Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

Though I recognize the inadequacy of taking any of the beatitudes of Jesus in isolation, it is also helpful to examine each of them in more detail while trying to maintain the integrity of the whole.  This is my best effort to highlight a couple of fascinating elements of the second macarism (beatitude). 

When Jesus says “blessed,” I understand Him to be speaking to those of the Kingdom of God who are living for the King and “seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).  I don’t find it entirely adequate to translate or interpret it as “blessed by God” since among other head-scratchers, mourning isn’t a divine gift.  Instead, mourning is present because shalom is not.  Sorrow is a Today reality, because the King has not returned to make all things new.  So the beatitudes reflect a present reality for those who are living for the already/not-yet Kingdom of Heaven.  It’s a life of tension, because while Jesus has conquered the grave, sin still consumes and Satan still exercises derived dominion to destroy.  

Essentially, I understand Jesus to be saying, “If you live for the Kingdom of tomorrow, you will mourn today.”  This is the one who is living her best life now.  It’s not through riches and positive thinking and promotions.  To be sure, this is a life of hope, but it is also a life of mourning.  

But it is not just any mourning Jesus has in mind.  It is a grief over the fundamental human problem of sin.  Those who know the righteousness coming with the Kingdom mourn because sin is wreaking havoc today. 

Certainly, this verse requires us to acknowledge the sin within each of us.  True sorrow for our own sinfulness is evidence of a new heart and life.  We mourn today because we aren’t what we should be in light of God’s revelation and the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ.  We are broken-hearted about our own inability to consistently be righteous and holy.  We are sorrowful because our sinfulness continues to affect other people, especially those most near and dear to us.  

But additionally, we should grieve the sin around us as well.  Many of the beatitudes are clearly communal/ethical (meek, merciful, peacemakers, persecuted) and others seem to lean that way even if they are less clear.  Blessed are those who mourn fits into this category.  We don’t merely mourn our own sin, though we must do that, but we mourn the cosmic decay that continues because of sin.  We are grieved by the violence and racism and lying and pride and injustice all around us.  We cry over the way a sin-sick creation destroys human life through natural disasters.  

It would be far easier to just tune out.  To put our heads down and remain aloof or ignorant (or worse, indifferent) to the destructiveness of sin.  But this isn’t the call of Christ on the disciple.  The disciple is called to mourn over sin.  

This acquaints us with the heart of our God, who was sorrowful that He made man whose heart was inclined only toward evil.  This resembles the heart of our Master who wept at Lazarus’ tomb over the reality of death because sin reigns until Christ puts it under His feet.  God mourns human sin and calls His people to do the same.  

Of course, God can’t mourn the sin within Him because He is holy and perfect.  But the sin in others caused Him to act.  He came in the flesh to redeem sinners.  God’s mourning produced action.  

Jesus calls us to mourn in such a way that we act upon our grief.  The grief within produces repentance and movement away from sin.  The sorrow over the sin of others beckons us to move toward others with the hope of the Gospel.  This is risky, costly, and sometimes unsafe.  But it’s the very thing Jesus did for us, though it cost Him His life.  

The beauty of Jesus’ statement is that a promise is attached to it.  Those who live for God’s Kingdom come will be comforted when it’s all said and done.  Mourning never gets the last word for those of the Kingdom.  We grieve with hope, because the King will right every wrong.  Sin will be judged.  Jesus wins.  

If it’s hard to grieve sin, it means we haven’t fully grasped the work of Jesus or the Kingdom He ushers in.  If we find it easy to grieve our own sin but lack sorrow over the sin of others, it again means we haven’t understood God’s heart to act on behalf of sinners.  More could be said here, but I’m running out of room.  

Kingdom citizens mourn sin in themselves and around them now with the promises that comfort is coming with Her King.  Jesus’ simple statement holds a mirror up before us and asks if we are living for Him.  Who wants to mourn except those who know the horrors of sin and want the Kingdom to come fully and eradicate it?  And if we’re living for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, how could we not mourn the condition of our own hearts and those of others?  

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.