Jesus Wept: The Significance of Jesus' Laments in the New Testament by Rebekah Eklund (review)

Rebekah Eklund is Assistant Professor at Loyola University, Maryland, USA. Her book grew out of her Th.D. dissertation at Duke Divinity School in 2012. The questions driving her study arise from the observation that most literature calling for the theological recovery of lament seems to be based on OT texts (1). Her conclusion is that, in the NT, "[l]ament has been altered, but by no means diminished" (2).

Eklund's book comprises seven chapters, in a dense 172 pages. The first chapter seeks to bridge lament in the NT to that in the OT. She notes: "While I find the form-critical description of the lament psalm helpful for describing the basic pattern of lament, I adopt a somewhat broader and more flexible definition for lament" (6 n. 5). I see her "flexible definition" of "lament" as problematic and refer to it again in my conclusion. At times, her definition of lament seems to refer to petition only (16–17); at other times, to confession of sin (6, 10), intercession (98–104) or mourning/grief (54). Essentially, she sees two strands in Israel's laments (10), namely protest (13) and penitence or "mourning over human sinfulness" (105). However, she argues that the first-century context (particularly the presence of Stoic philosophy and the NT teaching of the "theology of the cross") exerted pressure against "lament as protest" (12). Nevertheless, she does acknowledge that "[s]ome of the postexilic penitential prayers contain notable undercurrents of protest" (11), and she gives examples from Ezra and Isaiah. In chapter 2, Eklund refers to a teaching in the NT (i.e., that of long-suffering and perseverance with joy) that seems to mitigate against the practice of protesting lament. She notes: "Theological factors internal to the NT redirected lament into patience" (16). However, she does acknowledge that "patient endurance is not a passive practice," and that "lament includes steadfast endurance … while still giving voice to pain" (16).

The main body of the book (chs. 2–5) is concerned with the laments of Jesus, which she claims are "the most significant form that lament takes in the NT" (3), with "Jesus Christ embod[ying] the full pattern of lament" (2). She holds that the nature of Jesus's laments (and the nature of lament in the NT and in Christian tradition) depends on Jesus's identity as being fully human and yet divine (3). Her focus is largely on the Gospels, with brief references to Hebrews. This somewhat negates her concern that NT scholars, when studying lament, should "consider the whole NT" (2–3), but it does fit with the focus indicated by her subtitle ("Jesus' laments").

In chapter 2, Eklund provides an exegetical study of the key lament texts in the passion narratives of all four Gospels. She links Jesus's petition in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus's weeping at the death of Lazarus and Jesus's lament from the cross with particular psalms of lament (Pss 22, 31, 69). She acknowledges (e.g., 49) that the quotations and allusions are tenuous at times, but she offers a detailed analysis of how the different Gospel writers use lament psalms to present a particular view of Jesus's death.

In the next three chapters, Eklund gives detailed attention to Jesus lamenting, first as a human being (ch. 3), second as messianic king, priest and prophet (ch. 4), and third as the divine Son of God (ch. 5). She claims that Jesus's humanity supports "lament's function as protest against injustice and oppression," whereas Jesus in his role as Messiah supports the notion of lament as penitence for sin (52) or as "prophetic mourning" (105). In chapter 5, when she addresses the "lament of the mediator," the examples she provides (of Abraham and Moses) are essentially those of intercession rather than "lament" (93–96). She...