A mournful heart

“Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4 (NIV)

The second line Jesus spoke to those listening at the Mount of Olives. First, He challenges the normal sense of those listening by stating that the poor in spirit are blessed and now those that are mourning, man, it sounds like a hard sell. I don’t know about you, but I have lost a few people in my days and these words would not have resonated well with me. Death is the end in many people’s eyes, even those that believe in the life hereafter. It is comforting to know as a Christian that eventually we will be reunited with those that past before us, but in the here and now those words can fall flat. To watch someone that you love and remember as being strong and comforting become weak and frail is heart wrenching. Then when that loved one dies it quickly becomes a reality that you will no longer hear her voice or feel his arms hold you. That is where the pain becomes real and to hear those words that, “they are in a better place”, can fall flat and feel like the platitude it truly is. I know that when my grandmother, Kathleen Hanson, died in 1999 those words brought little comfort. I was grieved because I was over 500 miles away when she passed and wasn’t able to come and say goodbye before she took her last breathe. What one has to understand is my grandmother was more than just grandma; she had been a great friend and companion. When I was growing up her and I had great conversations on faith and politics, she was a very special person in my life and here I was in Oklahoma and she was in North Dakota, dying and I was unable to be there with her in her final days. My faith was not really strong in Christ at that point in my life, so those words of hope, of a better place, were not very comforting. So, here we sit with this verse from Matthew and the question, what do we do with Jesus’ words?
I like to look at different versions of scripture to gain different insights and the Message version of this verse says it this way, “You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.” You may ask, “How does that make it any better?” The reality is that in life we tend to focus on others and forget to focus on God. It is true that in the midst of a loss the pain just doesn’t disappear because someone reminds us that the one we love is now with God, but what happens is God mourns with us for the loss we feel. The shortest verse is John 11:35 (NIV), “Jesus wept.” The context of this shows the humanity of our Lord, He wept at the news of Lazarus’ death. He wept when He had heard that a good friend of His was now dead, but He knew that it was not the end. He wept, I think, also because those that were close to Him did not fully understand and did not trust in the promise of God and only saw the death as an end and not a new beginning, so he raised Lazarus from the dead and extended his days here on earth. Jesus, I believe, wept for these two reasons because He loved His friend and knew that He would miss Him, but He wept because He heard the anger and the disbelief of those that saw the passing of Lazarus as the worst thing that could have happened. When we lose the ones we love and our hearts are broken the faith that we hold in the one Jesus Christ can be strengthened because in our pain we can be wrapped up in His arms and brought comfort. We walk around in life often times believing that we don’t need anyone and though we may worship our Lord on Sunday, on Monday our lives can be lived as if we are on our own. Do you feel that way? What role do you give Jesus in your life? Think of a time that you have been embraced by the Lord. If you can recall, think of what it felt like and if you don’t know of or can’t think of a time or are in the midst of mourning, what is preventing you from allowing yourself to be embraced by Jesus?