Satisfying Justice

Brahams Requiem Text
I. ChorusBlessed are those that mourn:for they shall be comforted. -Matthew 5:4

Those who sow in tearsshall reap with shouts of joy!He who goes out weeping,bearing the seed for sowing,shall come home with shouts of joy,bringing his sheaves with him.

-PSALM 126Let those who sorrow know that it is joy, not mourning, which shall have the last word. This we know because of what the Lord has done. The context of the passage in Psalm 126 is that of rejoicing in the Lord bringing home the Israelites from captivity in Babylon. It begins, "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream."

Joy might seem like a dream to you, but it will be a dream that does come true."The Lord had done great things for us; we are glad," writes the psalmist in verse 3. It is because of what the Lord had done, that he can bid his people to rejoice even as they may weep. If God has acted before, so he will act again. We, who know the Great Thing that our Lord has done for us on the cross, have much more reason to be glad. Our Lord who died for us laid before us our hope when he said "Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted."

Our comfort is not a mere expression of sympathy. It is a hope, a promise that the pain of death that hits us when a loved one dies and that inflicts us as we contemplate our mortality - that pain will cease. For our Lord will undergo death himself to overcome death for us and bring us to that day when death will die and mourning will be no more.

We who sow in tears shall someday reap with shouts of joy.