Beattitudes- Blessed Are Those Who Mourn by Lynn Binnie

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

Wow -- if a special blessing being reserved for those who are poor in spirit seemed "upside down," the blessing of the second Beatitude seems even more unlikely. Who would ever choose to mourn? The Greek word that is translated "mourn" describes the most acute, intense kind of grief -- "to bewail or to lament." Mourning is often accompanied by crying, so it's of interest that the following appears in the version of the Beatitudes found in Luke (6:21): "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."

We probably most often think of mourning as being a result of the death of a loved one, but there are many other life experiences that can reduce us to wailing -- flunking a test, being dumped by a girl/boyfriend, learning that our parents are getting divorced, discovering that we didn't get that perfect job, hearing that a close sibling got orders to ship out to Iraq for a third tour of duty.

There are many examples of this sort of meaning of "mourning" in the Scriptures, such as:
- Abraham mourned at his wife Sarah's death and wept over her. (Gen. 23:1-2)
- When Joseph was sold by his brothers, his father Jacob believed that he had been killed, causing Jacob to mourn for "many days." (Gen. 37:34-35)
- David lamented the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. (2 Samuel 1)

We even see Jesus mourning at the death of Lazarus, as recorded in John 11:35 - "Jesus wept." Since he would soon thereafter raise Lazarus from the dead, we have to assume that Jesus' grief was in the nature of empathy for Mary and Martha.

So is it from this deep emotional response to loss that Jesus is telling us we will be comforted? Certainly it seems to be one appropriate application of the Beatitude. As Jesus wept with Mary and Martha, we can trust God to meet us with empathy and comfort in times of loss. Does God have experience with anything similar to human grief? How about what happened when Jesus humbled Himself to be born as a human being? Though it was done out of sheer love, the incarnation came with an unfathomable cost. How about the crucifixion?

There are other possible understandings of the mourning that will be comforted. Most of us don't know anyone in Haiti or Chile, but we couldn't help but mourn for the people in those countries as we recently saw on television the unthinkable numbers of dead, wounded and homeless people. God's concern for poor and oppressed people, and for social justice, is highlighted in over 300 verses in Scripture. As we reach out to those people by turning our mourning into tangible expressions of God's love, we may be comforted to hear of the healing that is taking place.

There's another kind of mourning that we find in the Scriptures. In Genesis 6:6 we find that before the flood, humankind's wickedness had become so great that God grieved over having created people. In Luke 19:41-44 we read that on Palm Sunday Jesus wept over Jerusalem. There are times when we find ourselves grieving over poor choices, addictions or alienation from God among our family and friends. We pray that they, and we, may be comforted as they respond to our caring and God's love.

Lastly, do you ever find yourself mourning over things that you have done or failed to do? That was the experience of Peter after he denied the Lord the third time: "...he went outside and wept bitterly." (Luke 22:62) Could your mourning be an indication that you need to seek and find forgiveness from God, and also perhaps to ask forgiveness from someone you hurt? That's the thrust of this verse from 2 Corinthians 7:10: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." When the Prodigal Son, starving and mourning, came to his senses, he set out to beg forgiveness from his father. The warm welcome, forgiveness and comfort he received were beyond his wildest expectations.

At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus visited the synagogue in Nazareth and read these words from Isaiah 61:1-2: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn..."

During this Lenten season, may we be comforted by the One who fulfilled these words from Isaiah 53:3-5: "He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."

1. What have been the most significant losses that you have mourned in your life? Looking back, are you able to see ways in which God comforted you?
2. Do you think of anyone who is mourning -- due to circumstances beyond their control or due to their own choices? Are there ways in which you may reach out to them with God's love?
3. Are you mourning over things that you have done or failed to do? Do you need to ask forgiveness from someone you hurt? What would you say to God about those failures? If the Man of Sorrows came to bear your griefs, are you ready to accept His forgiveness and comfort?

"It is not enough for us...within the arena of the world's pain merely to know of a God who sympathizes. It is not even enough to know of a God who heals. We need to know of and be connected with a God who experiences with us, for us, each grief, each wound. We need to be bonded with a God who has had nails in the hands and a spear in the heart."
Flora Slosson Wuellner, Weavings