If you know me then you know that I love both to hear and to tell jokes! I always try to keep a few jokes in my mind to use just in case the opportunity arises because I love to both laugh and make other people laugh. In fact, Sue will tell you I have a sort of “built in joke radar” that is always scanning in search of something humorous something that might bring a grin. And, if you’ve heard me preach long enough, then you know I often begin my sermons with some form of humor-a funny story or a joke that fits the theme of my message and hopefully gets your attention.
But I’m not going to do that today because frivolity in any form would just not fit the theme. It would be woefully out of place. Let me put it this way: my humor radar sees nothing on its scope, because today as we come to the third installment in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we come to a text that is literally no laughing matter. I’m referring to Matthew 5:4 where Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Now, I think when Jesus made this statement someone in the crowd that was sitting on the side of that grassy hill that day laughed out loud because he assumed Jesus was jesting. Perhaps he thought Jesus was beginning His sermon with a joke. In Luke’s reporting of this part of Jesus’ message, he gives what I think was Jesus’ response to the laughter of this individual. Our Lord says, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:25) I’m sure when Jesus said this everyone, beginning with this individual who now realized he had put his foot in his mouth, realized Jesus was not kidding. It hit them that they had heard Him right. He had actually said that people who mourn are blessed people-happy people-fortunate people-people who are to be congratulated.
Now, if you’ve been here for the past two sermons, you know we’ve done a lot of Greek study in this series on the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve learned that the word we translate as “blessed” or “happy” is pronounced, “makarios” in Greek and that it refers to some who is to be congratulated because of their invulnerable joy, a kind of joy that is not affected by the trials and tribulations of life. The next week we added two more Greek words to our vocabulary: “penEEs” which referred to very poor people who work but earn just enough to get by and “ptokos” a Greek word that means desperately poor-begging poor. With this understanding of Greek vocabulary under our belt, we learned that in His sermon Jesus was describing someone who realized they were absolutely destitute in a spiritual sense-hopelessly bankrupt if it weren’t for God’s grace.
Well, today as we come to verse 4 we add a third word, “pentheo” – and it is a word that basically means “to mourn.” But that two-word definition doesn’t really suffice because, as we have learned already, getting at the complete meaning of a Greek word is never a simple thing. So let me give you some additional information that will help make sure you fully understand what Jesus was saying here.
There are nine different Greek words in the New Testament for sorrow or mourning, and “pentheo” is the strongest one of them all. In Jesus’ day “pentheo” was used to describe the most heart-felt grief an individual could experience-a deep sorrow that caused the soul to ache and the heart to break. I mean, this Greek word carried the idea of deep inner agony-agony that could not be held in-agony that expressed itself in outward sobbing and weeping and wailing. For example, “Pentheo” was used to describe the audible mourning of someone grieving over the death of a loved one. Here’s some Biblical examples to show you what I mean.
In the Septuagint-an early Greek version of the Old Testament-“pentheo” is the word used to describe Jacob’s grief when he was told that his son Joseph was dead. (Genesis 37:34)
It’s also the word used in Mark 16:10 to describe the response of Jesus’ followers after His crucifixion where it says, “Those who had been with Jesus were mourning and weeping.”
The Message paraphrases this first part of Matthew 5:4 like this, “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you ”
J. B. Phillips puts it this way, “How happy are those who know what sorrow means!”
Well, do you see now why humor would be an inappropriate way to introduce this message? It just wouldn’t fit because today my message focuses on intense grief and sorrow.
We’re talking about the blessedness of heartfelt mourning. And before we go any further, let me share with you some basic facts about sorrow that leads to mourning, facts that will help us fully appreciate this part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
A. The first thing I need to point out is the fact that this is a hard verse for many people to understand because mourning is not always considered a virtue in our culture.
I mean everything in our society opposes the spirit of this particular beatitude. Our world embraces joy and happiness-but not mourning and sorrow. In fact, popular songs say as much. See if you can complete these lyrics for me. Let’s begin with an oldie. Who remembers this one and can finish it?
“What’s the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile. So pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and: smile, smile, smile.”
Here’s another more familiar “tune”: “Don’t worry: be happy!”
And then, what were the words from Disney’s The Lion King? ” No worries for the rest of your days. It’s the problem-free philosophy-Hakuna Matata.”
Well, these songs and others like them reflect the mindset of our culture. These days people seek entertainment and pursue pleasure at all costs. I mean, most of life is spent avoiding, not embracing, sorrow.
