Unlimited: Mourn with the Mourning
Aug 10, 2023 414
mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15b).
This is one command of the Bible that we don’t offer consider. God commands us to weep.
We are not to be aloof from those who suffer, but instead we are to enter into their suffering. Love never refuses to enter into the suffering of others. There is no better example of this than the experience of Jesus.
Jesus wept (John 11:35).
The fact that this is the shortest verse in the Bible doesn’t make it any less poignant with meaning. Jesus wept because he loved his friend Lazarus. Jesus wept because he entered into the suffering of those who loved him.
To mourn with those who mourn is to love them.
However, this doesn’t even begin to compare with the brokenness of heart that Jesus experienced on the Cross, when he cried out in anguish,
… “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Mark 15:33–34.)
If you have ever felt abandoned, Jesus felt it worse. If you have ever felt lonely, misunderstood, or wounded, Jesus has been deeper into all of these experiences. And no one knows what it is to mourn like Christ.
The more we align our lives with his, the more profoundly we will experience these times of life, and the more we will know how to mourn with those who mourn.
Spiritual Application
To mourn with those who mourn is to love them. It is easy to avoid those who are suffering. Do you tend to avoid them or do you tend to enter into their suffering?
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