Sermon in FFMC: "Blessed are those who mourn" (12/2/17)

By way of introduction it’s worth noting some things about the Beatitudes:
1. Some translations use the term “happy” instead of “blessed”. The difference between blessedness and happiness is that the latter is a subjective state of emotion – how you see yourself and how you feel, whereas blessedness is how God sees you, and we know which one really counts!

2. The 8 Beatitudes are to be taken as a unity. The characteristics of the blessed as well as the nature of the blessings experienced refer to the same group of people. For instance, those who are poor in spirit are not a different group from those who mourn. Those who inherit the earth are the same as those who will receive mercy. So the Beatitudes are for Christians, not for non-Christians. Only believers can truly mourn in a way that is blessed. This rules out psychological or social interpretations of this verse.

3. The question may be asked: Are the Beatitudes a description of blessedness of Christians who already have these characteristics, or a requirement for Christians to follow in order to obtain blessing. Are you blessed if you are already a mourner, or are you being encouraged to mourn? The answer is: “both”. That is, Christian life is always a process of becoming that which we already are (1 Co 5:7). The Beatitudes teach us about the inner state we are to have, as well as the outflow in actions and speech of the heart that pleases God.

4. So the Beatitudes tell us about the reality of the Christian life now and also as something that will be in the future. Jesus says that now, there is  unfulfillment, but there is also a promise of fulfillment in time to come.

I want to talk about three aspects of mourning today:

1. The paradox of mourning

Last week Pastor Daniel  said that the Beatitudes are “profound and paradoxical”. The second beatitude is perhaps the most profound and paradoxical of all. We could almost translate it “Happy are those who are unhappy!” The beatitude is about “good grief”. It is difficult to grasp this idea of grief being good because much of what non-Christians and secular culture does is to try to minimize pain and maximise pleasure. We don’t want to think about and feel mournful. We tend to think that suffering should be avoided as much as possible. Then Jesus comes and tells us that those who mourn in fact have more reason to be happy that those who do not! Of course this would be nonsense unless we understand that blessing and grief are not opposed. God’s favour rests on those who feel a certain kind of grief. When we become Christians, something happens to us through the Holy Spirit that overturns all our previous ideas of what is joyful and what is sad. 1 Corinthians 7:30 says “The time is short. Those who mourn, (should live) as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;”. We no longer think like non-Christians about grief and mourning.

2. The nature of mourning

Perhaps we can get an insight into what mourning means by asking ourselves - when was it the last time you grieved? When was the last time you cried? Perhaps it was at the funeral of a loved one. Perhaps it was at the news that you had cancer. Others may have mourned the loss of a job or a business opportunity. Some mourn a broken friendship or loss of a marriage. Some mourn the loss of reputation. Some mourn the loss of youth or beauty. All these experiences are united by a sense of loss. The greater the loss, the greater the grief. Mourning is proportional to loss.Loss depends on what we value. We no longer think like non-Christians about grief and mourning because our values have changed.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus is not talking about earthly, physical grief. He is talking about spiritual grief. Remember that this is a grief only Christians can feel. This is a grief only God can give you, because it is a part of His nature. The more godly you are, the more you are filled with and led by the Spirit, the greater your spiritual grief.

•        Samuel deeply mourned the sin and failure of an individual - King Saul (1 Samuel 16:1)

•        Ezra mourned the spiritual unfaithfulness of his people (Ezra 10:6)

•        Nehemiah mourned the troubles and disgrace of exiles and of the city of Jerusalem far away from where he was living (Neh 1:4). Jerusalem was a the religious heart of the nation, the focus of the faith of Israel. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. (Is 66:10). The modern counterpart of the idea of Jerusalem for God’s people would be the local and universal Church.

•        The people returning from Babylonian exile mourned because they were convicted of their corporate sin by the reading of God’s Word (Neh 8:9)

•        Paul mourned his personal struggles with sin In Romans 7. He mourned the unbelief of his own Jewish people in Romans 9.

We must learn to mourn our own sin. We must learn to mourn sin of others so even in our anger at the evil they do there is some pity for them. We must mourn the weaknesses and failures of the Church of God. This mourning must lead us to self-examination and prayer. There must be a tenderness and brokenness in our hearts. We must mourn because God mourns. As the song says, “Break my heart with what breaks Yours”. Remember – all of God’s commands are consistent with His own nature and actions. The greatest mourner of all is the One who perfectly represented His Father. Scripture tells us that Jesus wept (Jn 10:35). He was a “Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Is 53:3)

3. The benefits of godly mourning

I will mention four.

