The Beatitudes, Part 2: The Blessing of Holy Grief

Jesus' Wisdom in Beatitude #2

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4

"Break my heart for what breaks yours." From "Hosanna," by Hillsong United

Good Mourning

Few of us enjoy mourning, yet the truth is that spiritual poverty leads to godly sorrow. The world's philosophy is to put on a happy face and smile, smile, smile. Jesus is not talking about mourning over a loss, being sad that someone died, or that something terrible happened to us.

Jesus is speaking of mourning over sin. He's talking about godly sorrow. God weeps over our sins. We must also grieve over our sin, our sin as a community, and the world's sin. Mourning over sin includes grieving over injustice, immorality, racism rampant across our world, and all evil that dishonors our God. We must experience deep remorse over our and others' sins—even to the point of shedding tears.

I can't get over the sense that, as Christians in America today, we have a defective understanding of sin. We don't mourn over sin.

As Jesus-like mourners, we should mourn the greed, the cynicism, the perversion in our communities, and maybe we need to grieve that there aren't more mourners!

I am convinced I have not mourned enough over sin—mine and others. This mourning is the agonizing realization that my sin—our sins—nailed Christ to the cross.

Those who mourn will be comforted because our Father is the God of all comfort. He comforts us with total forgiveness. The gospel is about saving us from the horrendous guilt of our sins. If we never taste the sorrow of repentance, we will not feast on the comfort of salvation.

Have you ever felt deep remorse over your sins or the sins of others because they have dishonored God? Maybe God is convicting you to become poor in spirit or mourn over evil, or the next Beatitude may grab you.