(Part 2 of a series of 9 articles on the Beatitudes)
by Pastor Paul Wolff
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| “Blessed are those who mourn” Photo from a Mosaic in the Saint Louis Cathedral in St. Louis, Missouri |
In the second beatitude in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) Just like the other beatitudes, no one ever asks to mourn, yet it happens all too often. In general, we mourn at any kind of a loss, but mostly we associate mourning with the sadness we feel at the death of a loved one – a relative or a friend. These are proper occasions for mourning since those who die are lost to us who remain here on earth. Death is certainly a great enemy, and the losses we experience through death are the tragic result of sin. We also mourn sin and all of its consequences, including death. We mourn when others sin against us, but we also mourn when each of us recognizes that our own sin hurts our neighbors, and we rightly feel guilt that we have caused trouble to someone to whom we should have done good works, and not evil. We realize that each one of us is part of the problem, and that is a humbling thing to recognize, though often difficult to accept.
The problem with death which causes us to mourn is that it is permanent. There is no coming back from death as far as it is in our power. Sometimes people will say that they “died” when their heart stopped for a short time, but whenever someone has been revived from that situation it is clear that they weren’t dead, but they were dying. There comes a point, however, when a person cannot be revived, and is lost to us in this life. The comfort we have in Jesus is that He has overcome the power of death for all people. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25) He is the solution to death.
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| The loving father mourned over his prodigal son, but was comforted by his repentance and return. |
In Jesus we receive comfort in our mourning and rescue from death. Saint Paul wrote, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord.” (Romans 6:23) Death comes as a result of sin, and only Jesus can rescue us from sin and death. Jesus is the holy and perfect Son of God in human flesh. When He offered His life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, God the Father accepted His death as payment for the sins of all people of all time. Because of this, Jesus has conquered death for all people. On the last day, when Jesus returns in Glory and Power, all the dead will be raised never to die again. The believers will be raised in eternal glory because they gladly received Christ’s forgiveness in faith as a gift that was given to them. The unbelievers will be raised to unending mourning and torment because they rejected Christ’s gift of forgiveness and the guilt of their sin remains with them forever.
This is why Jesus is also saying in the Beatitudes that those who mourn over their sin are blessed because they recognize the guilt of their sin and repent of it and look to Him for forgiveness and salvation, and trust that He will make everything right in the end. That is where we are comforted. Jesus also taught, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7) That joy in heaven is not only the angels and the saints, but God, Himself, has joy over the repentant sinner because God has worked hard to win our salvation, and it gives Him joy that we receive His salvation as the greatest gift that He gives us. Jesus endured the wrath of God the Father for the sins of the world, so that we might escape that wrath (which we deserve because of our sinfulness), and receive full forgiveness through Jesus. We will also be reunited with all believers in God’s heavenly kingdom through the resurrection of all flesh and the glorification of all who, by faith, belong to God and are adopted as His children. (see my article: “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”)
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| We mourn at the graves of loved ones, but we are comforted in the hope of the resurrection. |
Saint Paul writes, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) Saint Paul reminds the Christians in Corinth that godly mourning over our sin and its consequences leads to repentance. We should mourn over our sin, lest we get too comfortable with it and enjoy it too much and despise Christ’s salvation. “Godly grief” leads to repentance which leads us to trust in Christ to forgive us and save us from our sin. The opposite of that is worldly grief which does not lead to repentance. The unbelievers in the world grieve when the consequences of sin are manifest and they are stopped from the guilty pleasure they take from wicked acts. This worldly grief leads to death because they mourn the pleasures and profits of sin rather than look to Jesus to save them from their sin.
In Matthew 11:16-19 Jesus points out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who condemned John the Baptist for being too ascetic and austere in his lifestyle, while they condemned Jesus for being too free in His eating and drinking. In this passage, Jesus makes a distinction between worldly people and godly people. He compares worldly people to taunting children in the marketplace who say, “We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn.” (v. 17) (Note: A dirge is a song of sadness and mourning like one sung at a funeral.) The world rejoices in sin and evil, but Christians cannot join them in their celebrations over such things. The world holds parades for sexual immorality and murder and theft and lies, and makes a big show of giving awards to people who practice and approve such things. They also condemn God’s people for not joining in with their wicked celebrations. So we mourn over wickedness and evil when the world celebrates. On the other hand, the world mourns when justice is done and evil people get what is coming to them, and they are prevented from continuing in their sin. In this case God’s people rejoice in His justice and the rescue they enjoy from God’s hand as their tormentors are punished and stopped from persecuting good people.
