THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Matthew 5:4 – Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
The Sermon on the Mount is taught in the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Immediately after his baptism and temptation he had begun to announce the good news that the kingdom of God, long promised in the Old Testament Era, was now at hand. He himself had come to inaugurate it. He said: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
The sermon of the mount is to be seen in this context. It portrays repentance (metanoia, the complete change of mind) and the righteousness which belong to the kingdom. In other words, it would describe what human life and human community look like when they come under the gracious rule of God.
And what do they look like? Different! Jesus emphasized that his true followers, the citizens of God’s Kingdom, were to be entirely different from others. The Sermon on the Mount elaborates the theme that the believers’ character was to be completely distinct from the World.
It is also important to remember that this portion of Jesus’ teaching was directed toward His closest friends, not the general population (verse 2). This sermon was a collection of truths designed to prepare His followers for His kingdom, which involved a lifestyle radically different from the world. In the Beatitudes, Jesus reminds His disciples that they cannot seek happiness the way the world does. True joy is not found in selfish ambition, excuses, or self-justification.
BLESSED STATEMENT
‘Blessed are,’ says Jesus as He speaks each of the Beatitudes. ‘Blessed’ means more than ‘happy.’ Happiness is an emotion that is dependent on how well things are going. It is an emotional reaction based on outward circumstances. But ‘blessed’ in the Beatitudes refers to much more. It speaks to ultimate well-being. It speaks to the distinctive spiritual joy of for those who belong to Jesus. The word Beatitude in itself means to become the privileged recipients of divine favour.
Today, our journey into the blessedness of Jesus brings us to a strange promise: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
CHILDREN
"If you cry, it will get better" is the meaning of this second Beatitude, says Brittany, age 6. Brittany, if you cry for the right reasons, you will indeed get better because God will comfort you.
"This verse means to pray for those who are sad," says Todd, 9. "Try to help them take their mind off it. Invite them over to spend the night or to a water park."
Todd may be onto something. I've never seen anyone mourning while slipping, sliding and screaming down a water park slide.
"I mourned when my puppy ran away," says Taylor, 11. "I cried for hours, wanting him back, but he never came back. We got a new dog, but I still cry sometimes."
All of us experience losses, but our hearts don't want to accept them. We're left feeling hurt and powerless.
"'Blessed are those who mourn' means that God blesses those who have a tender heart," says Sean, 10.
"This means that those who feel sorry and awful for what they did wrong will be comforted by God," says Avery, 11.
"It means blessed are those who are lonely, they will be comforted by God," says Marshall, 9.
The pain of our loneliness can be so intense that even our closest friends and relatives can't understand, but God does. He knows we need fellowship with him and others. The isolation created by self-pity is never the answer.
QUESTION: But I have a question for you. Why do you think mourning is a spiritual thing? Why mourning?
There is a sinful mourning, which is an enemy to blessedness--the sorrow of the world; despairing melancholy upon a spiritual account, and disconsolate grief upon a temporal account. There is a natural mourning, which may prove a friend 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.
SINFUL MOURNING
2 Corinthians 7:10 says: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
The sorrow of the world: In the beatitudes Jesus was not referring to mourning that might occur because our sinful desires are frustrated. The scriptures tell us that Ammon mourned because he wanted to commit incest with his sister (2 Sam. 13:2), and Ahab grieved his loss of an inheritance (1 Kings 21:4). All the physical cares, wants, passions, lusts, greed, or longings do not qualify us for the blessing.
Despairing melancholy upon a spiritual account: Jesus was not talking about mourning over suffering which occurs because we did wrong (1 Pet. 3:17). It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Disconsolate grief upon a temporal account: Mourning eventually stops in most cases, and those who continue to mourn have other issues to deal with in their lives. Jesus was not saying that someone who is always unhappy and upset with life, or even depressed, are blessed.
Jesus was not saying that any of these would qualify us for the blessing. He was talking about spiritual mourning.
There is a natural mourning:
We glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation produces patience, and patience experience, and experience hope: and hope doesn’t make us ashamed,” (Romans 5:3-5.)
The natural mourning may prove to be a friend to blessedness, by the grace of God working with it, and sanctifying the afflictions to us, for which we mourn.
Jesus said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
He also said: And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. Joh 14:16-17
When Jesus came into the synagogue to teach, he opened the scriptures in Isaiah 61:1-3 and read: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
In the world we go through times of tribulation, desperation and loss many times. From these times one word emerges. It is the word hopelessness. The human heart loses hope very easily and go to a place of desperation. We can see how desperate and without hope the world is when we look around us. Drugs, alcoholism, depression, suicide. Name it.
