One of the riddles of the kingdom of God is found in Jesus’ words, “Cry now, laugh later”; Laugh now, cry later” (Luke 6:21; Luke 6:25).
It was not a new thought. For centuries his people had been singing songs and hearing prophets talk about being deeply troubled by the silence of God before seeing their days of mourning followed by seasons of dancing (Psalm 30:7-11).
Out of context, such a declaration could sound inconsiderate and heartless. But with the promise of comfort—and against the backdrop of the long awaited kingdom of God— these words followed gently on the heels of blessed are those who i.e., in the presence of Jesus, don’t trust their own judgment or consider themselves more important than others (Matt 5:3).
Some who hear these words today may be able to identify with them if we have already seen God’s ability to turn our deep personal loss into a harvest of his comfort and presence. But if our present losses are without precedent in our own experience, then we may not have any choice but to either reject what Jesus is saying or take his riddle by faith in our desire (i.e) to trust his foresight more than our own.
We can be just as sure that our Teacher was not putting a higher value on tears than laughter. Nor was he merely saying what everyone knows—that there is a time to mourn and a time to dance. What he was saying doesn’t come naturally, nor easily, to our days and ways….