Jump Start # 3699

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

  The second of the beatitudes, the Lord is showing the nature and heart of kingdom citizens. Blessed is much too often defined as happy. That’s not the best word here. Our English concept of happiness is built around what happens. It’s hard to be happy when you have to run out to your car in a downpour and you get drenched. It’s hard to be happy when you are in a hurry and you can’t find your car keys. Those “moments” do not create happiness. Your favorite team loses, you’re not happy. The boyfriend breaks up with the girlfriend, not a happy moment.

  Our friend Mark Roberts, in his new book, “The Sermon on the Mount for everyone,” states that “blessed” means approved by God. I like that. One can feel blessed while running through a downpour. The rain is just for a moment. Approved of God lasts and endures. Even for a non-coffee drinker like me, Mark’s book is good.

  The beatitudes seem to be connected and in a specific order. One, naturally leads to the next. They begin with ‘poor in spirit.’ Bankrupt. Destitute. This has nothing to do with finances and everything to do with hearts. It’s about sin, God and us. Without God, we’ve got nothing. Even though a guy may have a garage full of cars, a pocket full of money and a belly full of food, he’s broke without God. Only God can help him.

  That flows into our verse today, the second beatitude, ‘Blessed are those who mourn.’ This is not about funerals, even though Solomon reminds us that there is value in going to the house of mourning. This is about sin. This ought to be our reaction to sin. It ought to break our hearts because we have broken God’s heart.

  Now, there is something implied within this beatitude. To miss it, is to miss this beatitude. Before one can mourn because of their sin, they must admit that they have sinned. Pointing fingers at others. Blaming others. Hiding behind excuses, will never create that broken and contrite heart that moves the Lord.

  Following the admission that we have done wrong, ought to be the expression, feelings that doing wrong bothers us. There’s many a person who will admit, “I shouldn’t say this…” but they are not bothered by that. They go ahead and say that. Or, “I know I probably shouldn’t do this,” but they go ahead and do it. And, they do not seem to be bothered by that.

  The mourning comes when we feel bad about what we have done. We have convinced ourselves that as long as no one gets hurt, it’s not so bad. As they say in a pick up game of basketball, ‘no blood, no foul.’ With that thinking, we only feel bad if we get caught or we have hurt someone. And, as long as we no longer feel bad, we will continue on that path of sin.

  Our concept of mourning, surrounds grief, tears, and sorrow. The crying widow. The crying parents. Standing with a long face looking at a grave, wishing things could be different. They won’t be. They can’t be. And, it’s that broken heart that causes one to feel terrible about what he has done to God. He has sinned.

  Our verse actually has two aspects to it. One is for us, and the other is for the Lord.

  First, we are blessed when we mourn. That’s our response to sin. Ashamed. Broken. Guilty. No excuse. No reason to justify it.

  Second, Jesus’ part is the comfort. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Jesus does that. He does that not by telling us, “everybody messes up.” Not by saying, “It’s ok.” It’s not ok. He comforts us by bringing salvation. The answer to the emptiness of a bankrupt spirit and a broken heart, is the salvation of the Lord. God forgives. God uses the broken and fixes them. God allows second chances.

 Notice the comfort follows the mourning. Without the mourning, there would be no comfort. We come to the Lord broken and needy. Rather than scolding us or tossing us out, the Lord opens His arms to take us in.

  Our culture has tried to lessen the seriousness of sin by coming up with words that seem acceptable. God doesn’t do that. We need to call adultery, adultery. We need to call lying, lying. Gossip is gossip. Drunkenness is drunkenness. We must speak plainly. We must speak as God does. Switching words only takes the sting out of sin. We don’t feel so bad. Everything is ok, we are told. We are no longer bothered by what we have done. And, there is no mourning.

  Approved of God are those who mourn. Their sadness over what they have done will lead to better choices, better living and better righteousness. Maybe we’d be a bit better off, if once in a while, we had a good cry over our poor choices and sins in our lives.

  It’s ok to mourn…something good will happen if you follow the Lord.

  Roger

Jump Start # 152 

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

  We continue our look at the beatitudes—the opening pithy statements of our Lord’s sermon on the mount. Jesus is defining the heart of the citizen’s of the kingdom of God. Our beatitude today is one that is greatly misunderstood. Most think Jesus is talking about mourning over the loss of a loved one. This is read at funerals and at the cemetery. There is no virtue in death, especially if the dead did not walk with Jesus. The mere fact that someone died is not a reason to rejoice or to consider oneself “blessed.” The truth be known, while preachers misuse this passage at the funeral, those in the audience feel cursed rather than blessed.

  We immediately think of physical death when we see the word “mourn.” Death is not the only time or subject that brings mourning. Paul told the Corinthians that they should have “mourned” about one of their members who was living immorally.

  You will see that the beatitudes are connected and linked together. There is an order about them. Jesus didn’t just randomly throw these out, but rather, He knew that one leads to the other. The poverty of spirit leads to one mourning that condition. Jesus is describing the realization that one is lost before God. This comes about after one humbly recognizes that he is broke spiritually before God. That condition causes him to mourn—it leads to him seeking God.

  The gentiles were described by Paul as “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Excluded…strangers…no hope…without God. What a terrible condition. When that hits a person, when they realize they are “poor in spirit” they mourn.

  We see this in the life of the prodigal son. When he came to his senses, when he realized the friends were gone, the money was gone, and no one was going to help him, he became poor in spirit. He felt empty, lost and lonely. It was then that he got up and returned home.

  Jesus calls such a condition, “blessed.” Blessed because they will be comforted. They will come to God humbly and find forgiveness through obedience and faith. We must not take away the experience of “mourning” for our sins. Guilt and shame breaks us. It should. This is good. But when we tell others, “It’s ok. We all make mistakes. You’ll be fine,” we take away the need to mourn. We lessen the pain of sin and often the journey to God doesn’t take place. David was a broken man after he became poor in spirit. His sin with Bathsheba was covered up. God uncovered it. No excuses. No trying to hide it. David begged for God’s forgiveness. Read Ps 51. Those are the words of a man who is mourning his lost condition with God.

  I wonder if we get this. I sometimes here folks nearly bragging about the old days when they could drink anyone under the table, or the glory days of one night stands, or the grand schemes of cheating on tests and doing wrong. Is there no shame? Is there no mourning what those things did to you and God?

  Paul summed up these first two beatitudes when he wrote, “for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation…” WITHOUT REGRET. No regrets in leaving the broken world of sin. No regrets in clinging to the hand of God. No regrets. The mourning, the shame, the guilt, the poverty of spirit is no place they want to return to. Blessed is such a man!

Roger