Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
Matthew 5:4
In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we have landed upon The Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). The Beatitudes is a section of Jesus’ great Sermon that describes what it looks like to be a true disciple of His. It serves as a very important introduction to The Sermon on The Mount; because it teaches us what to “be” before the Sermon itself tells us what to “do” We are taking our time in this portion of Scripture so we can carefully consider each of the eight assertions that are made in it.
The first Beatitude taught us that, in order to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must first come to God in the deep poverty of our soul, as a man or woman who realizes how truly needy he or she is. “Blessed are the poor in spirit“, Jesus said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). And in those words, we learn that the first aspect of being a disciple is to be someone who recognizes their spiritual bankruptcy and therefore their need for God’s grace. A great illustration of this was the tax collector in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 who “standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).
The second Beatitude builds upon the first. It teaches us that a true disciple starts off not only realizing how desperately needy they are in the sight of God because of their sin but also goes beyond that to express deep sorrow and mourning over their sins. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).
It’s not enough to simply recognize—in a merely intellectual way—that I am a bankrupt sinner before God. Once I realize the poverty of my soul, I must also feel God’s own grief and sorrow and pain for my sins. It’s not enough to have made confession; I must also experience contrition! And that sense of mourning over our sins is what this second Beatitude is meant to instill in us: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
I probably don’t need to tell you that such an idea as I’ve just described is contrary to almost everything we see in the world around us. The unbelieving world is very glad to embrace the ‘sentimental’ idea that those who “mourn” in a general sense will be comforted but certainly not if what they are “mourning” over is sin. The people of this world structure their lives around ignoring and avoiding the whole idea of feeling bad about their sin. Much sin in our society is not grieved. It’s not disapproved of. It’s not merely tolerated. They laugh at sin and scoff those who shun sin calling them prudes or kill-joys. Our society doesn’t mourn sin; it mourns those who mourn sin.
And please understand; it’s not that God is against laughter and joy. Far from it! He is the original inventor of laughter and joy. In fact, each of these Beatitudes begins with the announcement of eternal “blessedness” or “happiness”; and together, they all show us God’s way to true blessing. No; God is not opposed to real laughter and joy. Instead, God is opposed to the shallow versions of laughter that divert us from real, eternal joy Jesus said in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21). But “Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25).
The words of this beatitude fall into two parts, first, an assertion that mourners are blessed persons; second, a reason, because they shall be comforted.[1] Let’s look closer at this second Beatitude by asking[2] . . .
1. Who are the mourners?
MacArthur notes that in Greek there are nine words that express sorrow, but that “of the nine terms used for sorrow, the one used here (pentheo, mourn) is the strongest, the most severe. It represents the deepest, most heartfelt grief, and was generally reserved for grieving over the death of a loved one.[3] This word is found 45 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
It describes the mourning of Abraham for his wife Sarah (Gen. 23:2) and Jacob mourning for his son Joseph whom he thought had been killed (Gen. 37:34, 35). Samuel mourns over Saul and his failure to obey God (1 Sam. 15:35, 16:1). David mourns for his son Absalom (2 Sam. 13:37, 19:1). All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for good King Josiah at his death (2 Chr. 35:24). Figuratively Jerusalem’s gates mourn over the coming destruction (Isa. 3:6). Several verses refer to “the land” (the land of Israel) mourning over the sin of God’s people (Jer. 23:10 because of the curse, Hos 4:3, Joel 1:10). God’s Messiah will come to comfort all who mourn (Isa. 61:2-3). Daniel mourned over Israel’s sin for 3 entire weeks (Dan. 10:1). Ezra mourns over the unfaithfulness of the exiles in marrying foreign women (Ezra 10:6). Nehemiah mourns over the great distress of the remnant who were back in Jerusalem (Neh. 1:4). The people weep and mourn upon hearing the Words of the Law read (Neh. 8:9). Zechariah prophesies a time when the Lord “will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10).
So, although this word “mourn” can refer to grief and sorrow over death and other losses, in this context it particularly refers to sorrow over sin. Like those prophesied in Zechariah, this “mourning” is the agonizing realization that it was my sins that nailed to the cross the Lord of glory. When I look upon the cross and truly understand the great price my sins cost my precious Savior, how can I feel anything about my sins but great mourning, and sorrow, and deep remorse? If I’m truly a disciple of the Son of God, how could I be indifferent, or insensitive, or hard-hearted to the great price of the sins that resulted in so much of His own suffering?
