“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
This is not some kind of twisted call to become mourners. Jesus is not saying we need to mourn. It is a promise to those who do. When you mourn you will find comfort. This was, in part, the anointing Christ received for his ministry found in Isaiah 61: 2 “to comfort all who mourn”.
Each one of these beatitudes is a response of God to a particular human condition. They imply that God cares. God sees and knows. God blesses, he heals, he restores, he gives and comforts. More than establishing some kind of high-level bar for the disciples to reach, I think he is revealing in a very significant way the character of the Father. That is, how a loving Father will respond to you when you encounter what it costs to follow Jesus.
If you are a true disciple you will indeed suffer pain, rejection, loss of all kinds. You will feel the pain of leaving family behind to follow Christ. You will endure the rejection of people you thought loved you, but because you love Jesus they have now become whose who hate you. As disciples we need to understand that there is a painful cost to following Christ but there is also a glorious reward, perhaps not in this life but in the one to come for sure.
It saddens me that so much of Christianity is portrayed as a victorious, painless, life full of the blessings of God (and by blessings I mean that they (false teachers) mean the financial kind). This is a false Gospel because the focus is merely on this life and the stuff of earth. It is a Gospel of me, myself, and I. It is about what God can do for me. Those who accept this Gospel will not stand when trouble or persecution comes. They will run as fast as they can. If they don’t run they will become bitter because God is not blessing them as they supposed he should.
So, am I saying that to be a disciple you must become sad and miserable? No, but the reality is that we will indeed suffer. We will mourn. We will cry. We may be miserable at times. Jesus said that if they hated me, they will hate you! Paul said that “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22). But in that suffering there can and will be joy for those who understand the benefits of suffering. The cup of joy and the cup of suffering are one. There is no resurrection without death. And it is the same in the spiritual realm. For one to truly experience all the Lord wants to give, to know joy unspeakable, we must endure suffering for a season. It begins with the choice to die to self. It continues with the choice to die to this world. If we embrace the cross of Christ we will be raised with him.
Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12,13: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
When, as disciples, we learn to embrace the pain of suffering for Christ; when we see mourning as a path toward bringing more glory to the Lord; then we will have the grace to embrace the pain and hardships God allows in our life. Then we experience the greatest comfort possible, the deepest love of God poured out into our hearts, and an uncanny supernatural joy.
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes”. Revelation 7:17
