Now, that's a promise. When you are sitting in the darkness of grief, knowing for certain that comfort is coming may be hard to believe, but it is at least something to hold on to. God's comfort in the face of our grief as a very real blessing.
But there is more. Jesus is not just teaching about our personal faith life; he is teaching about the kingdom of heaven (other gospels use the phrase kingdom of God but Matthew prefers kingdom of heaven). Jesus is laying out before his disciples and potential followers the dimensions of the kingdom Jesus is creating even as he sits teaching the crowds.
These crowds are well aware of the kingdom in which they currently live. They understand the power of the ruling Romans, their oppressive taxation system, the tendency of their own people to take advantage of fellow Israelites, and the terrible toll that life itself takes on a body. Jesus is announcing the intervention of God in this system through Jesus.....and in Jesus....and the establishment of a new kingdom with new ways of being.
In this kingdom, God blesses a series of behaviors and attitudes. Kingdom behaviors include those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the merciful. These are the folk you will find in God's kingdom. At the same time, those who seek the kingdom of heaven will become those who are poor in spirit, mourn, etc.
So this mourning is rooted in a larger picture. Jesus is calling out to those who mourn the system that oppresses and destroys. These mourners are crushed by the evildoers and the powerful elite whose actions lead to the kind of mourning that all families know. They mourn the very presence of such evil in the world. In God's kingdom, those who have been oppressed will see freedom; oppression will not have the last word.
Perhaps that is the most helpful of images when dealing with the Beatitudes. They are about who gets the last word - and what that last word will be.
Jesus tells the crowds the last word is blessing...God's blessing... and it will include those who know no blessings today.
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