Jesus mourned over sin. In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem and wept over it. He wept over it because He had presented Himself to Israel as the Messiah, and they rejected Him, and that city and those people are going to be destroyed and devastated in God’s judgment. Jesus’ mourning is over sin and its effects in the lives of people.
James 4:8-9 confirm that this mourning should be over sin.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (James 4:8-9).
What kind of mourning over sin does God bless?
The puritan, Thomas Watson, points out several kinds of false mourning over sin. First, a despairing kind of mourning. Judas Iscariot is the example. He confessed his sin, he regretted it, he justified Christ, he made restitution (Matthew 27). But it was a mourning joined with despair. His was not repentance unto life (Acts 11:18), but rather unto death.[4]
There is hypocritical mourning. King Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD” (1 Samuel 15:24). But Saul played the hypocrite in his mourning, for he did not take shame to himself, but said: “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel” (1 Sam. 15:30). The true mourner makes the worst of his sin. Saul labours to make the best of sin.[5]
Also, forced mourning is not true mourning over sin. Such was Cain’s mourning after he murdered his brother Abel. He mourned, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” (Genesis 4:13). His punishment troubled him more than his sin; to mourn only for fear of hell is like a thief that weeps for the penalty rather than the offense.[6]
Merely external mourning is fake. Later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus will talk about the fasting of the hypocrites “with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting” (Matt. 6:16). Such was Ahab’s mourning at the convicting words of Elijah, “he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.” (1 Kings 21:27). His clothes were torn, but his heart was not broken. He had sackcloth but no sorrow.[7]
Real mourning is a matter, not merely of empty words or external actions—it is the condition of the heart before God. True mourning is spiritual; that is, when we mourn for sin more than the suffering it brings. David cried out, “my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3). God had threatened that the sword should ride in a circuit in his family, but David does not say, “The sword is always before me,” but “My sin is always before me.” It was the sin against God that troubled him. He confessed “Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight” (Psa. 51:4).
True mourning for sin confesses sins in particular. The truly repentant person is like a wounded man. He comes to the doctor and shows him all his wounds, “Here I was cut with the sword; here I was shot with a bullet.” In Judges 10:10, “the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, ‘We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!’” They mourned for their idolatry.
True mourning for sin is joined to a hatred for sin and a zeal for purity. True mourning begins in the love of God, and ends in the hatred of sin.[8] Paul writes to the Corinthians,
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Cor. 7:10-11).
True mourning for sin is constant. It describes not just our initial experience of conviction and contrition when we are justified. Notice the tense of the verb: it is not “have mourned,” but those who “mourn”—a present and continuous experience. We continue to mourn over the sins which we commit daily. We should have an ever-deepening awareness of the depravity of our flesh, the deceitfulness of our heart, and the corruption of our mind apart from Christ. Like Paul, we cry out, “O wretched man that I am” (Rom. 7:24).[9] Spiritual mourning continually operates in the life of the Christian. For as he sins it brings grief, and grief causes him to turn to Christ and the sufficiency of His death; then he is comforted again. “Whenever the Christian is conscious of his own sin,” writes Ferguson, “he will be grieved by it” [20]. Grief leads to repentance and comfort.
God wants us to mourn over how our sin has offended Him. The Bible tells us that sin is “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4); that it is the opposite of faith (Rom. 14:23); that it is the deliberate devising of foolishness (Prov. 24:9); that it is knowing to do good but not doing it (James 4:17); and that it is the expression of unrighteousness (1 John 5:17). It is an offense against our holy God! No wonder it should be grieved over! Do feel the pain of our sin against God?
There is a natural consequence to our inward focus of spiritual mourning. We are affected outwardly as well. God wants us to mourn over sin in our world as well. Like the Psalmist we cry, ” Rivers of water run down from my eyes, Because men do not keep Your law.” (Psa. 119:136). We realize that the kingdom of God encompasses the world, and we desire to see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters covers the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). God wants us to mourn over all the injustice, and hurt, and alienation, and spiritual darkness, and war, and hatred, and conflict that sin has brought upon the people of this world that He loves. He wants us to mourn over the fact that there are so many people in this world – people that He has made for His own glory – who refuse to worship or honor Him. He wants us to mourn over the fact that people who reject His grace through Christ will suffer hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity, because of their refusal. God takes no delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). It breaks His heart and He wants us to have broken hearts as well.
Mourning is unpleasant. No one wants to mourn. But we note that Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The sort of mourning He calls us to in this Beatitude leads to something good. It leads to a great blessedness. It leads to God’s promise of comfort.
