Page Two: “Blessed Are They That Mourn” 06/10/2012
Take Abraham mourning over the death of Sarah. There’s Jacob mourning over the death of Joseph. Joseph, though, hadn’t died, though. Rather, his brothers had sold him into slavery. David mourned over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan.
And the world around us is filled with this sort of loss. You and I have gone that way as well.
Yet, mourning is deeper. It grieves all our hearts for the fact that some dear friends, Rich and Kathy, have moved back to Maine. But when one of your family members dies; someone you have spent your entire life with, dies; there is a deeper, a more intense grief.
The term “mourn” is found just fifteen times in the NT. And of those fifteen times, it’s translated as “wailing” three times and as “sorrow” three times.
So, this is a deep mourning that Jesus is referring to here.
First, then, mourning is suffering when we experience a loss. Mourning is something that comes our way when we suffer a setback. That’s the term we find here in Matthew five.
Second, though, mourning is grief over our awareness of evil. Here’s where the ordinary millennial doesn’t understand the words of Jesus here. They can’t see how you can be blessed while you are mourning.
And here’s the answer. This is more than mourning over a personal loss. This is more than the experience of suffering. This is mourning over the evil that is so apparent in our world today.
The most obvious example of this is seen in the words of the Apostle Paul. Turn with me to II Corinthians chapter twelve. Look at verse twenty-one.
II Corinthians 12:21 “And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.”
Now, is it not obvious that this mourning in Paul’s heart, this wailing, is directly related to the evils of uncleanness, fornication and lasciviousness, and of which they have yet to repent?
And what this type of mourning produces is action. Paul bewailed. He mourned over those in the Church at Corinth who were involved in immorality and refused to repent and correct themselves.
This is the idea behind mourning as Jesus uses it in the Beatitudes. It’s a mourning over evil.
Yes, it’s true that each of us has suffered. Some of you here have suffered very deeply. But has anyone mourned over the evil, the sins, in your hearts and lives?
That kind of evil is an evidence of a heart that has the experience of Jesus’ type of blessedness.
Think about your own life here. Do you mourn the loss of a loved one and friend, yet refuse to deal with known sins? Do you mourn the fact of evil and its effects upon us? That sort of mourning takes on the quality of a godly mourning, doesn’t it?
Now you can see why the world has such a difficult time seeing how someone can mourn and yet be happy. It’s the happy ones who see the reality of their sin while at the same time seeing the work of Christ on behalf of that sin. Without this mourning, our world would be in even worse shape morally than it now is.
Jesus knows the power of mourning. He knows the effects evil has had on our society and our homes. Folks, those who choose this attitude, like all the attitudes of Matthew five, are choosing the attitudes that truly honor God.
First, then, mourning is suffering when we experience a loss.
And the world around us is filled with this sort of loss. You and I have gone that way as well.
Yet, mourning is deeper. It grieves all our hearts for the fact that some dear friends, Rich and Kathy, have moved back to Maine. But when one of your family members dies; someone you have spent your entire life with, dies; there is a deeper, a more intense grief.
The term “mourn” is found just fifteen times in the NT. And of those fifteen times, it’s translated as “wailing” three times and as “sorrow” three times.
So, this is a deep mourning that Jesus is referring to here.
First, then, mourning is suffering when we experience a loss. Mourning is something that comes our way when we suffer a setback. That’s the term we find here in Matthew five.
Second, though, mourning is grief over our awareness of evil. Here’s where the ordinary millennial doesn’t understand the words of Jesus here. They can’t see how you can be blessed while you are mourning.
And here’s the answer. This is more than mourning over a personal loss. This is more than the experience of suffering. This is mourning over the evil that is so apparent in our world today.
The most obvious example of this is seen in the words of the Apostle Paul. Turn with me to II Corinthians chapter twelve. Look at verse twenty-one.
II Corinthians 12:21 “And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.”
Now, is it not obvious that this mourning in Paul’s heart, this wailing, is directly related to the evils of uncleanness, fornication and lasciviousness, and of which they have yet to repent?
And what this type of mourning produces is action. Paul bewailed. He mourned over those in the Church at Corinth who were involved in immorality and refused to repent and correct themselves.
This is the idea behind mourning as Jesus uses it in the Beatitudes. It’s a mourning over evil.
Yes, it’s true that each of us has suffered. Some of you here have suffered very deeply. But has anyone mourned over the evil, the sins, in your hearts and lives?
That kind of evil is an evidence of a heart that has the experience of Jesus’ type of blessedness.
Think about your own life here. Do you mourn the loss of a loved one and friend, yet refuse to deal with known sins? Do you mourn the fact of evil and its effects upon us? That sort of mourning takes on the quality of a godly mourning, doesn’t it?
Now you can see why the world has such a difficult time seeing how someone can mourn and yet be happy. It’s the happy ones who see the reality of their sin while at the same time seeing the work of Christ on behalf of that sin. Without this mourning, our world would be in even worse shape morally than it now is.
Jesus knows the power of mourning. He knows the effects evil has had on our society and our homes. Folks, those who choose this attitude, like all the attitudes of Matthew five, are choosing the attitudes that truly honor God.
First, then, mourning is suffering when we experience a loss.