Second Beatitude

Matthew 5:4

"God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted." NLT

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you, only then can you be embraced by THE ONE most dear to you" The Message

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." NIV

    This strikes to the heart of many peoples approach to life I feel.  People generally want to be happy and this is what they strive after, thinking that they will be blessed when they are merry.  What Jesus said here follows well after the first command.  The poor are accustomed to mourn, the graciously poor mourn graciously.  

    There is, however, a point to realise that there is a sinful type of mourning, which is an enemy to blessedness -  the sorrow of the world; despairing melancholy about something spiritually, and disconsolate grief upon something of this world, all of which is temporal.   There is also a natural mourning, which can be turned to blessedness, by the grace of God working with it, and sanctifying the afflictions to us, for which we mourn.  * But there is a gracious mourning, which qualifies for blessedness, an habitual seriousness, the mind mortified to mirth, and an actual sorrow. (Matthew Henry)         John Wesley explains the words well - "They that mourn - Either for their own sins, or for other men's, and are steadily and habitually serious. They shall be comforted - More solidly and deeply even in this world, and eternally in heaven."

    This is really all about the SORROW OF REPENTANCE.  

MOURN the LOSS of YOUR INNOCENCE, RIGHTEOUSNESS and SELF-RESPECT.

    The first stage of blessing is to realise that we are spiritually poor, the second is to mourn the fact.  

    Jesus tells us that the Christian life is not all about joy and laughter.  Even being filled with the Spirit does not mean we must have a perpetual grin on our faces.  This is not biblical as we see in Luke 6:25, which is Luke's account of the Sermon on the Mount - "Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep." KJV   

And in the Message - "And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games. There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it."

    Now this isn't to put a downer on our lives as Christians!! Far from it, we, out of all people in the world, have true peace and contentment, hope and joy! Praise God for that!  We do, however, need to realise what this life is all about and remember the reality of our fallen state.  By repenting and asking God for strength though His Spirit we can be blessed.

Do we weep over the sins of others?     Jesus did.

Do we weep over the consequences of judgment and death, of people being eternally lost? Jesus did.

Do we weep over the evil in the world?    The Godly men in biblical times did.

Do we weep over our own sins?   The great Paul the Apostle did.

Psalm 119:136 "My eyes shed streams of tears because men do not keep your laws o God."

Ezekiel 9:4 sees God's faithful being described as those "who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in Jerusalem."  Here God places a mark on each faithful persons head who mourns for the sins being committed and actually tells the guards of the city to go and kill all people in the city who did not have the mark.  Serious indeed.

Philippians 3:18 Paul says "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ."

Romans 7:24 Paul says "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

    As John Stott says, "I fear that we evangelical Christians, by making much of grace, sometimes thereby make light of sin.  There is not enough sorrow for sin among us.

We should experience more 'Godly grief', like the sensitive missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd, who wrote in his diary on 18th Oct 1740: 'In my morning devotions my soul was exceedingly melted, and bitterly mourned over my exceeding sinfulness and vileness.'"

    The comfort that comes to us when we mourn in such a way is the free forgiveness of God, the only comfort which will relieve our distress.

    We should still mourn over the havoc of suffering and death which sin spreads throughout the world, because it is only in the final state of glory when Jesus returns that comfort will be complete.  Then there will be no more sin and, "God will wipe away every tear for their eyes". Revelations 7:17