But there is good news. The good news is God’s Spirit living inside of us to comfort us. The good news is that Jesus came to bind the broken hearted. The good news is God’s Word setting us free!!! He is our tower and refuge. Under His wings we are protected and are filled with joy and life! He is our hope. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is our future, and what a glorious future, full of difficulties and full of the comforting of the Spirit of God!
VIDEO
It is quite natural to mourn over events that bring us sorrow and while the Lord’s comfort does extend to these situations, there is a more specific application of this verse.
Scriptural Mourning
ONLY MENTION THE VERSE, DON’T READ IT. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Concerning Matthew 5:4, William Barclay writes in his commentary, The Gospel of Matthew:
It is first of all to be noted about this beatitude that the Greek word for to mourn, used here, is the strongest word for mourning in the Greek language. . . . It is defined as the kind of grief which takes such a hold on a man that it cannot be hid. It is not only the sorrow which brings an ache to the heart; it is the sorrow which brings the unrestrainable tears to the eyes.
This illustrates mourning's emotional power, indicating it has enough power to produce the resolve to accomplish more than merely feeling badly and crying.
The mourning Jesus is speaking here isn’t the remorse that makes you feel bad but doesn’t produce change. It is something that moves your whole being towards a response.
HAPPY, BUT NOT IN A WORLDY MEANING
Happiness, according to the World, depends on the good and favourable circumstances. Happiness according to God relies on the dependence we decide to have on Him.
It is not to be happy or have a happy life that Christianity stands for. It stands for doing God’s will, turning into Christ’s image and obeying Him. A sense of fulfilment and supernatural blessedness is the outcome of this obedience.
Christianity is not a hedonist religion that leads us to self-pleasure and self-fulfilment in our own plans, but it is a pleasing God and allowing Him to transform our ways of living according to His will.
PRISON STORY
We glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation produces patience, and patience experience, and experience hope: and hope doesn’t make us ashamed,” (Romans 5:3-5.)
Every one flies from sorrow, and seeks after joy, and yet true joy must necessarily be the fruit of sorrow. The whole need not (do not feel the need of) the physician, but they that are sick do; i.e. they who are sensible of their disease. A person who understands what Jesus wants here is capable of mourning or standing for God's kingdom in tribulation and persecution instead of serving God in the happiness of the moment, the pleasures of life only. The person who understood mourning has surely understood the power of praising god amidst tribulation and has reached a great level of maturity.
Own sins
That is, those who, feeling their spiritual poverty, mourn after God, lamenting the iniquity that separated them from the fountain of blessedness. Only such persons as are deeply convinced of the sinfulness of sin, feel the plague of their own heart, and turn with disgust from all worldly consolations (repentance), because of their insufficiency to render them happy, have God's promise of solid comfort. They SHALL BE comforted, says Jesus. He will call them to himself, and speak the words of pardon, peace, and life eternal, to their hearts.
Re 3:17-18: You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
They that mourn; over their spiritual wants, and over sin as the guilty cause of them; who long for spiritual blessings, and come to Jesus Christ for them, according to his directions.
Apply your heart to understand how God feels about sin and allow yourself to be affected by it. Allow God to guide you through a repentance that is more than confession. Go through contrition, confession and change your ways.
It is a mourning that feels, that make you cry, that make you change. It is a passionate mourning. My own experience?
QUESTION: What is the opposite of mourning? What are some of the things that hinder us from mourning?
Sins of others:
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 honour, 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). One of our highest calling to the brothers and sisters in Christ and to the world is to intercede before God for them.
Dimitri’s story.
With Others
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Romans 12:15
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)
DOING LIFE TOGETHER – LIFE GROUP – EVERY INSTRUCTION IN THE BIBLE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS GIVEN IN THE CONTEXT OF A LIFE GROUP COMMUNITY LIVING, MAINLY BECAUSE THAT IS THE PICTURE JESUS WANTS FOR HIS CHURCH.
PRACTICAL STEPS
• Rely on God for comforting and strength when going through difficult times. He is faithful. Go daily and deeper into scriptures, prayer and fellowship with Christian friends during tribulation and you will grow strong through it.
• Praise God in the middle of tribulation, serve Him not only in the good times or for the good times, but for who He is.
• Apply your heart to understand how God feels about sin and allow yourself to be affected by it. Allow God to guide you through a repentance that is more than confession. Go through contrition, confession and change your ways.
• Apply your heart to intercede for people. Prayer changes lives and brings God’s kingdom into Earth.
• Be part of a life group. Become engaged in doing life in community as Jesus intended His church to do. Rejoice and mourn with your brothers and sisters in Christ as life happens.
