Blessed are Those Who Mourn

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted”.

This week’s small group Bible Study focused on the second of beatitudes taught by Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. The study began as many would think: “Really?” Taken at face value, “blessed are those who mourn” seems strange. But as Jesus explained that it is the “poor in spirit” who are blessed when we reach the point of realizing our spiritual bankruptcy because of sin. It is then that we are able to be blessed of God. There is a connection between mourning and realizing our poverty of spirit. Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

The specific language used in this beatitude includes the strongest word for mourning in the Greek language. It is the term used for mourning the death of a loved one, and it describes a grief that cannot be hidden. But when Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn.”, the question that comes to minds is, “What are we to mourn?”

James 4:4 & 6-10 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Both cleanse and purify are technical terms in the Old Testament. The reference to cleansing, which brings to mind an external action, would indicate stopping certain behaviors (words and deeds). The admonition to “purify your heart” deals more with the internal cleansing of an individual’s thoughts, motives, and desires of the heart. The double-minded person suffers from divided loyalties. On one hand their desires to be near to and please God; on the other hand they love the world and all it has to offer.

What is to be our response to our sin? At my Wednesday night men’s Bible Study group a 20 year old young man (we'll call him Robert), from my New Believer’s class last year, commented that knowing “what is sin in the eyes of God” is the most difficult thing for his age group in recognizing that they are a sinner and seeing the consequences for their sinning against a “just & holy” Lord God. The world, the flesh and the Devil are bent against God's perfect moral law, teachings, statutes and commands; focused on sensual self interests and pleasures. With no moral compass, no one mourns their sin; they ignore it in humanistic moral relativism. How can there be a sorrow that is in according to the will of God which produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation? Repentance means changing your mind about your sin, mourn your sin, literally making a u-turn and bringing your thoughts and actions in line with God’s will.

Psalm 34:17-18 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Holiness is the standard. Each of us is to be holy just as God is holy. Holiness is the goal. Sound impossible? Good news! Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the ones who realize they just don’t have it in them to be holy. They are blessed because they are the ones that God helps. Sorry Ben Franklin, God does not help those who help themselves. God helps the helpless. As we see our spiritual poverty, the Holy Spirit works in us to bring us to mourn over our sinful lack of holiness. Jesus paid the painful ultimate price for our un-holiness. Our response to sin, the response prompted by the Holy Spirit, is to mourn over sin. We should mourn because sin caused the death of Christ in our place to atone for them. Sin grieves God and causes damage to His people. Spend some time in prayer today, asking God to break your heart with the things that break His. Ask Him to help you mourn over sin, that you may be blessed with Him comfort.

In Christ, Brian