Happy are the Sad?

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

Here we go again with another seemingly paradoxical statement from our Savior as He continues with the best sermon that has ever been preached on earth. This verse has been used thousands of times during funerals to offer a word of hope to those who mourn at the loss of a loved one. I admit that I have also used this verse within the same context. However, this is not the primary intent of this verse.

The Greek word used here is (pentheo, mourn). Of the nine terms used for sorrow in the Bible this is by far the strongest. It carries with it the idea of deep inner agony, which may or may not be expressed by outward weeping, wailing, or lament. It is used mostly to describe the feelings of one dealing with a tragic loss of a loved one such as Jacob’s grief when he thought his son Joseph was killed by a wild animal (Gen 37:34). Or the grieving of the disciples before Jesus was raised from the grave (Mark 16:10).

Jesus is talking here, not about the mourning over the loss of a loved one, but the mourning we should experience over grieving the heart of God with our sins against him. However, it is the same type of passionate lament as we see ourselves the way God sees us and as we allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin.

William Barclay commenting on “blessed are those who mourn” reminds us that, “Christianity begins with a sense of sin. Blessed is the man who is intensely sorry for his sin, the man who is heart-broken for what his sin has done to God and to Jesus Christ, the man who sees the Cross and who is appalled by the havoc wrought by sin. It is the man who has that experience who will indeed be comforted; for the experience is what we call penitence, and the broken and the contrite heart God will never despise (Psalm 51:17). The way to the joy of forgiveness is through the desperate sorrow of the broken heart.”

This sorrow is not something we do solely upon conversion, but throughout our walk with Christ as we are burdened over our own bent toward sin and the sin of the world.

A young pastor visited Dundee, Scotland, shortly after Robert Murray McCheyne died at age thirty. Many people had come to Christ because of McCheyne’s ministry, and the visitor wanted to know the secret of his great influence. The old sexton of McCheyne’s church led the preacher into the rectory and showed him some of McCheyne’s books lying on a table. Then he motioned to the chair the evangelist had used, and said, “Sit down and put your elbows on the table.” The visitor obeyed. “Now put your head in your hands.” He complied. “Now let the tears flow; that’s what McCheyne did.” Next he led him into the church and said, “Put your elbows on the pulpit.” The visitor did. “Now put your face in your hands.” He obeyed. “Now let the tears flow; that’s what McCheyne used to do.”

Robert Murray McCheyne cried freely over his sins and over those of his people. By contrast, our emotions are often hardened toward sin. We need to be more sensitive to the convicting voice of God’s Spirit and more determined to live a separated life. We may rejoice in God’s forgiveness, but we should never be afraid to mourn for our sins. (Daily Bread)

Do you mourn over your sin? Men have, in all places and in all ages, deemed the prosperous and the gay to be the happy ones, but Christ pronounces blessed those who are poor in spirit and who mourn for “they” shall be comforted.

“Lord, let me weep for nought but sin,

And after none but thee;

And then I would-oh, that I might-

A constant mourner be!”

(C H Spurgeon)