Blessed Are Those Who Mourn: Finding Comfort in Christ

Now part of that means the silly things I've done in life, Jesus has taken care of on the cross. You know what that also means though? If Jesus took all sin upon the cross, he has also bared the weight of all of the effects of sin. That means the harm that people have done when they sinned, Jesus felt the effects of that on the cross. That means in a very real way for him to have became sin who knows no sin, that means the sin that has been done to you or the effects of sin that you have experienced, Jesus took upon himself on the cross. [01:04:34] (36 seconds)  #JesusTookItAll

I believe that we are to reorient our lives around the God of the universe who absolutely loves us. And it's to see that God sits with us in our mourning, and he hurts with us in a way that is deeper than any human can fully comprehend. Because on the cross, he took not only your sin, but the effects of sin that had been done to you. If there's anyone who knows actually what it did feel like, he felt your heartache for what sin or the effect of sin had done to you on the cross, and he's there to comfort you. [01:07:54] (38 seconds)  #GodWithUsInGrief

This is one way Kathy who made that image says it. She says, skipping Saturday prolongs the process of healing, and it actually misses the full experience of Christ's comfort in our pain. By trying to not feel the hurt, we actually prolong the hurt, and we actually miss out on a really beautiful way that Jesus wants to comfort us in the pain. [00:59:07] (26 seconds)  #DontSkipSaturday

Isn't that wild? The king of the universe who took off his crown and put on a human body, human skin to learn what it was like to be betrayed, to lose loved ones, to be harmed. He's the very one who says, no. No. No. I'm coming down because they need me. [01:06:36] (24 seconds)  #KingCameDown

But the problem is, oftentimes, we try to go from Friday to Sunday without sitting in Saturday. It's a day that we don't talk about a lot, but it's part of the bible. Jesus dies on Friday, and what happens on that Saturday? He's in the tomb. The disciples think that the bad guys are coming after them. They think that their hope and their savior is gone forever. That is the place of mourning. That is the place of grief. [00:57:04] (34 seconds)  #SitInSaturday

And the problem is is that wholehearted healing can only happen when we traject through the whole gospel story from Good Friday to the pain of Saturday into new life on Sunday. To quote Kathy Lourzel, who made this image, wholehearted healing is the transformation that happens when we give God all of our brokenhearted pieces. [00:57:38] (25 seconds)  #WholeGospelHealing

That means the death of that loved one, that terrible thing that happened to you as a kid, that time life was hard and it wasn't fair. Jesus took on the effects of that on the cross that it is not the most powerful thing in our lives anymore. That is the kind of savior I want with me when I weep and when I mourn. [01:05:10] (29 seconds)  #SaviorInOurSorrow

As we sit with this reality that Jesus gives us, that blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. I think one of the things that it tells us is that in the world that we live in, the poor in spirit are often crushed, and the mourning are often avoided like that silly video we saw. But in God's kingdom, the poor in spirit become royalty and the mourning receive comfort from the king himself. [01:06:03] (33 seconds)  #MournersAreBlessed