The Pharisees wanted the Christ to come and recognize their imagined righteousness and lift them up as leaders and co-rulers with Him. When He called them to repent (like all the other sinners) they resented it (thinking they were already holy) and they hated Jesus and plotted to kill Him (see John 11:53 and 12:10). The Pharisees did not mourn over their sins, though they didn’t exactly rejoice over their sins like much of the world does. Instead the Pharisees tried to cover up their sins and hide them and pretended that they were holy in all that they did.
Jesus explained to His disciples what was going to happen when He would be arrested and crucified. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:20-22) This is exactly what happened when Jesus was arrested, convicted in a prejudicial show trial, crucified, and rose from the dead. This is also prophetic (in a typological sense) about Christians mourning in anticipation of Christ’s return on the Last Day for judgment. We weep and lament over sin and death in this life as we await the complete fulfillment of our salvation, but when Jesus returns in Glory we will rejoice in unending praise for our God who has done so much to save us.
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| Jesus mourned with Mary and Martha at the grave of Lazarus, but Jesus brought comfort by raising Lazarus back to life. |
Jesus mourns at various times in His life. In Luke 13 Jesus mourns over Jerusalem. Jesus says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:34-35) Jesus doesn’t mourn only because they are going to kill Him and treat Him shamefully, but mostly because they have largely rejected Him as their savior and God and many will lose the salvation He goes there to win for them. Jesus also mourns the death of a friend, Lazarus, in John 11. Even though Jesus is planning on raising Lazarus back to life, the death of a friend still makes Jesus weep for sorrow.
The blessing that Christians receive for their mourning over sin is that they will be comforted. We are first comforted through the forgiveness of our sins that we receive from Jesus. Jesus sends us His Holy Spirit to bring His forgiveness to us through God’s Word and Sacraments. This comforts us because we know that the guilt of our sins have been paid for by Jesus, and we are freed from the punishment that is due to us because of our disobedience. Jesus has reconciled us with God by paying for our sins Himself through His death on the cross. God, the Father poured out His anger over our sins on Jesus when He was dying on the cross. Jesus remained faithful and endured God’s wrath, and died in our place. We are comforted that God has no more anger left for us because of what Jesus did for us.
Saint Paul writes of Christ’s comfort in his second letter to the Corinthians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) The comfort that we receive from Christ in the forgiveness of our sins, and the promise of eternal life in God’s Paradise, gives us empathy for the suffering of others in this world. As we have been comforted, so we can turn people to Jesus so that they, too, may receive God’s comfort, forgiveness, and assurance of eternal salvation.
We are further comforted when we mourn the loss of loved ones because we know that Jesus has defeated the sting of death by dying for our sins. The resurrection of Jesus is just the first of many. When Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead He will raise all the dead, and all believers in Jesus will live forever in comfort with an “uncountable” number of fellow children of God (see Revelation 7:9) who have received God’s salvation through faith in Jesus. Christ’s salvation is free, and available to all through faith, but those who reject Jesus have rejected their salvation and do not receive the blessings and comfort that is given to them through Jesus Christ. Yet, we are comforted to be reunited with fellow believers to live forever in God’s heavenly kingdom.
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| Because Jesus has conquered sin and death He comforts us and tells us that, for the Christian, death is no worse than sleeping. Jesus will come and awaken us from the sleep of death, and give us eternal life. |
Saint Paul gives the Thessalonian Christians the reason for hope when they grieve those who have died. He writes, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) Our comfort in times of mourning is in the resurrection of all flesh. Jesus will return on the last day and raise all the dead, and we will be reunited with our brothers and sisters in the faith, and united with Christ forever. This is our ultimate hope, and our comfort in this life when we mourn those who are lost to us here.
Saint James reminds us that there is a time for mourning and a time for joy. He writes, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:8-10) Here we see again, that our comfort is something that comes from God, just like everything else in life. We mourn the losses we experience in this sinful life, but trust in God for comfort and restoration, just as we trust in God for forgiveness, life, and daily bread.
Though we have comfort in this life in the hope of the resurrection, the fulfillment of our comfort must wait until the last day when Christ returns to fulfill all He has promised. Saint John saw a vision of this in the Revelation that Christ gave him. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) Our hope lies in the complete destruction of death and the restoration of God’s people as He wants us to be – holy and immortal in God’s heavenly kingdom.
“… the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Other articles in this series:
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Blessed are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth
Blessed are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, for They Shall be Satisfied
Coming soon:
Blessed are the Merciful, for They Shall Receive Mercy
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