting, talking almost to Himself as his unfaithful bride sits, weeping in guilt and shame. “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done?” (v.6) “I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me, but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.” (v.7) Exasperated, Christ throws His hands up into the air, and then drops them to His side. With His back turned, He looks longingly over His shoulder at His tearful bride as she silently sobs at the end of the bed.
Tenderly, He pleads, “Return, faithless Israel, I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful. I will not be angry forever.” (v.12) He kneels at the foot of the bed and takes her hands, wet with tears, in His hands, and looks up into her eyes, tears swelling in His. “Only acknowledge your guilt — for I am your husband. I will choose you…[and] give you shepherds after My own heart who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.” (vv.13-15) And then in an incredible foreshadowing of the new covenant, He states, “men will no longer say, ‘the ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made” (v.16) Speak no more of our past covenant, which you broke. I will not mention it, nor will it enter my mind, but we will have a new covenant!
The desire of Christ’s heart can be seen even here, long before He came in the flesh to establish His new covenant. In His pain, He reaches out to His unfaithful lover with something most precious in a broken relationship: hope. Relief washes over Israel, her hands in His, tears streaming down her face. “Yes, we will come to you, for you are the Lord our God.” (v.22) She chokes out in her despair, “Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the Lord our God.” Christ rises to embrace her and the two hold one another as they sob.
Christ is passionate as much as He is compassionate. Let us not forget that He has known every sorrow common to man, and hopefully this illustration will help to flesh out the humanity of the Lord of all creation. As you read through the Old Testament, remember Christ as the scorned lover, the jealous bride-groom, the merciful and compassionate husband who wants more than anything for His wayward bride to love Him as He loves Her: passionately. So passionately, that He ultimately gave Himself in the most excruciating and heartbreaking way for her. But the story does not stop there, for He rose from the grave victorious, cleansing His bride of all guilt and making us Holy, that together we will live happily ever after; Christ the Husband, and the church His blushing bride.
