Mourn

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Matthew 5:4

I love this beatitude. And one reason that I love it is because it would never make it on any modern list of beatitudes. And that tells us something.

Our culture hates mourning. The goal is to be happy – or to get as close to that as you can. The whole idea of mourning is foreign. And yet Jesus blesses those who mourn. They are doing something that is good, commendable. And mourning is so good because seeing the world as it is those who mourn respond as He does.

To be sure, there is much to enjoy here. But that does not change the fact that there is also so much that is ugly, twisted and wrong. The gap between what is and what ought to be is all too clear to some. They see the effects of sin. They see it in people’s bodies as different illnesses drain away life. They see it in relationships that aren’t working and produce pain instead of happiness. They see it in the tremendous lostness of so many people. They see Creation – people and things – built to be awesome, but coming nowhere close to that. And it hurts. So, they mourn.

But it’s important to keep a balance here. Mourning is limited. So, first, ‘mourn’ does not mean ‘glum’ or ‘morose’. But it does mean ‘sad’, ‘grieving’, ‘sorrowing’. And while this mourning touches all of life, it does not consume all of life. There is a reason that this mourning is limited in these sorts of ways. It’s Jesus. He promised that those who mourn will be comforted. Without this hope, without Jesus, an honest look at the world could only lead to decadence or suicide. But those who mourn as Christians are kept safe from this. Jesus promises comfort. That comfort starts now. Jesus tells us that even the most evil things are used for the good of the kingdom. While there are lots of examples of that, the cross is the best. Has there ever been something so evil that has brought about so much good? So, even those terrible expressions of evil will be redeemed. As bad as it might get, the promise is that all of it is moving us to something very good. That gives hope and a measure of comfort. Men beating their wives is still evil, babies born without whole bodies is still evil, death is still evil, but somehow these things will be used for good for the people of God. Jesus says so. And that isn’t all of it. There will be comfort in the age to come, complete comfort. And while we all will be completely comforted I just wonder if those who mourned the most will enjoy the comfort more. So, there is hope for the future as well as the present.