“Blessed are those who mourn” (Matt. 5:4): A Contextual Reflection
Abstract
The statement about mourning in Matthew 5:4 is among the main teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Mourning is among the valuable activities done externally for the purpose of grief resolution. In light of the Hehe of Iringa and the Bena of Njombe, using a qualitative approach and reader-response criticism and documentary analysis as methods, this article reflects on Jesus’ statement about mourning. It argues that Jesus’ statement is an admonition for the Christian community to mourn as a divine life process that, being a divine enforcement for eschatological achievement, will eventually make them subjects of the kingdom of heaven. The reflection concludes that mourning springs from a sense of sin, from a tender conscience, and from a broken heart. It is a godly sorrow over rebellion against God and hostility to God’s will. Thus, mourning provides no less than six benefits: acquiring blessings, comfort and inheriting the kingdom of God through repentance; promoting relaxation for further living; rebuilding lost relationships between individuals and God; living as daily advocates of God’s call for mission through the law of love in and to the world; managing difficulties and changes in life for coping, recovery and life-giving; and obtaining the necessary and important learning and re-learning.Downloads
Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal webpage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in Scriptura, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
