SOTM 4: The Path to Joy

4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Mt. 5:4

"Eat drink and be merry" is our world's motto (and part of the chorus of a sweet Dave Matthews Song!!!). It is a flippant attitude toward life. An attitude in which the best way to deal with tragedy and pain is to move past it, forget about it as quickly as possible. Don't worry, be happy. Christians often make the mistake of thinking that we must outdo everyone else with our happiness. If Jesus doesn't make us look happier, why would anyone want Jesus? But people can see that this happy-smiley-always-positive-Christian-radio approach is just as inauthentic as the "Eat drink and be merry" one they are already living. Much of eastern religion also teaches us to move past pain and sorrow through "detachment." But Jesus says we can have our cake and eat it too. Jesus tells us that to find happiness we don't need to ignore pain and sorrow--but that in fact dealing with our stuff head-on is the way to get there. Jesus wants us to know that a good God is in control. And therefore there is no need to ignore our pain but we can meet it head-on with hope. A hope that is grounded in the belief that God will one day make all things right-- he will bring about peace: the way things are supposed to be.

But Jesus also and primarily has a specific kind of mourning in mind. Certainly we can mourn with hope over, for example, the death of our loved ones. But for Jesus, the main thing he's getting at is different. Jesus was a "man of sorrows." He was a mourner in the good old-fashioned OT prophet kind of way. He mourned over the sins of his people. He wept over Jerusalem and he got ticked off in the temple courts. And Jesus wants us to know that the path to the good life comes through a mourning over our sins. Blessed are those who day after day weep over their sin. Blessed are those who day after day weep over the sins of the world. The follower of Jesus looks at the injustices of the world, the rancid violations of human rights, and weeps. The follower of Jesus looks inside his own heart, and seeing that what he finds is what is at the heart of the world's injustices, he weeps. But his sorrow quickly becomes joy when he looks to the cross and daily discovers forgiveness. His compassions are "new every morning" declares the author of Lamentations amidst great sorrow and mourning. Mourning is not to be replaced by joy in the present Christian life, but rather is the pathway to it.