“Blessed are those who mourn . . .”
Blessed are you who weep now . . .”
Matthew 5:4; Luke 6:21
The Bible is honest about life in our fallen, broken world. Jesus is frank and direct about what happens in our souls when our fallen world falls on us. He refuses to pretend that following him eliminates mourning. He chooses a strong word for mourn—one that means to lament, to wail, to bewail, to be filled with over-whelming sorrow and gut-wrenching sadness.
But he doesn’t stop there. In the parallel account in Luke 6:21, Jesus shares, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” The Greek word for weeping denotes loud expressions of grief, especially in mourning for loss and death. Think of the sobbing that we have all heard at funerals.
These are just two of the honest words from the Sermon on the Mount about life in our fallen world. Consider some of the others: we will be persecuted, reviled, slandered, poor, hungry, hated, excluded, spurned as evil (see Matthew 5 and Luke 6). Jesus was never “pie in the sky” “in the sweet by-and-by.” Jesus gives you permission to grieve—to mourn, weep, wail, and hurt.
Those who have studied the typical response to loss have noted that denial is a common first step on our grief journey. We pretend. In our shock, we act as if nothing has happened and nothing can hurt us or penetrate our shields.
The Bible urges us to move from denial to candor—to be honest with ourselves, with each other, and with God about life in our broken world. There’s a reason that there are more psalms of lament than psalms of thanksgiving. God invites his children to be brutally honest with him about our suffering and pain.

Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount highlights the temporal nature of our losses. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21). It’s important that we honor the “nowness” of our pain. This is especially true in our ministry to our hurting brothers and sisters in Christ. We typically race in with Romans 8:28 about how God will work all things together for good. It’s interesting and instructive to note that before Paul sprints to Romans 8:28, he walks through eleven verses on suffering, futility, corruption, groaning, weakness, and moaning that cannot be uttered or put into words (see Rom. 8:17–27).
Paul models the both/and approach to grief. Now, in the midst of grief, it is normal to hurt. We have God’s permission to grieve and groan. Once we have empathized with our hurting friends, in God’s timing and at their pace, then we can move with them on the journey of healing hope, communicating that it’s possible to hope even in the midst of pain and loss.
Of course, neither Matthew 5:4 nor Luke 6:21 ends with mourning or weeping. God’s Word never leaves us in the casket of despair. Instead, Scripture invites us to face our casket experiences honestly and then look to the God of resurrection hope. We will take that look together tomorrow.
—Bob Kellemen, author, Grief
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