4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
I know that I have told you this story not long ago, but since it happens to fit well with this morning’s topic of mourning, I am going to tell you again. For some of you, it might be the first time hearing this. I used to live in San Francisco, in Richmond district and there were quite a lot of yuppies in that neighborhood. So there were stories about the yuppies being told. One of the stories goes like this.
A yuppie came out of a restaurant and as he was getting into his brand new BMW, a car suddenly came along and hit the open door, ripping it off completely. When the police arrived at the scene, the yuppie was complaining bitterly about the damage to his precious BMW.
"Officer, look what they’ve done to my Beeeeemer!" he mourned.
"You yuppies are so materialistic, I can’t believe it!" retorted the officer. "You’re so worried about your stupid BMW, that you didn’t even notice that your left arm was ripped off!"
"Oh my gaaawd...," replied the yuppie, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm was once attached, "My Rolex, MY ROLEX!"
He was mourning for the lost of the things that he thinks more important than his arm.
Mourning is the second stage of transformation. Last week we talked about the first stage, being poor in spirit. When we are in touch with the truth that God created us to live a fruitful life—to seek the kingdom of heaven, we feel “poor in spirit” because you want to be where God created you to be and you feel powerless to be there. This realization leads us to make a decision to strive first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Once you make this decision, you enter the second stage of transformation—mourning. There are two types of spiritual mourning that I would like to point out. The first one is mourning for the personal concerns and the next one is social concerns.
Mourning for Personal Concerns
Once you decide to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you have to give up some things in your life because your values have begun to change. It is painful to lose the things that you value previously, like the yuppie’s accident story illustrates. And you will mourn for the lost of them. Based on your new values you have lose these things:
1 – You have to let go of your priority
Since Jesus is telling you to make the kingdom of God your first priority, your current priority has to go. Years ago I came across a Jerry Springer’s show. You know, I don’t watch him, but sometimes I just stumbled upon it and some of the shows were just outrageous, which was not supposed to be a surprise because it was indented to be outrageous. In this particular show, he interviewed a couple, of which the wife complained about her husband spending too much time on computer and ignore her. Jerry Springer asked the woman what her wish was. She said she hoped he would get rid of the computer. The man turned around right away and said, “No, she goes first.” This is an extreme case, but it tells us that for many people their priorities have been totally messed up.
Jesus said your priority must be striving for the kingdom of God and his righteousness. When he tells you to put first thing first, you will end up mourning for the former first things that you have to let go. Psychologically, it might be called withdrawal.
2 – You mourn, because you had to let go of some destructive friends.
There is an English proverb that says, “Bad company corrupts good character.” When your values begin to change you lose some of your friends that doesn’t share your values. You lose them by your choice or they just leave you because you have changed. Sometimes, you lose not only friends but also relatives, and even the community.
In some places in the world, when you become a Christian, the entire community disowns you. When I was at the seminary, one of my classmates told me that he was a former Mormon, and all his friends and relatives including his own children disowned him and his wife. Friends, discipleship can be costly. You have heard the saying that God grace if free, but not cheap.
When you lose your dear friends, you mourn.
3 – You have to let go of your ego
Some of you have heard about my childhood stories. I have had the opportunity to live like a prince and also live through the horror of a dysfunctional environment. I thought I have experience the harshest condition any kid could have gone through, and I thought God has made me humble through these experiences. I thought I have nothing left to let go because I was force to learn to let go of everything.
But one day I discovered that I had something that I couldn’t let go. It was my big ego. This is the hardest process to go through because it is like dying of your self—the dying of ego. It is exactly like what Jesus described when he said in John 12:24, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Last week we use an acorn as an analogy. An acorn can feel safe and secure within his hard-shell, he can build his own little kingdom there. The dead of ego is like when the acorn allows itself to break open and die from its self-sufficient existence. That’s when the germination begins.
To live a fruitful life you must let your ego die. When you experience the death of your ego, you mourn for your own death.
Mourning is a necessary stage for growth. Children often go through the growing pain, so does our spiritual life. Everything that grows goes through a growing pain. Jesus said, it is okay to mourn, and you are blessed for mourning during the process of growth because you will be comforted by the indescribable peace of God.
Mourning for Social Concerns
One of the most quoted statements regarding social concern is probably that of Bob Pierce. Traveling around the world as a young evangelist around mid 20th century, he saw the suffering of the young children and felt his heart broken by what he saw. One day as he was looking at a group of poor children and he jot down on the fly-leaf of his Bible: "Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." That became the theme of his life, and he founded the organization call World Vision. The organization is now supporting over a million children around the world.
If you want to life a fruitful life and if you want to be used by God in a significant way, you need to allow your heart to be broken by the things that break the heart of God. Nehemiah from the Old Testament is a great example. God used him to guide Israel in rebuilding the city’s walls and in reordering the people’s social and economic lives. What he accomplished in a brief period of time was an incredible feat. How he accomplished this goal is one of the major emphases in the book that bears his name.
The Bible says in Nehemiah chapter one:
The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They replied, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.”
When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:1-4)
Notice it says, he mourned for days. His heart was broken by the things that break the heart of God. God uses such kind of people to do great things. In fact, Nehemiah could be someone who couldn’t care less about Jerusalem. He was not a first generation exile to make him home sick. He was in fact a third generation Jew born in Persia. Plus, he was doing very well in Persia. He was the cupbearer of the king. A cupbearer is a confidant in a royal entourage, a very important job. He as the trust of the king and he must be living in luxury. Many Israelites in his condition have totally forgotten about the motherland.
But, Nehemiah is different. He wept and mourned for four months after hearing about the terrible conditions of Jerusalem.
The book of Nehemiah was his own diary. He recorded his prayer during those days of mourning. Listen to how a great man prays:
5 I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. 7 We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!” (Nehemiah 1:5-11)
This is the kind of prayer that often comes out of a person used by God. If you look at this prayer, first you find his close relationship with God because his prayer reveals that he knows the nature of God so well. He started out with adoration to God saying, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.”
Then he confessed the sins of Israel. Again, Nehemiah was a fourth generation oversea Jew. Most people would claim that they have nothing to do with the sins of their great-grandfather’s sin. But Nehemiah did confess the sins of Israel. He used the word “we”. He said, “We have sinned against you.” He is the man. He takes responsibility for what his ancestors have done.
Then he quoted from the scripture of what God has promised Israel and as God to grant his promise. He said, “God you told us that you would scatter us if we didn’t listen to your commandments, BUT, you also said that you will take us back if we return to you.”
He knows the history. He said that the Israelites are “your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand.”
And lastly he asked for success. A lot of people wrongly pray for success for personal gain. But Nehemiah has no personal gain, but to give. He asks God for success in his giving mission.
This week, let us meditate on the question, “What are the things that break the heart of God?” and find one of them that makes you mourn. When you find that, you will also be blessed with the comfort of knowing that you are in the present manifestation of the future kingdom of God. When you find that one thing that breaks God’s heart that also breaks your heart and make you mourn, you have found your life mission and the fruit you are going to bear in the near future. May God bless you!