Have you noticed that even when we get bad news on TV, the newscasters say it with a sort of lilt in their voice and then quickly segue to a funny story or something designed to make us smile? I mean, the mantra of many these days is exact opposite of this beatitude. Most of us believe, “Blessed are those who laugh their way through life.” Tony Campolo once made the observation that in many of the world’s cultures, parents raise their children with the mind set to be successful, to work hard, and achieve. In other nations children are taught the value of studying and diligently preparing for the future. But, as Campolo observed, American culture is altogether different. More than anything we want our children to avoid difficulty and hardship and be happy. Think of it. How many times have kids asked their parents what they should do with their lives, and parents have responded, “Do whatever makes you happy!” Why not? After all it’s in the founding document of our nation, the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We live in a culture that has made the pursuit of happiness its chief goal in life. I mean, we’re pleasure mad. We avoid problems. We run from difficulties. We despise troubles. We don’t want to deal with things that make us unhappy. Life is hard enough as it is. Our society says, “Forget your troubles. Turn your back on them. Do everything you can not to face them. Sorrow is bad; happy is good. Things are bad enough as they are without you going to look for trouble. So don’t mourn. Don’t worry. Be happy.”
Do you see what I mean? One reason the message of this beatitude is hard for us to grasp is because we don’t like to mourn-to us it’s not a virtue, it’s a curse!
B. A second thing I want to point out is that when we do mourn we are indicating what is truly important to us.
I mean we tend to grieve and weep and mourn only over the things that are most precious to us-so in essence our grieving displays our values in life. Think about it. When we go to one of our kid’s soccer games and a player get’s hurt, the game stops and a hush falls over the crowd. People put their hands over their mouths in shock and worry because of course the well-being of that young player is important to us. We “mourn” over their injury.
Here’s another example from my own experience. I remember shortly after 9-11, the firemen in Olney were raising money for the families of the victims. They had fire fighters stationed at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Rt 108 with their boots out so that motorists could donate. I was coming back from a hospital visit a few days after the attacks and came upon that intersection. When I saw those quiet heroes from our community I was suddenly overcome with grief and I cried as I emptied my wallet in the boot and said to the fireman, “I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.” I wasn’t the only one leaving that intersection in tears-or other intersections like it across our nation. We all mourned over what happened on 9-11 because those people who suffered were important to us. Their loss affected us all deeply. We mourned because we valued their lives.
C. And then one final fact I want to mention is this. The things we mourn over show our maturity level.
I mean, little children will laugh at things that seem foolish to us and cry over matters that seem trivial to us “old people.”
This week I read about a terrible train accident in Great Britain that killed a number of passengers several years ago. In one of the cars there was a mother with a little child in her arms and the mother was dead but the child was unharmed. When the rescuers took the child away from the dead mother, the child laughed and played; but when they took away her candy, she broke into a terrible tantrum of weeping and screaming. The fact that her mother was dead did not bother the child because she knew nothing about death-she wasn’t old enough-mature enough to do so. But she did know about candy. So she cried when it was taken from her. Do you see what I mean? The things we mourn over indicate our maturity.
Well, let me pause and ask: what do you mourn over? What bothers you most in life? Do you mourn over truly important things? Would you say your mourning indicates that you are mature or childish?
Okay, with the basics out of the way, let’s take a close look at this verse. Jesus said, “Blessed-supremely happy-to be congratulated-are those who ‘pentheo.’ Blessed are those who mourn deeply-visibly-for they will be comforted.” Now, what kind of mourning was Jesus referring to? What is our Lord saying we should mourn over in this part of His sermon?
Well, I think He was referring to not one but at least three things-three kinds of mourning we should not avoid, no matter what our culture says-three values we should embrace-three sources of grief that should be found in all truly mature people.
(1) First, Jesus is saying that we should lament the losses of life.
In other words we should grieve and mourn over things like illness and job loss and death. Jesus is saying that this kind of mourning is a blessed thing-a good thing.
As your pastor, I know that some of you have gone through or are even now going through some very serious health issues that make you afraid of the future. Some of you have experienced relational ruptures with a friend or loved one and it’s eating your heart out. Many of us have lost family members or friends to death recently or fear we will do so in the near future. The fact is all of us in this church family know what it is to cry and mourn and lament over the inevitable losses of life. We can all relate with the words of Psalm 6:6 where it says, “I am worn out from groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.” And I believe that one thing Jesus is saying in this verse is that this kind of mourning is a good thing. You see, God made us able to weep. He designed our emotional and physical systems to interact such that we can “vent” our fears and anxieties by mourning. Grief over things like this-grief that leads us to cry-is therapeutic. It’s good for us.
