Matthew 5:1-2, 4 (NASB) 1When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, 4"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
II Corinthians 7:9-11a (NIV) 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.
When Jesus said blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, He was not congratulating us on our misery but rather performing a kind of surgery for our soul. Surgery is seldom desired or attractive until we consider the options. One option to mourning is to avoid sadness and pain as much as possible, at which many people think they are very successful. But, one problem with avoidance is that it does not work. The other problem with avoidance is that is does work. We successfully shut out the pain, but then experience the resulting condition of depression. Another option to mourning is “moaning.” If life doesn’t treat us right, we fuss and complain. Paul calls this “worldly sorrow.” He says it is deadly to mind, body, and spirit.
Paul says there is another kind of sorrow, the kind of which Jesus spoke – Godly sorrow that produces repentance. Blessed are those who mourn. Mourning is feeling the pain of loss. Jesus is called a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. He mourned His losses. He mourned the loss of Lazarus. He also grieved over the loss that sin causes, and will grieve until we wake up, see and feel the pain, and turn again to God. Do we mourn our sin? We may confess it, but it is hard, sometimes seemingly impossible for us to feel sorrowful for our sin.
They shall be comforted. They shall receive the gift of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Comfort is more than the easing of pain, though that is a real and important part of the comfort God gives. Comfort also means to strengthen, and that is the kind of comfort Jesus promises. It is a strengthening of the heart and a deepening of our roots in the love and mercy of God. When loss happens, whether the loss of someone we love or of our own failing, we remember that we are frail and fragile. Mourning gives a comfort that makes us more awake, aware, and appreciative. We are less likely to take the smallest gift for granted, to live in complacency or in uncaring ways.
Mourning also reminds us of the limits of life. It keeps us from inflated ideas of our control over life. Blessed are those who mourn, for they are the ones who will know the beauty and strength of the comfort offered in Jesus Christ.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 10, 1992
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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