1. Mourning corrects a defective view of sin.

We do not grieve over what we really need to grieve over. We grieve over temporal things. We grieve over the fact that we are punished, rather than the truth we are wrong. We grieve at the pain we feel from our sin, not at the pain we have caused God. God wants us to learn to grieve over eternal things. We do not hate sin enough. We do not see it’s ugliness and corrupting power. This is because we have not glimpsed with sufficient clarity how holy God is and how absolute His hatred for anything sinful is. Sin is a murderer that deceives and then kills us (Ro 7:11), Sin is the rotting corpse of death bound to our bodies (Ro 7:24). Sin is hateful, random terrorist warfare within our bodies (Ro 7:21). Sin is the cruel master that forces us to do his wicked will (Ro 6:19). Think of the thing you are most disgusted by – cockroaches? Caterpillars? Rats?  Spiders? The American pastor and theologian John piper says sin is like fondling a brooch around the neck in the dark, and finding that it is a cockroach when the lights come on. Brothers and sisters - God’s hatred for sin made the horror of the Cross necessary. Conviction must precede conversion. True joy requires true grief.

 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” (Jo 2:12) 

2. Mourning corrects a defective view of joy.

There is a type of Christianity that denies the reality of suffering. We have been told not to engage in “negative confession”, but only to dwell on happy thoughts. This beatitude teaches us that a light, superficial view of life -a “rah-rah” attitude - is not the calling for a Christian. Christian joy does not depend on easy answers, clichéd responses and  false smiles. We are called to a sober joy.  Ecclesiastes 7:4 teaches us that, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.” In fact, in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes Jesus is even more explicit about false joys. He says in Lk 6:21 “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh”, contrasting it to 6:25 “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep”. Even James in 4:9 tells his hearers to “turn laughter to mourning and joy to gloom.”

Yet the Christian should be sorrowful but not miserable or morose. We are not to be sour-faced wet blankets. Paul gives the balance:  “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” (2 Co 6:9-10). The fact that God calls His people to be a mourning people and not just to be a joyful people tells us that mourning is not opposed to joy. Our mourning must be a joyful mourning. Our joy must be a mournful joy, and this must be the case this side of heaven. I know this is stereotyping, but it can be the case that older people get cynical, critical and grumpy. Younger people, on the other hand, can be shallow and superficial. Brothers and sisters, we need Biblical balance!  Depth of both grief and joy is needed. Remember that though our Lord Jesus was a “Man of sorrows”, he “for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Heb 12:2).

3. Mourning opens us to the intimacy of fellowship with Christ.

Many times, we are told that there is a spiritual identification with Christ when we suffer as He suffers.

“ For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor 1:4-6). Also. Paul wants to be found in Christ, “...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (Phil 3:9-11)

This teaches us, then, the requirement to receive the blessing of the beatitude. If we do not grieve with Christ, we will not rejoice with Him. If we do not know what it means to sorrow over your sins, we will not experience the joy of sin forgiven by grace. If you do not know what it means to feel pain over the sin of the world and of other people, you will not feel comfort when God does His work of healing and restoration. 

4. Mourning lifts our eyes to final judgement.

The ultimate blessing of those who mourn over their sin is found in the fact that in heaven there will be no sin. The day is coming when there will be no more shame, no more misgivings, no more duplicity and no more guilt. Our motives and speech and actions will be completely pure. Not only will we ourselves be pure, but we will live in eternity with those who are similarly purified.

Those who mourn over the sin of the world will rest in the fact that God will make everything wrong in this world right. Every injustice not forgiven at the Cross – every terrorist act, every abuse of political power, every persecution of Christians, every blasphemy against the character or God, every act of corporate greed, every unkind word, every one of these and more will be fully answered in judgement . No one will thumb his nose at God and get away with it. There is a hell for the wicked. We will be fully satisfied by the justice of God. His Kingdom will come! His will be done!

So let us be a mourning people. Let us hate our sin and mourn over it. Let us grieve over the sin of the world and be God's agents to heal it. Let us walk in fellowship with Christ and share in His suffering, and let us look forward to heaven when we will mourn no longer.

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