Doctors and psychologists say that weeping releases a healing process in a person’s life that enables him to accept the pain, work his way through it, and adjust to life again. They also say that when we don’t mourn-when we hold pain and anxiety in-we poison our system.
In the Bible we read that the heroes of the faith didn’t make this mistake. They didn’t avoid visible grief. They didn’t hold it in! No, they mourned over the natural losses of life. For example Abraham wept when his wife died. David wept when Absolom, his rebellious son, was killed in battle. Paul wept when he said farewell to his friends from Ephesus, and they wept right along with him. As Ecclesiastes 3 says, “To every thing under heaven there is a season, a time to be born, and a time to die a time to weep and a time to laugh.”
And you know, mourning is not only physically and emotionally therapeutic. It is also a great teacher. Through it we learn things we would not learn otherwise. Ironically sorrow increases our appreciation of joy. It adds spice to life.
You know, the Arabian people have a proverb that says, “All sunshine makes a desert.” Well, as people who live in the desert they know better than anyone else that the land on which the sun always shines will soon become an arid place in which no fruit will grow-and they are right. There are certain things which only rain will produce and in a similar way there are certain experiences which only sorrow and mourning can generate.
Think of it. When we go through sorrowful times we learn how kind people can be. The mourning times of life also show us how wonderful good times really are. I mean mourning makes us truly grateful for the blessings of life. The fact is when things go well, it’s possible for us to live on the surface of things but when sorrow comes we begin to truly understand the important things-the precious things– the deep things of life. I mean, pain teaches us principles we could never learn from pleasure. One poet put it this way,
I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser for all she had to say.I walked a mile with Sorrow, and ne’er a word said she,
But, oh, the things I learned from her, when Sorrow walked with me.
But perhaps the best benefit of the inevitable sorrows of life-the main reason mourning over them is a blessed thing-is because often they push us closer to God. I will testify that I have found that God draws especially close to me in the tough times of life. When my heart is breaking over something, I can almost feel the arm of my Heavenly Father around my shoulders. And this lines up with the teachings of the Bible. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses. Isaiah 53:34 says Christ took up our infirmities and carries our sorrows. Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” In fact, Psalm 56:8 says that God collects every tear we shed. Did you know that? It says, “Oh God, You number my wanderings; You put my tears in a bottle.”
These verses proclaim the reassuring fact that God cares about our sorrows! He draws close in our times of mourning. He comforts us in these times. So, when you feel like crying, go on your knees and let the tears fall. Adults, run to our Heavenly Father the way you ran to your earthly parents when you skinned your knee. Run to God and cry out to Him because He understands! He cares, and He will provide you with a form of comfort and that is indeed a blessed experience. As the Psalmist who had obviously done this put it, “God, You have turned my mourning into dancing, You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.” (Psalm 30:5a, 11)
So, mourning can be a blessing because it can push us closer to God. And in fact, some times it takes crisis to motivate us to decide to follow Jesus in the first place. John R. W. Stott, the minister of All Souls Church in London, once conducted a poll of his congregation to find out what actually caused his members to decide to become Christians. He was surprised to find that a majority listed as the greatest single factor, a feeling of personal desperation, a sense of being at the end of their resources. A time of blessed mourning drove them to faith in Jesus!
So, mourning, lamenting over the losses of life can indeed be a blessed thing-a thing that enables us to experience the comfort of God.
(2) A second kind of mourning Jesus was referring to here-a second thing He was saying mature believers should do-is cry over the condition of others.
He was saying that mourning for the suffering of other people is a good thing-a blessed thing. I mean, as I just said, God comforts us in our times of mourning-but He doesn’t want that comfort and compassion to stop. In essence, He wants us to recycle it. He wants us to be a conduit of the comfort we have received-to someone else who is in need. Let me put it this way. I would say Matthew 5:4 reminds us that the essence of Christianity is caring. I mean, blessed indeed-applauded by God-is the man who cares so intensely for the suffering, and for the sorrows, and the needs of others that he mourns deeply and visibly and then lets that mourning prompt him to do something to help.
