Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. (Luke 6:21b)
In this continuation of the Beatitudes, Jesus has already covered the circumstance (blessed are you who are poor), the need (blessed are you who are hungry), and now He addresses the emotional – Blessed are you who weep now. In all these, Jesus speaks to the spiritual using the physical.
In using the word weep, this doesn’t just mean to cry. This word in the Greek means to wail with grief – like think snot nose ugly crying – over something that has pained you tremendously. When we see sin for what it is, especially in light of our holy, holy God, it should cause us to grieve. This grief is stirred from the pangs to our heart when we truly understand the penalty of our sin – separation from God – and the cost Jesus had to pay on our behalf in order to offer us salvation.
For Our Own AND Others
And this weeping isn’t only over our own personal sin but can and should also be the response we have when we are faced with the sin of our society and culture. Just as Daniel and Isaiah were dismayed as they thought on how their people had turned away from the Lord and they prayed over it, so should we have a dismay that would cause us to weep and pray in light of sin in our own lives and all around us.
As Jesus said, Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh, there is a two-fold message. If we weep now over our own sin, it’s a godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) and ultimately laughter when God gathers His redeemed to Himself. Likewise, if we weep now for the sin of our society and culture, we will laugh and have immense joy in the time to come when God has taken us home, remembering that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)
The question to ponder today is: Are you weeping now?
Our society desires to kill innocent babies in the womb for their own convenience, so much that they threaten to kill/harm those who desire to protect those babies. Our culture says that the very design of male and female and the sexuality God created for a husband and wife to enjoy is not only a farse but they have perverted it beyond recognition of the original design. Our modern world tries to dictate and modify what the Bible says to suit whatever changing school of thought, instead of being convicted unto repentance. This is all rebellion, and it hurts the heart of God, and it should pierce our hearts to mourn, to weep because of the world we live in.
If your response to sin isn’t grief, take time to think why not and to ask God to give you a heart like His that is broken over sin, as He desires that none should perish but that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). And when your heart is grieving over sin, don’t just weep but pray until that day of laughter comes.
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
For those whose hearts may be overwhelmed with grief as you see the sin in your own life and in the world around you, be encouraged that God hears your prayers and laughter is in your future, my dear sibling in Christ!