The Mourners
“Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
The Lord Jesus uses the word “mourn” to describe those who feel the effects and consequences of living in a suffering world. We mourn when we lose someone we love. And we also mourn over other painful experiences, regrets and mistakes. It is not something we feel only in our own circumstances, but also in those of others. It is possible to travel through the world desensitised to its suffering and distress. But such an attitude should not characterise Christians. The Lord never walked through the world in this way. He was “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), because He felt our needs in His heart.
Mourning is a genuine experience, and it causes us to pause, reflect and learn. In Psalm 69:20 we read of Christ:
Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.
Yet we discover that God is the source of comfort. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter (John 14:16, AV). In Acts 9:31 we read: “The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” The Epistle to the Romans teaches us about the comfort of the Scriptures: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4). We are also comforted through the ministry of God’s word (1 Corinthians 14:3).
God is the God of all comfort, and through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit He ministers to us in circumstances which cause us to mourn. In addressing our distress, He not only comforts us and strengthens us to carry on, but also wants us to become comforters: “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 tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
Mourning is not a fruitless experience. Through it we face the sorrows and pain of life, and, as 2 Corinthians 1 explains, it has a refining effect upon us. By knowing the presence and power of the God of comfort, we can be transformed into those who can comfort and support others in their sufferings.
The Lord Jesus describes His ministry in Luke 4:18-19 by quoting Isaiah 61:1-2a. This passage goes on to say:
“To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (v. 3).
Mourning is not a destination; it is a part of a journey that leads to the day when “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4, AV).