This leads us, next, to ask . . .
2. Why are they blessed?
First of all, understand that there’s nothing of sentimentalism in Jesus’ idea of “comfort”. These words aren’t meant as a mere pat on the head – a mere, condescending little “There, there . . .” – to those who mourn. The Greek word translated “comforted” is a strong word. It’s a compound word (parakaleõ) that basically means “to call for” or “to invite” someone to “come alongside” someone else. Figuratively, it means to “to exhort” someone, “to encourage,” “comfort,” or “console” someone. It’s related to the word used to describe the ministry of the Lord Jesus; “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). It’s related to the name given to the Holy Spirit when Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper . . .” (John 14:16).
Notice that we do not comfort ourselves, it is a comfort that God Himself gives. Paul writes, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5). Jesus once quoted that comforting passage of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue at Nazareth and said it was fulfilled in Himself (see Luke 4:17-19). Those who truly mourn over sin will be comforted by Christ Himself. This is because Jesus deals completely with the sin over which true mourners mourn! He brings a complete comfort and consolation to those who mourn, because the cause of their mourning, their sin, is completely removed!
Therefore, King David wrote, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psalm 32:1-2). He could affirm, “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
“They shall be comforted.” This gracious promise comes first in that Divine consolation which immediately follows justification, the forgiveness of sins and the removal of the load of guilt we carry because of our sins. Jesus promised, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).[10] We continue to receive this comfort of forgiveness throughout our sanctification process as disciples of Jesus.
And in an ultimate sense, God comforts those who mourn in that He promises one day to glorify them in the kingdom of heaven when Jesus comes again. He will bring them into the state of sinless perfection that He Himself enjoys; and then to take them to live with Him forever in a New Heaven and a New Earth in which every trace of sin will be forever removed. We’re told in the Book of Revelation this about the New Jerusalem; “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes and abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21:27). And of those who live there with Him, we’re told, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)
Truly then, those who mourn will indeed be comforted!
How do we experience this type of mourning which God comforts? First, much like I suggested last time when we talked about being “poor in spirit,” we should begin by seeing God for who He is. In Isaiah 6 when the prophet gets a vision of the glorious Lord who is “Holy, holy, holy,” he cries out “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” (Isa. 6:5). Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted, “The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God,” and I would add, that is the way to spiritual mourning as well [Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 52].
Sinclair Ferguson concurs, “It is this-his sight of God-that has made him mourn. Paradoxically, it is the same sight of God that will bring him comfort” [The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World, 19]. Where do we see God? We look into the pages of God’s Word, that infallible revelation of God. We meditate upon Scripture. We contemplate the Lord; see how He has worked in creation and most of all, in redemption. We look at the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, to His perfectly holy life, and then to the cross where He bears our sins in death.
Second, I would suggest we pray and ask God to take away any hardness of heart that we might have toward sin. Thomas Watson, wrote, “It is not heinousness of sin but hardness of heart that damns.”[11] The Bible says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Pray and ask God to take away your hardness of heart, so that you are then set free to feel the pain of sin and properly mourn over it!
Third, I would urge that, when God reveals it to us, we confess our sin immediately! King David wrote,
When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgression to the LORD,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah (Psalm 32:3-5).
To “confess” our sins literally means “to say the same thing” about them that God says. We cannot mourn over our sins as God wants us to, until we submit to seeing them and speaking of them as He himself does. And we do this in a very personal way when we confess them to Him and call them for what they are.
For the world, grieving sin is regressive and constricting; for the Christian, it is the pathway to joy. In it is the promise of blessedness and eternal comfort. Imagine the implications. If Matthew 5:4 is true—if Jesus really meets repentance with comfort, not condemnation—then no longer do you need to fear being exposed. No longer do you have to present an airbrushed version of yourself to fellow redeemed sinners. No longer do you need to fear studying your heart and plumbing the depths of your disease.[12]
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[1] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 59.
[2] Greg Allen, Blessed Mourners, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2004/061304.htm Copyright © 2004 Bethany Bible Church, All Rights Reserved, used by permission given on website. I adapted Allen’s outline and used some of his points in developing this sermon.
[3] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary: Matthew 1-7, Chicago, Moody Press.
[4] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 61.
[5] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 61.
[6] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 61–62.
[7] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 62.
[8] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 65–66.
[9] Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 19.
[10] Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 20.
[11] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 72.
[12] Matt Smethurst, Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/blessed-are-those-who-mourn accessed 08/21/2022
