“Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them!”
-Ecclesiastes 4:1
Oh, what a verse to meditate on and pray according to on this Easter Sunday. You say “Well, what’s the connection here? Oppressions under the sun, tears of the oppressed with no one to comfort them?” This is the state of a world of sin and suffering apart from the grace and the mercy of God, a world of oppression, of warlike we see in Ukraine, of refugees, of people, enslaved, of all kinds of people oppressed who have no one to comfort them. Good news of the Bible, the greatest news in all the world, is that God has not left us alone in a world of sin and suffering and oppression and tears. God has come to us and not only come to us, but has endured these things.
Explaining the Oppression of Jesus
Think about prophecy of Jesus, talking about the cross in Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Jesus, God in the flesh, experienced this oppressions.
Why? Because he loves you and he loves me. And he was making away for us, to use language from Isaiah 53, all of us like sheep who’ve gone astray, each of us who’s turned to his own way, so that the Lord might lay on him the iniquity of us all, so that he might pay the price for all of our sins on a cross and then he might rise from the dead, so that sin does not have the last word, and oppression does not have the last word, and suffering does not have the last word, and tears don’t have the last word, not in this world because Jesus has come. He has conquered sin, death suffering, and the grave. He has risen on high.
Ecclesiastes 4:1 Points Us to Hope in Christ
And for everyone who trusts in him, there is coming a day when he will personally wipe every tear from your eye and there will be no more sin and no more suffering and no more oppression. Our hope is in Jesus. Ecclesiastes is pointing us straight to Easter Sunday and to the hope we have in Jesus, the mercy, we find, the comfort we find in God alone.
Ecclesiastes 4:1 Exalts God’s Name
So Jesus, we praise you on this Easter Sunday. We exalt your name. You are our hope. You are our savior. You’re our Lord. You are our comfort. You are our deliverance from sin and evil and suffering, ultimately from oppression and hurt and pain and tears in this world. We praise you on this Easter Sunday and we pray that many people would come to know you. We pray that you’d help us to proclaim you today clearly and boldly in churches as followers of yours, all around the world. God, we pray for this good news, this greatest news in all the world to spread to all the people of the world.
God, for 3.2 billion unreached people in the world, please help us to be faithful to spread the gospel to them, especially when many of them are experiencing oppression. Many of them are refugees, many of them enslaved, who’ve never even heard the good news of your grace in Jesus.
Help Us to Be Faithful
God, we pray, help us to be faithful to spread this good news. That those who are oppressed, those who are in tears might find in you the only one who can ultimately comfort them for all of eternity. Jesus, we praise you in our lives and our churches on this Easter Sunday. We pray that you’d help us to proclaim you to people right around us. To people among the nations as we long for your return to this world. And you to usher in a new heaven and a new earth. In Jesus’ name, we pray all these things. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
