A Weekly Word from Your Pastor
“Those Who Mourn”
Matthew 5:4
To be “poor in Spirit,” was to know our rightful place before the King of Kings. To “mourn” is to know the vileness of our sin and seek genuine repentance.
Often we read this beatitude as written for those who are bereaved. Yet this beatitude was not spoken for the bereaved, it was written for us all. When is the last time we have really cried out to God for forgiveness? Our sin is not something we talk about or acknowledge very often. We fail to recognize the seriousness of our sin. Yet Jesus is pointing out that the person who truly mourns over their sinfulness will be comforted.
There are many places where there is true mourning in the Bible. The greatest example is when Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. I wonder how often we have shed tears over our nation. I wonder how much we have mourned the lostness of family and friends and cities and towns. I wonder how much we genuinely care about the souls of others.
Yet we should also be mourning for our own sinfulness. Too often we are more impressed with grace than we are with forgiveness. Yet by grace we are forgiven. We have to be repentant to know the grace that provides forgiveness. John R. W. Stott in his book of the Sermon of the Mount says, "It is one thing to be spiritually poor and acknowledge it; it is another to grieve and to mourn over it.” There is no way we can know our rightful place before God without recognizing our sin and asking for forgiveness. And too often we take that forgiveness for granted. We don’t really take the time to remember what our sin did. It nailed Jesus to a cross. That should make us hate sin and abhor the fact that we were the reason He had to die.
So “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It is only the person who truly mourns for their sin that will find the comfort of Jesus by their side. We often want to side step the sin and move right to the grace, but it is impossible to forget what Jesus did.
To know the true comfort of God is to know that in spite of our sin, He has chosen to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is not because of anything we do, but because of what Jesus did. May we learn to mourn for our own sin and the sin of our world. May we see God comfort us like we have never been comforted.
Dear Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice. Help us to be truly repentant of our sin and mourn over them. I ask that you help us to care more deeply about the sins of our area and mourn over them so that they may become better places to live. Give us a desire to see all come to repentance and be comforted. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.