This week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed the annual meeting of our denomination. Now, our denominational leadership is usually very good at getting bad press, but her remarks show that is not always true. In fact, they deserve to be repeated. Secretary Rice complimented Baptists for their compassion for the suffering people of the world saying,
“In my work as Secretary of State, I have seen the contribution to America’s mission abroad that is being carried out by Southern Baptists of many nations who are living out the calling of their convictions through countless works of private charity. In towns and villages across Africa, Southern Baptists are digging wells and building dams and strengthening communities in the fight against AIDS. When a nightmare of wind and water devastated Southeast Asia, Baptists were among the first on the scene in Banda Aceh helping to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless and to care for the sick and the wounded. And of course here in our own country, few have done more than Southern Baptists to help ease the suffering of our fellow citizens who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. No man, no woman, no child is beyond the reach of your compassion. Whenever tragedy brings people to their knees, Southern Baptists have been there to help them get back on their feet.So on behalf of President Bush and all of the American people, I want to thank you for your sacrifice. I want to thank you for your courage. I want to thank you for your faith and I want to thank you for your moral leadership.”
Now, like all denominations, ours is far from perfect, so I am encouraged to hear Secretary Rice’s words. We at least got this right. We mourned for others! This encourages me because disciples of Jesus Christ should mourn for the sorrows of others-mourn so much that they do something about it. The world would be a sorrowful place indeed if it weren’t for Christians down through the centuries who did.
This week I read about the life of Lord Ashely Shaftesbury-a man who was instrumental in establishing legislation that stopped much of England’s abuses when it came to child labor. He helped make it illegal for small children to slave away their lives in mines and sweat shops. He also established schools for these children-over 100 of them before his death in 1885.
This all began when as a small boy he came upon a pauper’s funeral. The coffin was a shoddy, poorly made box sitting on a rickety wheelbarrow. It was being pushed by four men who were obviously drunk; and as they pushed the wheelbarrow along, they were singing songs and joking among themselves. When they began to shove their odd “hearse” up a hill, the coffin fell off the barrow and burst open. Some people would have thought the whole thing was funny, some would have turned away in disgust. Some would have shrugged their shoulders and would have felt that although it was a pity, it had nothing to do with them-but not young Shaftesbury. No! When this young Christian lad saw this happen he said to himself, “When I grow up I’m going to give my life to see that things like that don’t happen.” And he did. He dedicated his long life to caring for others. Mourning for their situation prompted him to help.
Well let me ask you-do you weep for the suffering people of our world? When you watch the news do tears stream down your face? Do the endless stream of headlines about acts of terrorism on the other side of the planet affect your mood negatively? Or do you go about your happy life as if nothing has happened? Does your heart break for the hungry millions of this planet-people who eat less food than your dogs do? How does it make you feel to see people living in abject poverty-people who cannot even dream of the kind of opulent lifestyle you experience every day? Does news of just one more war torn nation affect you negatively?
Spiritual brothers and sisters, listen to me! Christianity involves caring for people. As children of God, we should nurture our social conscience. In fact, if we don’t have one, I think we have reason to doubt our relationship to Jesus. You know, I believe one of our problems when it comes to this kind of mourning is that we have become desensitized to the problems of the world. We have seen so many bloated stomachs of starving children that we are no longer moved by their plight. We have become so sensitized to gory violence on TV and in the movies that many could care less for human life.
Well, one thing Jesus is saying here is that insensitivity like this is sin. It is wrong for us not to grieve for the sorrowful condition of others. We forfeit the comfort that God gives people who care when we allow our hearts to become hard, toward the hurting people of this world. And, while we’re on this subject, let’s take it a couple steps further. Let me ask you-do you grieve over the people who ignore God’s law and suffer the consequences of their sin? How do you feel about the convicted felons who fill our prisons-especially the repeat offenders? Does your heart break for the tens of thousands of husbands and wives this year who, because of their selfishness, are going through a nasty divorce? Do you mourn for their children? And, do you grieve for the people who embrace a homosexual lifestyle-a lifestyle that is anything but gay? Do you weep for the victims of abortion: both the unborn and their parents? You know, as evangelicals we’re pretty good at taking aim at those who sin differently than we do. We speak up and sometimes we shout, and we encourage each other to vote in a certain way. But I wonder how many times we cry. I wonder-how often do we mourn for the condition of people who ignore God’s loving law and suffer the consequences? Too few of us cry about things like this. We don’t mourn as the Psalmist did when he wrote, “Streams of tears flow from my eyes oh God, for Your law is not obeyed.” (Psalm 119:136)
And there’s one other aspect of this kind of mourning that we should note. We should mourn for the condition of the billions of people in this world who don’t know Jesus–the multitudes who are still lost in their sins. Remember, on Palm Sunday while everyone else was shouting joyfully, Jesus was crying because of the hard hearts of people of Jerusalem. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus looked out over the city-and I think with tears flowing down His face He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Well, do you mourn visibly-deeply over the lost of this world? Do you cry in your bed at night not just over your lost family members, but over your lost neighbors-co-workers? You know, we live in a world that is lost but somehow too many of us who are Christians have forgotten that people are lost with out Jesus .dead in their trespasses and sins separated from God both now and for all eternity unless something happens. How can we not mourn over this fact!!!???
