The Mourners

 

[Jesus said] “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4 ESV).

 

Grief is universal. We have all tasted the bitter pain of saying good-bye to a loved one who has died. Maybe you have shed tears at the funeral of your spouse, or you have endured the unimaginable pain of burying a child. That walk through the valley of the shadow of death may have been last month or many years ago, but the ache never goes away. It always stays with us even when we understand the great power of the resurrection. I have both experienced that grief and worked with many people who also have found themselves as mourners.

 

Unfortunately people don’t always know what to do with those who mourn. Well-meaning folks may try to minimize the pain by using trite phrases or empty words. We might sentimentalize death, or deny the finality of it. Jesus cautions us that denying our pain is a dead-end road that offers little comfort.

 

However, in the new kingdom under the rule of Jesus, mourning is a reminder of comfort. Jesus himself, when confronted with the reality of the grave, wept (cf. John 11). He mourned. He grieved. And he grieves with us in the loss of a spouse, child, or other loved one. He stands alongside us in our pain, and he sheds tears with us.

 

But that’s not all. Jesus came not only to shed tears; he came to shed his blood. He faced death squarely, submitted himself to it, and conquered it. Because he triumphed over death, we can be assured that one day we will live in a world without disease, mourning, or cemeteries. Knowing that Jesus has overpowered death offers us comfort when we mourn. That same passage I referred to earlier gives us this incredible comfort and hope:

 

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:21-26 ESV).

 

This is our comfort as well!

Poor in Spirit

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:1-3 ESV).

 

Have you noticed how our culture continues to magnify status? We see it subtly messaged in virtually every part of our nation. Let me suggest just one example. Frosted Flakes were first introduced in the United States in 1951 as Sugar Frosted Flakes. In 1952 Frosted Flakes used a tiger named Tony to be the official mascot and has been the mascot ever since. It quickly became the most popular cereal in America. A 1958 ad for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes encouraged consumers to “Put a Tiger on Your Team.” Also in 1958, Tony the Tiger and Frosted Flakes joined Hannah Barbara characters to promote the cereal. In 1974 Frosted Flakes celebrated the Chinese year of the Tiger with Tony the Tiger. In that same year the phrase “they’re great!” was introduced. Beginning in the 1980’s untill the present Tony the Tiger became the face of youth sports amongst cereal brands. They transitioned their marketing to promoting healthy lifestyles for kids by eating Frosted Flakes and playing sports. This transition made Tony the tiger one of the most recognizable cereal box characters in the United States. They have been using this advertising model for the last 3 decades. The message is if you want to be great, you need to eat a great cereal.

 

Don’t get me wrong… I really like Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes! However, the messaging of their advertising is not that of Jesus in the Beatitudes. They say the way to being “great” is through what you do. In this case the doing involves what you eat. Jesus’ message is the way to greatest is through being “poor in spirit.” The meaning is clear. We must recognize that real greatness comes from outside of ourselves. It can only be found in our relationship to God through Christ.

 

For millennia people have thought and taught that true greatness comes from our working for it. If we work hard enough to meet our goals, we will achieve them is the common wisdom because “God helps those who help themselves.” That’s simply not the truth of the Scripture. Happiness isn’t for those who think they can earn it. It’s not for those who come to Jesus with a long list of achievements. It’s for those who are empty, broken, and spiritually bankrupt. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people who admit they have no way to enter in without God’s help. He offers new life, full and free, to all who trust in his power to save. God does not reward laziness, but He grants mercy and grace to those who know their pitiful status as sinners and come to Him.

 

 

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

 

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:  “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 ESV).

 

Tax collectors were despised for two reasons. They were traitors because they collected taxes for the oppressive Roman Empire. And they overcharged their fellow Jews and kept the extra money for themselves. Because of these sins against God’s people, tax collectors were considered unclean. So it’s a surprise that in his parable Jesus speaks of a tax collector praying at the temple, where he wouldn’t be welcome.

The Pharisees, however, worked hard to be pure and spotless, to be able to say, “I’m not like them.” If any of the Jews were righteous, it was the Pharisees. But Jesus says the tax collector in this story was justified, not the Pharisee. That surely shocked his first listeners. It might be a shock to us as well.

 

Today we don’t have the same system as the Jews of Jesus’ day. However, we may have to avoid a similar pitfall. I have seen such evidence in many situations. We speak with disdain, and sometimes derision of those that believe or behave differently than we do. I see this in political and religious differences. Some of the things I’ve read from people I know to be believers in social media directed toward others in a difference over a political point of view are very much like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, because they will then appear to be the most righteous in their religious practice. Carrying a big Bible and spewing hatred toward those who differ with us is not the way of Jesus. In fact, He says this is the act of an unjustified person.

 

We have to be careful not to be like the Pharisee, the one who despises others, even as we see that he’s a hypocrite. Jesus’ judgment in this parable raises the question of how our assessment of people squares with God’s assessment. If we judge people as less than ourselves—whether Pharisee or tax collector—we are in danger of excluding ourselves from God. It’s that serious.

 

Fall Equinox, 2021

 

He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. (Psalm 104:19 ESV).

 

The first day of fall, or equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere is September 22nd this year. At 3:20 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Earth’s annual trip around the sun hits the milestone we use to separate our seasons: The sun crosses over the equator to the southern half of the planet. For the next six months, the Northern Hemisphere will be getting less direct light from our star, and it will get chillier by the week. The word equinox is Latin for “equal night,” and it’s the date when, in most places on Earth, the daylight lasts just about as long as the nighttime. It marks the midpoint between the summer solstice in June when Northern Hemisphere days are their longest (up to 24 hours without the sun setting in the polar regions) and the long, dark nights of the winter solstice in December when the sun never rises in the polar regions.

 

Where we live (North Central Texas), this means almost nothing in the changing of the leaves or the temperatures of the day. However, this year we did see quite a contrast since Monday’s high ambient temperature was 103 degrees and today the forecast is a high of 82 degrees. We’ll see how close the weatherman is in the forecast, though it does feel cooler. Some of the foliage is beginning to change color, though we don’t have the varied colors of some of the other areas containing more hardwoods. Even when the trees begin to change, it lasts for a very short period of time until they die and fall to the ground. The key to it all is the amount of sun we get being closer to the equator than some of our northern neighbors.

 

The principle I want to draw your attention to is that which is found in our reading today. The psalmist declares that this is all God’s design. In fact, he uses this truth to call the people of Israel to a time of praise and celebration. Later in this psalm, he says:

 

May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. (Psalm 104:31-34 ESV).

 

So, regardless of what the colors of the trees “say,” the days are telling us that God is truly in control. That brings me great comfort and assurance! I hope it does for you as well!