They that Mourn

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

This beatitude always seemed to me as if it painted a rather bleak picture of Christianity. To go through life mourning and sorrowful seems the opposite of Christ’s statement that He came in order that we might have joy. (John 15:11) But these also are the words of Christ, and they call those who mourn blessed, or happy.

That word mourn means to grieve or wail. So what is it we are to grieve?  There are two times recorded in Scripture when Jesus Himself wept. What did Jesus mourn over?

The Consequences of Sin:

In the midst of the rejoicing and jubilation of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus stopped and did what may seem to us a very strange thing.

“And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Having no sin of His own to mourn, Jesus mourned over the sins of others and the devastation which they had willingly chosen.

There was another time when Jesus poured out His heart over Jerusalem and its people, saying,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” (Matthew 23)

This outpouring of heart shows that Jesus longed for His people to repent. He mourned over their rebellion against God, grieved over their sin, but nevertheless desired to restore them.

This demonstrates that a God-ward heart will mourn over souls yet unrepentant toward God. It will also sorrow over those who have rejected or wronged us with a heart yearning to forgive and restore. 

The Sorrows of Others:

Many times in the Gospels, it is written of Jesus that “He had compassion” on individuals or on groups of people. His compassion led Him to provide food for a multitude, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, touch lepers (in order to heal,) teach the multitudes, and raise the dead. In fact, many if not most of the miracles done by Jesus were directly stated to have been motivated by compassion.

But Jesus also showed compassion another way.

On one occasion, Jesus had a friend named Lazarus, who died. There is much I could say about the details of this event, but to summarize, Jesus knew His friend was sick and had chosen to wait until after Lazarus had died to travel to Bethany, where Lazarus and his sisters lived.

When Jesus got there, Lazarus’ sisters each came out to speak with Him, and both voiced the same thought: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” (John 11:21,32)

Lazarus’ sister Martha notably followed this thought up with, “But I know, that, even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” (v.22) Martha’s expression of her faith occasioned the beautiful words of Jesus, in which He declared Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life. When Mary came and spoke the same initial thought to Him, however, she did so while falling down at His feet and weeping. This is what John records happened next:

“When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto Him, Lord, come and see.” (vv. 33-34)

Then comes that famous verse: the shortest verse in the Bible, but which speaks such volumes:

“Jesus wept.”(v.35)

Jesus knew He would raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew that Lazarus’ resurrection had been His and the Father’s purpose all along, and yet in the face of such sorrow, Jesus wept.

One could argue that He was weeping over the consequences of sin on the human race at large, but look at the context: He saw those who were weeping, and then He wept with them. This reminds me of Romans 12, which tells us to “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” (12:15)

Jesus demonstrated the compassion that willingly enters into the sorrow of others, mourning because they mourn, even with the utmost confidence that God is both able and willing to comfort them.  

The Comfort Bestowed:

That brings us to Jesus’ next point. Blessed are they that mourn, but why?

“for they shall be comforted.”

Herein lies the blessedness. This is the joy behind the mourning, that comfort is certain.

That word comfort comes from the same root word as the word Jesus uses in John 14: 16-18 in reference to the Holy Spirit:

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

One of the key purposes of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to comfort us. Why would God care so much about our comfort? 2 Corinthians 1: 3-5 gives the answer.

“Blessed be God , even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort” (v.3)

First of all, God cares to comfort us because He is merciful. He is “the Father of mercies.” He is capable of comforting us, because He is “the God of all comfort.” But there’s more to this business of comforting:

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (v.4)

You see, there’s a greater purpose in view than just our own comfort. God in His mercy comforts us, but in His wisdom, He does it in such a way that we can then be part of that comforting process in the life of a fellow believer because of the suffering that caused us to need comforting in the first place. If that isn’t an example of Romans 8:28 at work, I’m not sure what is!

And there’s still more:

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” (v. 5)

The more we suffer, or, in the context of our present study, the more we mourn, the more we are comforted! God never runs out of comfort. It is always abundant, always there to draw upon when we need it.

On the other hand, those who never mourn over their sin in this life will have ample cause to mourn over it throughout eternity to come. As 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 reminds us,

“godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

And Solomon wrote,

“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

The place of mourning sets our focus on eternal things. It helps us live with our eyes on Christ, setting our affections on things above as Colossians 3:2 says we ought.

So how about you? Are you willing to follow the God of all comfort through the valley of mourning, or are you chasing after the superficial comforts of the world?