Mourning Brings Comfort

September 9, 2009 by EnnisP
Filed under: Bad Things, Sermon on the Mount

In Jesus’ famous sermon He mentions eight things not usually associated with happiness. Most of them are considered painful and all of them are difficult to achieve. The first item on the list is “Poor in Spirit” and the second is “Mourning,” which is to say, it starts off badly and gets worse. Poor in Spirit we dealt with in the last post so we’ll talk about mourning now.

Remember that the common thread through the first section of this sermon is happiness and it seems very out of place. The eight things mentioned are thought to be anti-happy. We think happy people are those who avoid them and Jesus is suggesting something completely different.

The truth is every person experiences every item on the list and we all know the negative side of these experiences. Jesus is suggesting they can lead to a positive outcome.

Mourning
Mourning is the appropriate response to the losses we incur. It enables us to accept the loss and make healthy adjustments in response. Unfortunately, we naturally and wrongfully assume happy is what we are when we recover what was lost.

There are many types of loss:

Position: socially or at work.
Personal: Abilities through injury or age; death of friends and family naturally or tragically; material loss or diminished credibility.

Many things cause our losses, some out of our control:

Personal failure: practical and moral.
Failure by others
Natural disasters
Commitments we make
Life in general

For example:

David lost credibility when he committed adultery.
Abraham experienced personal loss when Sara died.
Peter lost his occupation when he followed Jesus.
Joseph lost family and security when sold as a slave.
Paul lost position when he committed to Jesus.
Jeremiah lost social and political standing when he preached captivity.

All of these men, however, died happy, in a good place. They were comforted in the end.

Observation shows and Jesus suggested that mourning properly done is healthy and renewing and He also suggested that loss is normal and usual, not to mention universal. Everyone experiences loss. It is impossible not too. We live in a faulty world and entertain faulty ideas. We think of loss as a possibility, Jesus was suggesting it is inevitable. The appropriate biblical response to loss is not attempting to avoid it completely but learning to cope with it when necessary.

Many people experience loss and never recover from it. Their sorrow consumes them and Jesus clearly indicated that mourning properly done leads to comfort. So logically we must realize that mourning is more than just emotional pain. It involves a process that leads us through and beyond the pain.

Mourning enables us to:

Adjust when loved ones die.
Make corrections when we fail, morally or practically.
Rebuild when natural disasters strike.

Mourning is a way of facing and exploring our losses with both heart and head not recovering them.

Instead, however, we:

Insure our losses.
Absorb our losses.
Replace our losses.
Sue others to recover our losses.
And we sometimes become bitter over losses.

Some of these responses help relieve the pain but do nothing to help us adjust or make corrections.

Some responses help bring a sense of justice but do little to fill the vacuum created by the loss. Suing others focusses on the past. Adjusting changes only the future.

Forgetting the loss is not the point and isn’t possible. Distractions can relieve the pain for only a short period. Being consumed by the loss creates additional loss and ends in bitterness. None of these things bring comfort.

To mourn a loss properly you must ask and answer several questions:

What was lost?
Why was it lost?
Can the loss be regained?
If not what adjustments must be made to recover?
What must be changed to avoid similar losses in the future?

Mourning does not recover losses. It finds constructive ways to accept them and makes the best of difficult situations.

An example of someone who failed to mourn his losses properly is Esau. He lost his birthright, it was his fault and he never accepted this.

The Bible actually says he continued trying to recover the lost privilege and could find no way of making this happen. He eventually became bitter because of it. People who fail to mourn their losses, like Esau, become delusional. There is no comfort in that.

Jesus is teaching us to accept the losses that cannot be recovered and move on. The eventual outcome is comfort.

What losses have you incurred and how have your responded? What do you THINK!AboutIt?

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