My son died… my only son.

He was still in the womb when we first heard Jesus teach in the hills of Galilee.

The gospel of Luke carefully records truth from eyewitness accounts of numerous historical citizens of the first century.

The following is a fictional representation continued from our previous episodes of eyewitness by one of Jesus’ first disciples.

“Blessed are you who weep now,’ our Lord had taught. He said that we would laugh; even as Job, who had suffered much as a righteous man, had learned:

“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.

Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job 8:20-22

We suffered along with the other saints who heard Jesus in those early days. Our children were hungry and our aged died young. We were in the place where Jesus fed thousands of us disciples who were just beginning to hunger and suffer. In later times we would mourn for those who could not find food or make a living.

Yet we remember our Lord’s teaching as well as our His resurrection. We retain joy, though our young son and several friends have died. We laugh thinking of Jesus’ return – that will be our greatest joy; and our weeping will be replaced with laughter knowing that these wicked ones will be accountable to the One they nailed to the cross, Christ who shed His holy blood of our redemption.

Luke 6:

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Yes, after these difficult years we weep. Yet as certainly as our Lord Jesus was raised from the grave and ascended into heaven, we will laugh.

Yes, people all around us hate us because of Christ Jesus. Those who were once our close family – those who once called us their dear friends; because of Christ they not only exclude us, but revile us.  Those who are not Christians hardly know the meaning of another reviling you, by definition these anti-Christs criticize all of us who claim Jesus in an abusive or angrily insulting manner. Mention Jesus and they are no longer nice. Even though they claim to not believe in evil, per se, they call us evil not for what we do, but because we claim Christ Jesus.

Yes, the sweetness of Jesus’ beatitudes brings lasting joy to our hearts; but the resonance of our Lord’s difficult sayings has taken root in our lives. It is not difficult for us to imagine the scene of our forefathers lowering the prophet Jeremiah into a well because they could not look into the face of the truth of Almighty God.

We are poor. We are often hungry, even dying of thirst. We mourn and weep for our lost loved ones.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

²⁶ “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

We are poor, hungry and thirsty. Our families are dying. We mourn and weep. When we are not ignored people speak of us as if we are the lowest excess of human creation.

But Jesus assures us that having become disciples who willingly take up our crosses to follow Him as our Lord, we will have our consolation, our treasure for all time. We will feast in the eternal House of the Lord. May God help those who have chosen not to follow Jesus our hope and Redeemer, for these are destined forever to thirst for refreshment they never found in the flesh of this measured mortality.

To be continued…