Nuggets from the Word of God: Matthew 5:4

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” — Matt. 5:4

We live today in a world where “fun” is a synonym for “life.” Even in the church and among believers, “having a good time” is deemed the essence of satisfaction. I read but today the comment of a leader of a certain ministry aimed at seeking to reach youngsters with the gospel who said, “We try to make our program fun.” No doubt that is not all bad, and I am aware that the scripture says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” The question, of course, is how the heart is to be made “merry,” or “cheerful,” as another version renders it.

In any case, the text before us today approaches life from another perspective, as is often the case with the Savior’s teaching, and one reason why it is often unpopular. He declares, “Blessed are they that mourn…” That, it would seem, is the diametrical opposite of being “merry.”

The question in the previous beatitude is, does He mean to cite material poverty, or a humble disposition. I take the view that He is focusing particularly on a lowly disposition. Here a similar question arises; does He mean those who suffer some loss that grieves and saddens them, or those who are of a sorrowful temperament born of a sobering view of life as it is in the world today? Certainly the latter is to be preferred. If one were to choose the former, then we would have to conclude that every one who loses a loved one or experiences some other kind of disaster is “blessed,” which can hardly be His intent.

It is my judgment that the Savior is referring to those who see life as it really is, and as a result have a burdened heart for the consequences here and hereafter. To truly understand the human condition and where it is leading this present world is a sobering experience. The Savior Himself is described as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” a statement in which His temporal circumstances were undoubtedly in view. Only twice in the gospels is it mentioned that Jesus wept. One occasion was at the tomb of Lazarus. There He “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,” and subsequently “Jesus wept.” The assembly of the Jews who had come to mourn with Mary and Martha attributed His tears to a broken heart saying, “Behold how He loved him.” It is possible however, when the incident is seen in the whole context, that He really was weeping over the unbelief that injected so much sorrow into the situation, for shortly he said to Martha, “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” (See John 11:32-44)

The second account of Jesus’ weeping is over the city of Jerusalem.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation [Luke 19:41-44].

Clearly His mourning here is because of His insight into what was awaiting the city of Jerusalem down history’s road. And Jerusalem’s tragic future is but a picture of the future of this lost and dying world apart from Christ. The saddest thing in the world is not death, or the death of a loved one; it is to die without a Savior! For “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment [Heb. 9:27].” To believe and know this and watch this frivolous world playing its way to inevitable, eternal ruin, is a sobering experience. And they who perceive this are those who “mourn” in the spiritual sense. It makes “preachers of righteousness” like Noah who could foresee the flood coming, prepared an ark for the saving of his house and sought to warn those who in “the days that were before the flood…were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that [he] entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away.” That kind of ministry is heartbreaking for those who enter into it.

Those who are thus exercised will be like Moses who chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God” in Egypt, “for he had respect unto the recompence of reward [Heb. 11:25-26].” Those who thus “mourn” now will be comforted in the day of Christ’s appearing. Those whose focus now is to “eat, drink and be merry” will be the mourners in that day.