“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
As we all know, funerals are a time when a group of people come together to mourn the loss of a family member, friend, or other personal acquaintance. Obviously, such events aren’t pleasant. Mourning by its very definition is hard and emotionally draining. That’s why most of us would just as soon avoid doing it as much as possible.
So when we read Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those who mourn,” we have a hard time believing it. It seems like some kind of philosophical nonsense to suggest that part of living in the middle of God’s blessing comes when we embrace mourning. But there it is right in the Bible. “Blessed are those who mourn.” And we’re left wondering what in the world He was talking about. Nevertheless, for those who are open to it, they will find that walking this pathway does indeed open the door to a depth of life that the world knows little about.
People who walk the pathway of hopeful mourning grieve over the reality of a broken world as well as their own brokenness. Day after day we turn on the news and hear stories of lives that are broken due to crime, accidents, and moral breakdown. On top of that are the personal stories which never make the headlines. Such things as broken marriages, rebellious kids, financial ruin, addictions, substance abuse, family estrangement, and more are seen all around us everyday.
Sadly, it doesn’t stop there. For when we look within our own hearts, we see more of the same. Sometimes hidden, sometimes not, but they’re there nevertheless – symptoms of the same brokenness we read about in the news and see on a personal level.
So what do we do about it? Our tendency is to want to shut our eyes to it and hope it will just go away. Perhaps we’ll quit watching the news or listening to the unhappy stories of those around us. And we certainly don’t have any intention of really facing our own sad story. It’s too depressing. Life’s hard enough as it is without dwelling on what’s wrong in the world.
However, that seems to be exactly what Jesus is calling us to do. Those who live extraordinary lives and experience the deep blessing of God have learned to mourn. These are people who realize that the world in its current condition is not what God intended for it to be. But rather than turn a blind eye to it, they look at it fully and feel what God feels – a profound sense of sadness that the world is in this shape.
But it doesn’t stop there. For as surely as the mourners see the brokenness of the world, they also see their own brokenness as well. They too are not as they should be, and this calls out from them a deep sadness of spirit that has no need to hide behind a false veneer of superficial religious arrogance. The perfect world that God created has fallen apart, and those who were created in His image are also in shambles. In light of such things nothing short of mourning will do.
We see this kind of mourning as Jesus stood on the outskirts of Jerusalem looking over the great city and lamenting, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city the kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers. How often I have wanted to gather your children like a hen gathers her chicks under her wing, but you were not willing.” He was mourning.
So as odd as it seems, we need to face this truth. The world has gone mad and not just the world around us, but our inner world too. G.K. Chesterton was once asked what was wrong with the universe. His answer could not have been more on target when he simply replied, “I am.”
Thomas a’ Kempis put it this way, “The more spiritual a man desires to be, the more bitter does this present life become to him, because he perceives better and sees more clearly the defects of human corruption.”
That’s why we need to mourn. We need to face this broken world and our own brokenness head on and grieve over it. We need to feel the divine sobs of Jeremiah who said that his eyes were a fountain of tears. For only then can we tap into the great blessing that Jesus promised in this verse that those who live extraordinary lives understand.
People who walk the pathway of hopeful mourning experience the comfort of God’s promise and presence. Yes, we live in a broken world of which we are a part. When we face that honestly, it brings a deep mourning to our souls. But here is the promise. Someday God will make things right again. And when He does, all the brokenness in the world and in us will be corrected.
Imagine it. Someday I won’t have to live with the nagging feeling of being at odds with others. Someday I won’t have to battle my sinful nature which constantly tries to drag me down. Someday I won’t have to experience the evil work of the enemy of death who steals my loved ones and mocks my faith. Indeed, someday what God has always dreamed of will be a reality. This is our heavenly promise. And such a promise brings comfort and hope in the midst of our mourning.
