Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
One of the greatest messages ever proclaimed was delivered by Jesus Christ and is referred to as the "Sermon on the Mount." His message is as relevant today as it was when it was first spoken. Our Lord opens this message not with a joke, but with the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes cover the glorious hope and are rewards that Christians can expect now as well as in eternity. The second Beatitude is, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5: 4)
To mourn means to have a broken heart. In the Greek, it means to have a deep inner pain which occurs when something tragic happens, such as a death of a loved one. It also means to have a desperate sorrow over evil and suffering. In this Scripture it is mourning over sin against God and the results of it which leads to spiritual death and eternal separation from God. It is a brokenness of heart that comes from understanding the suffering Christ went through upon the cross and realizing that our sin put Him there.
True Godly sorrow is not "I'm sorry I got caught! I'm sorry I have to pay the price for my sin!" This sorrow focuses on self and simply moans over the personal consequences of it's own sin. It is total self-centeredness that does not consider the heart of God. It leads to death because it does not lead to repentance.
Those who are God's true mourners live a life of repentance, they mourn over the sins they have committed as well as over the sins of others and they have great regard of God's honor, such as Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. The psalmist who wrote psalm 119 wept "a stream of tears because God's Word was not obeyed." ( v. 136)
True mourners sympathize over the afflictions of others. "When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping" over Lazarus' death, "He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." (John 11: 33) "Jesus wept." (John 11: 35) They also have compassion on perishing souls such as Jesus did over Jerusalem and her coming fate. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matthew 23: 37)
King David found comfort in the
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