Happiness In Sorrow Series

The soloist asked the visiting preacher what his subject was. She

wanted to follow up with an appropriate message in song. When he

hesitated she told him to never mind, she would listen and select

something appropriate. When he concluded his sermon she sang,

"Sometime, Somewhere, We'll Understand." Many a sermon is hard

to understand because it is over our heads, complicated, and far

removed from our experience of life. But one of the paradoxes of life

is that a sermon can also be hard to understand just because it is too

simple, and easy to grasp. This is the case with the beatitudes. Jesus

uses no big words; nor does He get complicated, or off on areas of life

removed from common experience. On the contrary, He is so simple

and clear in what He says that it becomes a problem.

Blessed are those who mourn is just too clear, and Luke makes it

even more clear when he writes, "Blessed are you who weep now for

you shall laugh." This is so clear and obvious that it is hard to

understand. The simplicity of it must be complicated by distinctions

and interpretations before it makes sense, for who ever heard of

happy sadness? Paradox always calls for careful interpretation. If

we take these words as an absolute statement without qualification we

end up as universalists. If all who mourn are to be comforted, then all

shall be comforted, for all men mourn. The aged poet reflects back

on life and writes,

I've seen your weary winter-sun

Twice forty times return,

And every time has added proofs

That man was made to mourn.

Certainly, Jesus did not mean to convey the idea that mere

mourning is the key to happiness. That would turn hell into heaven,

and give us salvation by sorrow. What of the immoral mourning of

Ahab because he could not have the vineyard of Naboth? What of

Jonah's mourning because of God's mercy on Ninevah? What of

Hamen's mourning over the advancement of Mordacai? What of the

mourning of Judas over his betrayal of Jesus, and the millions who

mourn because the consequences of sin are misery and death? The

road to damnation is wet with the tears of those who mourn. It is

clear that the simple statement of Jesus cannot be taken as a absolute

rule, for that would lead to the superficial conclusion that all evil men

will be comforted rather than condemned. Sin, suffering, and sorrow

would be only illusions, and we will all be happy when the light of

truth dissolves them. This is an unbiblical view of evil, and certainly

this is not what Jesus meant.

What then did Jesus mean by this statement? Bill Graham asks,

"How can one extract the perfume of gladness from the gall of

sorrow?" If not all sorrow leads to happiness, and not all mourning

leads to comfort, then we need to distinguish between good and evil

sorrow. The best way to accomplish this is to look at the mourning of

Christ. What made Him weep and shed tears? This will be the kind

of mourning that we must do to be blessed. We must study the

attitudes of Christ which made Him mourn to see the meaning of this

beatitude. The first attitude of Jesus that led Him to mourn was His-

I. ATTITUDE ON SIN.

Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, not just

because of what sin was doing to Him through those who rejected

Him, but because of what sin was doing to them. Weep not for me,

He said to those who felt sorry for Him, but weep for yourselves. The

consequences of sin are horrible, and those who do not find refuge in

Christ must suffer the full force of God's wrath on sin. This is why

Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and there can be no doubt that He shed

many tears of mourning as he prayed alone all night in secluded

places. This kind of mourning over sin is a key to happiness, because

it leads one to oppose sin and its consequences. This is to take a stand

with God against Satan, and assures one of eternal victory and

comfort.

This attitude is different from that of sorrow over sin because the

consequences spoil your pleasure. The worldly person mourns over

sin in this way. The one thief on the cross mourned because his sin led

him to the death penalty. He did not feel bad over his sin, but he felt

terrible over getting caught, and having to pay the penalty. The

world's beatitude is, "Blessed are they that never get caught."

Bertha Buxton said, "After all, the eleventh commandment (thou

shalt not be found out) is the only one that is vitally important to keep