Matthew 5.4: “It’s ok to mourn, and maybe even cry”
“He that sins is human; he that grieves over sin is a saint; he that boast of sin is of the devil; and He that forgives sin is God.” - Old Proverb
As if starting his teaching on “kingdom attitudes” didn’t start on a high note (blessed are the poor in spirit...) Jesus continues in the next verse to talk of mourning. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (KJV). The terms blessed and mourn, don’t seem to coincide. Rather they seem silly. Blessed are they that mourn. In our culture today, especially “the Christian bubble”, mourning seems to be looked down upon. We are told, “put on a happy face, you’ve got Jesus!” Which, seems all good and all, but sometimes life just simply stinks. Then you get those that say, “It’s not that bad...” but it really is. Everyone always has a solution, everyone always has the answer and yet, most of the time they fail too. Some of us go through some things that are just plain hard, and it isn’t easy to fake a smile with life sometimes. And here Jesus is addressing that. There are two things we can and most likely should mourn over; 1) Trials in life and 2) Sin.
To mourn is defined as “to feel or express sorrow for (something that is regrettable). In both instances of mourning (trial and/or sin) the regrettable aspect of mourning takes full effect. Who has ever been through a trial and hasn’t thought “I regret having to go through this”, or a feeling of regret toward the situation. Then when it comes to sin, if we grieve over it, we do regret it happening, because of the pain that it causes Jesus.
The first thing we are free to mourn over is trials that come into our lives. The saying “life’s hard get a helmet” is a very true saying. Life sometimes just plainly, well, sucks! Sometimes it may feel like you’re climbing a mountain with a slippery slope, or as one pastor, C.H. Spurgeon said, “its like fighting the mist”. Trials usually are unexpected and lead to some of the most difficult times of life. Now trials can be a direct effect of the life we’re living, but sometimes we have no control over what we are going through. So what do we do when we are in this season of life?
I Peter 1.3-8 gives the believer hope for the trials they are going through:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tired with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory...”
What Peter writes here is so comforting for those that mourn over trial in this life. What he says basically is, “yes, its hard. Yes, its tough, but continue on for your reward is not for this life, but in the life to come. It may never get better down here in this life. But there is a day that its going to get better!” He reminds us to rejoice in the fact that we have Jesus, and an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, that will NEVER fade away! This is the hope believers have for the trials of life, when they come.
The second thing we should mourn over is sin. When Jesus says “blessed are those that mourn” he is talking mainly of repenting of sin. In our culture today, sin is a subject that is not dealt with, sometimes even in churches! Sadly enough, people believe in a bobble headed Jesus that bobs his head up and down to answer any question they may have. But sin is a serious matter. Sin is the reason Jesus had to step down out of the splendor of Heaven and be beaten brutally and then crucified upon the cross. As a believer when we sin, we should grive. To grieve is an ache that goes down to the bone. We should grieve because it was that sin that sent Jesus, our great God and Savior to the cross.
When we sin, we make little of the cross. Everytime we sin should think about what we’ve done. It was our sin that put him there. I heard an illustration used once where the speaker said, “everytime you sin, imagine that you are walking up to Jesus while he’s hanging bloodied on the cross, and you look him in the eye, and then spit into his face”. That is the magnitude of our sin. We spit in the face of him who died for us, everytime we sin. Think its not serious anymore? So Jesus says, mourn over your sin.
The great hope through this as believers is that our mourning will never go unnoticed. Christ promised that when he left, he would send us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit (Jn 14.16, 26; 15.26; 16.7). When we grieve over sin, or mourn over the trials of our life, as believers we have the Holy Spirit who if we repent, will forgive, or if we are “fighting the mist” we will be comforted. To end there are two quotes I’d like to leave you with. One is from pastor, Erwim McManus. He said, “there is a beautiful life to be found in the midst of sorrow.” There is an idea of depending on God with this life. To repent or be comforted means you have come once again to the end of your self, with the end result of joy. To this effect Matthew Henry comments on this verse (Matt. 5.4) saying, “the ultimate goal is the mountain of God, the mountain of joy, but you will have to go through a vale of tears to get there.”
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