Jesus encourages us to love with real openness and honesty, but such love also brings great vulnerability. By loving and living in a way that we mourn deeply, we open ourselves up to incredible heartache, trouble, and hurt. But! We also draw closer to Jesus, and, with Him, there is potential for great joy because Jesus has overcome the world. (See John 16:33.) In other words, the risk of grief or mourning can be overwhelming. It is not easy to love people to a point where we mourn over hardship and loss. But, through it, God promises life-changing joy if we are willing to take the chance.
The life that risks love to the point of real vulnerability shifts the world’s expectations about love. By risking our own grief, we see the possibility of genuine relationship and community, of sincere faith and spiritual connection—as God intended from the beginning.
We should not miss the declarative tone of Jesus’s blessing: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Certainly, Jesus affirms the presence of mourning in this world, and the risk of love that often leads to such emotions, but equally affirming is the promise of spectacular comfort born from the heart of God. God calls us to risk ourselves not for the mere possibility of comfort, but in the certainty of it.
We see this truth time and again as Jesus participates in the mourning of this world, whether in the death of a friend (Lazarus; see John 11:1–44) or in His grief over a people’s discontent (weeping over Jerusalem; see, for example, Matthew 23:37–38). It is even present in Jesus’s discourse about His own suffering and death. In Matthew 9:15 and John 16:16–22, He teaches His disciples about suffering from a very personal perspective, referring to a time when He will no longer be with them. Jesus promises, however, that their mourning will turn to comfort—an unimaginable joy that the world will not understand.
When we opt for a safer or easier path—one that offers little risk or a quick fix—we cannot and will not experience this kind of comfort and joy. You see, the easy road sets up a false sense of security. You may think you can prevent the risk of grief by refusing to love completely, but such a path results in a more profound grief: the grief of loneliness and unfulfillment.
The joy that Jesus speaks of is born only from the risk of possibly losing it or missing it altogether. Jesus calls us to see the path of mourning and to courageously walk down it.
About the Author:
Dr. Shane Stanford (MA, Duke University; DMin, Asbury Theological Seminary) is President/CEO of The Moore-West Center for Applied Theology and JourneyWise. Stanford served as a pastor and church planter for more than thirty years, most recently as Senior Pastor of a 5,000+ member church in Memphis, TN. Dr. Stanford is the author of several books, including JourneyWise, The Seven Next Words of Christ, The Cure for the Chronic Life, and The Eight Blessings: Rediscovering the Beatitudes. Shane Stanford’s memoir, A Positive Life, details his experiences as an HIV+ and HepC+ hemophiliac, husband, father, and pastor. He is the co-host of the Covenant Bible Study program, now used in more than 1,000 churches. Shane Stanford is married to Dr. Pokey Stanford, and they have three adult daughters and two sons-in-law. www.JourneyWise.Network IG: @DrShaneStanford
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