My family in Christ, we are sorrowful.

Before there was an Easter Sunday, there was the Father’s turning away from the Son at Golgotha and, even earlier, the Son’s prayer regarding His Father’s will in Gethsemane.

Before there was the raising of Lazarus from the dead, there were tears streaming down our Lord’s face in the face of his friend’s sickness and death, as well as the sorrow of many loved ones around.

Before joy comes in the morning, there is often weeping that lasts the whole long night through.

We have the ability to recognize and choose joy in part because we have the capacity to know the (seeming) absence of it.

So, some believers will say that if we are to be true and upstanding followers of Christ, we are never to be down but only to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4).

But the same apostle who wrote those words also admonished readers in Romans 12 to both “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.” And Jesus pronounced, in Matthew 5, a blessing on those who mourn, promising that they would find comfort. And Solomon reminded us in Ecclesiasties 3 that there is a season for sorrow and a season for celebration.

We have been saved by grace through faith, and that is a spectacular gift which should fill us with happiness and thanksgiving.

But there are still sins we may struggle with throughout the course of our life, and when we face those temptations, godly sorrow should rightly guide us to renewed repentance.

And there are the pressures of life in a fallen world that may certainly lead us, sometimes in tears, to the arms of our Father who cares and understands our sadness.

And we are surrounded by those who are still lost and wondering in darkness, and it is often a necessary reminder of that sad reality that will motivate us to be the light we were reborn to be.

And our Savior is Himself known as the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53) who was and is acquainted with grief and who knew the deepest suffering — and all alone.

And…it was, after all, some point of heartbreak that led each of us to repent and invite Him into our hearts in the first place.

So, at the end of this Passion Week — and in every season — know the joy of salvation and of victory over the grave. But also live in the tension of keeping a soft, broken heart that makes room for His love to grow deepest roots.

Dear ones in Christ, be who you are. Be sorrowful.