Thoughts on the Beatitudes, Part 4: Blessed are those who mourn; they shall be comforted.
If we know anything about Jesus, it is that his simple sayings never are. The Beatitudes are no exception. Each statement prompts questions that beget more questions until we have a whole noisy clan of them begging for our attention. Today we have a typical example: The happy disciple is a person who mourns. We immediately wonder what that means. What is mourning, exactly? What kinds of things should we mourn for? Are there different kinds of mourning, and is some of it not the kind that brings blessing?
If I think about the times I have experienced mourning, the most obvious definition of the word is an emotional reaction either to losing or failing to gain something. Death is the loss that most obviously comes to mind, but it stands in good company with many other sources of grief in our lives.
Jon Wilson
December 22, 2017 3:53 pmWow, talk about counter-cultural! Your efforts to go deep into the Beatitudes highlight for me just how incredibly foreign to our world they really are. And thus foreign to me as well, comfortable denizen of this world that I am. You do well to point us to the Lord as the only one who can conform us to this picture of happiness.
PAUL BECKMAN
December 22, 2017 4:43 pmA sobering comment, but a true one. To our fleshly and worldly way of thinking, the Beatitudes almost seem insane – they are certainly offensive. And yet glorious in their gospel power. Upside-down living at its finest.