Do I Qualify?

‘You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you’ Mat.5:4 [MSG]

When Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, He is not referring to professional mourners. Professional mourners are people who are paid to fill an emotional gap at funerals. A crowd gathered outside the house of the little girl who was presumed dead in scripture. And when Jesus came and said that the girl was not dead but asleep, that same crowd of mourners began to laugh at Him. Were they really mourning? And at Jesus’ word they were put out and at His word the girl arose from her sleep. Jesus is not talking about those throwing a pity party. Wives who always throw tantrums just so their husbands can come running. My grand mother would say, “It is the person that looks at the eyes of the bride that will know that she is crying”. You weep for any reason and no reason so that you can manipulate your spouse; and strangely some men do it too. That is not the kind of mourning Jesus is talking about. In fact these people do not qualify. Neither is Jesus talking about the mourning of Judas Iscariot. Rather than repenting some people feel compelled to atone for their sins because until they atone for their sins they do not feel satisfied or forgiven. Yet Jesus says just confess your faults and you are forgiven. A man was found fasting for twenty-one days without food or water and was almost dead. The believer that found him asked what he was doing and the man said he was fasting because some ‘prophet’ told him that that was the only way his sins could be forgiven and he has a lot sins. Jesus says, ‘if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness’. What then is it to mourn? The dictionary meaning of mourning, which is similar to the root meaning, is an expression of an intense sense of loss, helplessness, or despair.  To mourn is to grieve. ‘It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart’ Ecc.7:2 [KJV]. Jesus is saying through His word that you will be instructed more if you go to a funeral.

Prayer: Father, order my steps and priorities through Your written and spoken Word, may I never miss Your instructions Lord, in Jesus Name.