Happy Are The...
Discovering Joy In The Beatitudes

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN (Sample Chapter)

Is Jesus saying that in order to please Him we need to be constantly sad and crying? Are those who are empathetic, those who feel the pain of others and cry for them, are they the ones who will be blessed? That seems contradictory. In order to be happy you need to be sad all the time.

In the second beatitude Jesus says:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. - Matthew 5:4

This does not make sense.
Happy are those who mourn?
Aren’t those opposites?

To understand this verse we need to ask two key questions: “What is the object of our mourning?” Why are we mourning? The answer is in scripture:

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God... produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! - 2 Corinthians 7:10-11

The sorrow, meaning the mourning, must be according to the will of God, and it must be mourning that produces repentance without regret.

What Type of Mourning is This?

Once you recognize you have nothing good to offer God (humbleness), then you’ll see that all you do have is sin… you have disobeyed God. And that results in mourning over sin…. mourning over both your sin and the sin of others. This is the type of mourning that produces repentance without regret.

"The man who is truly Christian is a man who mourns also because of the sins of others. He does not stop at himself. He sees the same thing in others. He is concerned about the state of society, and the state of the world, and as he reads the newspaper he does not stop at what he sees or simply express disgust at it. He mourns because of it... He knows that it is all due to sin; and he mourns because of it." – D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies In The Sermon On The Mount, page 48

One of the most often memorized verses in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is short so it’s an easy one to memorize. But, it says something important. This verse is part of the story of Lazarus, who lay dead and decaying in a tomb for four days before Jesus raised him from the dead.

Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. – John 11:32-35

Why Did Jesus Weep?

Yes, he was weeping out of love for Lazarus. But, He knew Lazarus would soon be alive again. So there really was not much of a reason to weep for Lazarus. There was another, more serious reason to weep.

Lazarus was apparently a well-known person. Many people had come to his home to mourn his death. Jesus was surrounded by people. They were crying and wailing over the death of Lazarus, but they didn’t truly understand death. They were sinners, dead in their sins. Lost and without a Savior.

Jesus was not weeping for Lazarus, He was weeping in grief over sin. He knew the sin of each person in the crowd around Him. Jesus knew they were about to witness the greatest miracle He had ever done. And He also knew few would turn from their sin and trust Him to give them life. Jesus was mourning because most people love their sin so much that even after seeing someone raised from the dead, they would not turn away from sin and trust Him to give them life. Do you mourn and weep over your sin?

Being poor in spirit means we understand we are sinners and we have nothing good in us, nor is there anything good we can bring to God. This leads to Godly sorrow over sin. We mourn over our sin, as well as the sin that saturates the world. And our Godly mourning leads to repentance... a turning away from sin and toward obeying God. Mourning over sin leads to our rejecting sin and seeking to obey God in everything.

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All quotes from Jesus Always are copyright 2016 by Sarah Young
Hebrews 7:25 -- 2 Corinthians 2:14 -- John 8:29 -- Matthew 28:19-20 -- Isaiah 57:16 -- Psalm 103:9