Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
The promise to the believer is the blessing of comfort in times of mourning. Who has felt blessed while mourning the loss of a loved one? Faith never calls us to a place where we deny reality. Jesus Himself agonized over the painful death he faced while praying in the garden of Gethsemane, before going to Calvary, as we can see in Matthew 26:36-38; Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
If those who mourn are not merely those in deep distress or sadness over hardship or loss. Then what is the context of this blessedness? Remember that Jesus is speaking to his close friends the disciples [No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15] whom he was teaching and preparing to enter into and proclaim His Kingdom. The question is, what does it mean to mourn in a spiritual context?
Jesus is teaching His disciples that we are blessed when we mourn over the things that separate us from God. To be more clear, He is talking about the honesty and humility that is rewarded in heaven by comfort, when we mourn the sin that so easily besets us. We receive comfort when we agree with God about the behavior in our lives that He calls sin. Too often the tendency is to somehow justify or even cover up those things that we know are transgressions. The preacher in Proverbs 28:13 says it well — He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Spiritual prosperity comes to us when we mourn the sin that separates us from God. It causes grief way down in our soul, which in turn, brings comfort from on high when we confess and forsake sin. This spiritual prosperity is denied when we cover the things that ought to make us mourn the loss of intimacy with the lover of our soul. Hear what the prophet Isaiah says about the Holy One who revives the soul of the contrite: For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
The High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, dwells with those of us who have a contrite and humble spirit, to revive our spirit and heart when we mourn before Him — we are blessed with comfort which comes from the Comforter. Why did David utter these words in Psalm 51:17 ? — The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise. David had a breakthrough after he repented by first acknowledging his sin, and then receiving comfort from heaven, which is never withheld from those who come to God with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. [see Psalm 51:1-4 to gain insight on what broke David’s heart and caused him to be of a contrite spirit]
Don’t carry the burden of sin, it is too heavy. Just know that you are blessed when you mourn, and you shall be comforted and not despised. God loves us, and He wants us clean so that we can be vessels of honor, fit for the Masters use. Blessed are those who Mourn.
Maranatha
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