Christian Character - They That Mourn

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The next beatitude is Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

It seems counterintuitive that someone who mourns is blessed.  To mourn means to lament or feel guilt.  Usually one mourns over a death or lost relationship or any number of losses of something important to them.  I believe we need some context here to understand what was being mourned.

In scripture (Luke 4:17-21) we read where after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He referenced the book of Isaiah and proclaimed that the scripture was fulfilled that day.

“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

It appears that he read from Isaiah 61:1-2.  If we look back in Isaiah we learn that Isaiah was talking about a time in the future, the time of the Messiah and the Church.  This is a continuation of what Isaiah was saying about great sin and great grace.  I believe it would take a discussion of the entire book of Isaiah to fully understand the context of the time and all that he was saying, but you can begin with chapter 59 and go from there to get a decent picture.

If we look at Isaiah 61:2-3 we get an idea of who are those that mourn:

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

In these verses, there are two distinctions of mourners; “…all that mourn…” and “…Them that mourn in Zion…” I believe that the former are those who mourn over any sorrow and look to God for comfort, but in the case of the latter, it would seem that they are ones who mourn in a holy way since they themselves have no troubles.

What are these two groups mourning or is it non-specific?  All people have experienced sorrow in their lives.  And those in Zion are not experiencing any type of loss so I don’t think we are talking generalities here.  God will only comfort His children who call upon Him.  Also, this part of Isaiah is dealing with great sin and great grace.  When considering these two points I believe that the mourning is for the sin that caused it.

I do not mean to imply that God would not comfort those who mourn over the loss of a loved one, or a relationship, or any number of things we feel important.  I believe He would and does.  But in the context of the Beatitudes and Isaiah, I don’t think we are talking about Jesus’s followers as people who mourn.  I think here we are talking about a specific mourning that destroys lives and separates us from God.

They that mourn are those who mourn because of what sin does.
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