Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).
Mourning is more than being sad, feeling guilty, or having regret, and it isn’t limited only to dealing with the death of a loved one. We can mourn over what we thought our life would be, missed opportunities, broken relationships, or any number of things. I’ve always considered this verse in terms of mourning over sin, personally or corporately, but what is Jesus referring to? Is it mourning over Israel’s cycle of unfaithfulness to God, or more specifically, Jesus’s audience mourning over their loss of freedom under the Roman occupation? The context could also be the disciples’ mourning over their former lives, working through the process of leaving behind everything they had previously known before choosing to follow Jesus. Maybe it’s purposefully not clear, but what is: after a time of mourning, they will be comforted.
One commentary explains the first two beatitudes in a way I’ve never thought of before. Being poor in spirit, or acknowledging our spiritual poverty, leads to mourning over it. A financially poor person knows intellectually that they can’t pay the power bill or afford groceries. That they are poor is an intellectual fact. The emotional aspect is the person processing this fact and its implications. The first beatitude is accepting the fact of our spiritual poverty, while the second beatitude is processing our grief over that fact through mourning. 1
I learned a new word recently from one of my daughters, who is reading Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. ‘Lugubrious’ means ‘mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner’. 2 Mourning is not “playing the part” of a repentant sinner by displaying exaggerated emotions; it’s the reality of being dismal and mourning over our sin or situation. The good news: those who don’t ignore their grief but work through the process of mourning will be comforted.
- How have you received comfort from the Lord when mourning?
- In what ways have you felt stuck in your grief?
Pray Scripture
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Holy Spirit, help us recognize our tendencies and patterns of sin. Give us the courage to process our grief, not to stay there in self-pity, but to repent and accept your salvation and forgiveness. Thank you for mending our hearts when we come to you with our grief.
Footnotes
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 17.
- Dictionary.com, s.v. “Lugubrious,” accessed June 9, 2024, http://dictionary.reference.com.