In fact, it’s those who mourn who can fully appreciate the power of this promise. For only those who have faced the brokenness of the world as well as their own brokenness are able to realize that only God can give them the hopeful comfort they so desperately need. Thus the deeper the mourning, the deeper the comfort they can experience.
But this comfort isn’t limited to some future time. Jesus, himself, said that he would leave us with a comforter now – the promised Holy Spirit. It is he who lives within us who weeps with us when we mourn and encourages us to hold out hope for that better day. As to the nature of that comfort, James Howell put it this way:
“The Spirit’s comfort is like no other. My spouse may listen, care deeply, and embrace me. My friend may stay the night. My pastor may read a Psalm and say a prayer. Church folks may name me in a prayer chain or deliver a casserole. But the Spirit… can go where no one else, not even the surest, most tender spouse or friend, can go. The Spirit delves into unseen depths in my soul, and knows me better than I know myself, feeling my suffering before I am even aware of it. And the Spirit brings a comfort more powerful, more gentle, than any combination of hugs, words, or casseroles. The Spirit of God. The Spirit is love, and the Spirit comforts me not with anything, but with the Spirit.”
How true. And how grateful we should be that there’s more, because we can also be comforted by the fact that God has provided an answer to our own personal brokenness. Because of His grace, we don’t have to live in shame nor in fear of our sinfulness. We have been forgiven and made new. And even when our old nature rises up to bring us down, God’s faithfulness calls to our new nature to rise up and begin again.
And through it, we’re comforted. Yes, those who live extraordinary lives experience a profound sense of God’s comfort even in their mourning. But it doesn’t stop there. For to stop at this point would be to stay centered on our own grief and preoccupied with our own need for comfort. People who lives extraordinary lives eventually take it to a whole new level.
People who walk the pathway of hopeful mourning comfort others with the comfort they have received. Here is what marks the difference between those who simply experience comfort in the midst of their mourning and those who truly live extraordinary lives in the middle of God’s blessing. The former stay forever focused on themselves. The latter take the comfort they have experienced and use it to comfort others. These are the ones who take the words of Paul to heart in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
I saw this first hand several years ago while attending a conference with a group of pastors. These pastors were from a variety of different denominations and church sizes. But we all had one thing in common. We had all been pastoring churches for twenty years or more.
During one of the sessions, one of the pastors began to share some of the struggles he was having in his church. He told us about death threats he had received from church members who wanted him out of the church and of others who were withholding their offerings in order to force him out. He went on to tell us of the tremendous strain this had put on his family and that he had thought a hundred times about quitting not only that church but the ministry altogether. It was a heartbreaking story.
I’ve been to a lot of meetings with pastors and that kind of vulnerability doesn’t happen often. When it does happen, it’s usually met by somebody who has some quick fix solution to the problem that completely ignores the pain of the moment. But not this time. When the pastor finished sharing, there was a stunned silence in the room. He had shared the brokenness of his heart with us, and we knew it.
Finally, one of the other pastors in the room spoke up and shared that he had recently come through a similar experience, and it took months of counseling for him to get on his feet again but that he was now in a new congregation and was doing better. He then encouraged the man not to give up.
Two or three other pastors stood and echoed that they too had been through the same type of experience, and they detailed the different ways the Lord helped them get through it. Eventually, one of the pastors turned to the conference leader and said, “We need somebody to pray for this brother and for the rest of us so that we don’t lose heart.
What followed was one of the most honest and compassionate prayers I think I’ve ever heard. We were all moved. It was an incredible moment, because the pain of one was met by the comfort of others who had experienced that pain themselves and were able to extend the comfort that they themselves had received.
This is what people who live extraordinary lives do. They take the comfort which they have received during times of past pain, and they find ways to share that comfort with others who are still in the midst of their brokenness. Through it all, they are able to tap into the blessed life that Jesus promised.
So may each of us resolve to face the brokenness in the world as well as our own brokenness and turn to the Lord who alone can give us the comfort we need. Then with renewed hope, we can go to this broken world and extend a hopeful comfort to it.