This week in my study one of the commentary writers referenced a sermon titled, “A Dry-eyed Church in a Hell-bound World.” I’d like to read that sermon. I think we all need to hear it, because we don’t mourn for the lost as we should. Our eyes are dry when they should be wet! Do you remember that old hymn, “Bringing in the Sheaves?” It’s not in our hymnal, but listen to the text that inspired its writing. Psalm 126:5-6 says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.” Do you weep, mourn for the lost, the harvest of souls yet to be reaped?
So, in this part of His sermon, Jesus was saying we should lament the losses of life and that we should cry over the physical and spiritual condition of others.
(3) but He was also saying we should be sorrowful for our sins.
In fact, I think this is indeed the main emphasis of this beatitude. Do you remember what we learned about verse 3-the statement Jesus made prior to this one in verse 4? We said Jesus was referring to the blessedness of the realization that we are spiritually bankrupt-totally dependent on the grace of God. Our Lord was saying that the person who understands how lost they are is fortunate-blessed to be congratulated. Well, in this next verse He continues that thought. Jesus says, “Blessed is the man who not only recognizes his sinful state but is also desperately sorry for it! Blessed is the man who grieves over his own sin and his own unworthiness.” He’s saying it is this kind of mourning that brings the blessed comfort of our salvation, because grieving over our sins pushes us to God. We realize we are desperate without Him, mourn over that fact, and then turn to Him for forgiveness. And when we do, He gives it. This is what Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 7:10 when he said, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation.”
John Stott put it this way, “It is one thing to be spiritually poor and acknowledge it; it is another to grieve and to mourn over it. Confession is one thing. Contrition is another.” He’s right. Contrition-or sorrow over our sins-leads us to repent. It pushes us to cry out to God for forgiveness and salvation.
But please understand, mourning over our sin should not stop once we become Christians because even though we are forgiven, we don’t stop sinning. We should continue to grieve and mourn whenever we disobey God. We can’t be comforted with a close relationship with our Holy God unless we mourn over those times we yield to temptation! So, whenever we sin we should obey James 4:8-10 where it says, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.”
You know, I think many of us don’t mourn. We don’t take our sin seriously, because we have it in our minds that Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago and so the payment for our sins is a done deal. But let me remind you of something. When Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, He was dying not only for the sins of the past and the present-but of the future as well. In 33A.D. Jesus was dying for the sins you and I commit today in 2006A.D. As He hung on that cruel cross He bruised for our iniquities. He felt the pain caused by our disobedience. You see, all of time condensed in those hours He hung on the cross. All of the sins of all mankind were heaped on Jesus as His tortured body struggled to breath while nailed to that rough wood.
Ray Boltz sings a song that illustrates this fact. Bow your heads now and listen to its words:
They tell me Jesus died for my transgressions that He paid that price a long, long time ago when He gave His life for me on a hill called Calvary,
but there’s something else I want to know
Does He still feel the nails, every time I fail? Can He hear the crowd cry ‘Crucify’ again? Am I causing him pain? Then I know I’ve got to change.
I just can’t bear the thought of hurting Him.
It seems that I’m so good at breaking promises, and I treat His precious grace so carelessly. But each time He forgives what if He re-lives, the agony He felt on that tree
Does He still feel the nails, every time I fail? Can He hear the crowd cry ‘Crucify’ again? Am I causing him pain? Then I know I’ve got to change.
I just can’t bear the thought of hurting Him.
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
Do You still feel the nails every time I fail? Have I crucified You Jesus with my sins? Oh I’m tired of playing games. I really want to change. I never want to hurt you again.
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
Let me ask you, fellow Christian, how seriously do you take your sins? Does it break your heart to know you’ve sinned against God-and that when you do, you cause Jesus pain?
Let us pray.
“Father God, in this moment show us our sin-show us the pain we continue to cause Your Son with our willful disobedience. Illumine our selfishness and stubbornness and laziness with the light of Your Holiness. Break hard hearts this morning-bless us with the ability to mourn for our sins–mourn so much that we beg for Your forgiveness and then strive to live obedient Godly lives. Father, comfort those of us who even now are morning over the inevitable pain and loss of living in this fallen world. Give us the wonderful peace of Your all-powerful and all-loving presence. And then help our hard hearts to soften toward the suffering of others. Help us to mourn over the same things You mourn. Enable us to comfort others in a way that makes it obvious we are Your children.
In Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN.