The first reading from the book of Job is a bitter, melancholy cry of the heart. Why do we need to hear this? Where is God’s saving Word in a passage that begins, “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?” And that ends, “I shall not see happiness again.”

The saving word in this lament lies in part in its being heard at all; even this, even such a plaintive, despairing cry in the wilderness as this, is heard by God. And it is being heard by God’s people, not dismissed, ignored, or tossed aside, as Job himself feels here, but preserved, reflected upon, even prayed over.. And it is heard by us here and now, thousands of miles away, thousands of years later. The saving word in this lament lies in part in its still being heard.

Hearing such a word as God’s word is comforting to those of us who can resonate with its pain; it affords solace to any of us who have given voice to a similar cry while despairing of ever finding a hearing, of ever finding anyone else who could possibly know what we are suffering, who could ever have experienced such a pitch of grief, sadness, anxiety, fear. This reading is testimony that such cries are not as lonely as they feel when we give them voice. This reading is testimony that even such cries of despair can be revelations of the divine in our midst.

Just what does such a word reveal? It reveals that we need God. We need God to bring his light into our darkness, his strength into our weakness, his love into our hearts. It reveals that we need one another. It reveals that we cannot be ourselves by ourselves, as much as we might like to, as much as we might think we can or even ought to. And our suffering schools us in compassion. While perhaps appreciable only in retrospect, our suffering can draw us closer to our neighbor in need, closer to Christ.

Last Advent in the Apostles Creed we professed that Jesus Christ not only was crucified, died and was buried, but that he descended even into hell itself. I can resonate with that. And I know I am not the only one. That profession enables me to have faith in Paul’s words in Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither height nor depth, nothing present, nor anything that is to come, not even death itself can separate us from the love of God.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted. When our hearts resonate with Job’s lament, even then, especially then we must also praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted. In our moment of misery we are blinded by our sorrow, but by repeating what we believe, even when we cannot see, we open our hands and our hearts to the healing that God is longing to give.

Mark’s Gospel shows how Jesus came with healing on his mind. Today we hear the end of his first day on the job. Jesus is a man on the go. In the morning he calls his first disciples, then he goes and teaches in the synagogue, then he exorcizes a demon, then he cures Peter’s mother-in-law, and now finally at sunset, the whole town crowds around him and he heals all who come to him, curing and exorcizing and healing long into the night. Early the next morning, Jesus slips away to get some time by himself with God. But soon his disciples are searching for him. “Everyone is looking for you!” And so he moves on to the neighboring towns to do it all over again.

God hears the prayer of the broken hearted. God hears and responds not only with a word, but with the Word, in the flesh, Jesus Christ. May we feel Christ’s healing presence here and now as we gather. And filled with his Spirit may we become his arms and his feet for those crying Job’s lament in our own day.