Those Who Mourn
1Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. 10Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 11“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
As I listen to the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus spoke to his disciples, I find myself asking whether anyone can truly lay everything down in their heart for the sake of an honest faith that hopes for an unseen heaven. When Jesus told a rich man to give away all that he had, the rich man left him, because he could not live by that word. Peter, who was afraid to die with Jesus as he bore the cross for the work of redemption, denied him at the last moment. This is what human beings are like when they want the world. Because our own will can never bring us to live according to God’s will, we must have the help of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 32:15
15Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
If the barren wilderness of our hearts is to become a fruitful field and a thick forest, we must receive the grace of the Spirit that God pours out. When the Holy Spirit comes upon our hardened spirits, a beautiful stream of life will flow through them, like a watered garden where new life springs up. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. When the Spirit comes, we come to know the holiness of the truth and to see how vile sin is, and we gain the wisdom to lay aside our own righteousness and live for the righteousness of God. The Holy Spirit does not speak on his own but speaks only the will of God, which is why, if we lean on the Spirit, we can have a humble and obedient faith.
Jesus said that those who mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted. To mourn is to grieve, to ache at heart. People suffer when they lose those they have cherished and loved most. Sorrow that comes from the world can be healed by the things of the world. Pain caused by people can be healed through people, and when the pain comes from material loss, it passes once the loss is made good. But the mourning spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount is not anguish over the troubles of this world; it is the spiritual pain we feel for souls that have not been saved. Because our mourning springs from a good heart, we receive God’s comfort, and his comfort, unlike the world’s, is grace that fills the soul.
To those who grieve over people who reject the gospel of Christ, who pray for them with tears and labor for them, God gives spiritual grace. They can feel that grace clearly in their spirit. When we stand before an overwhelming problem and mourn that, having done our best, there is nothing more we can do, it is as if a great hand, mighty as a fortress, strokes us gently, and a warm voice wraps itself around us, telling us not to worry and not to grieve. Those who have been comforted do not fear even death at the hands of persecutors, and their hope of the Kingdom of God fills them with joy. There was once a prophet who received this comfort from God, who proclaimed the word with all his life, and who prayed and mourned with tears as he watched a people who would not listen at all.
Lamentations 2:10-11
10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 11My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
The prophet Jeremiah ministered for about forty years, from King Josiah to Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. In those days the power of Assyria, once the great empire around Israel, was waning, and Babylon was slowly gaining strength. Jeremiah told the people that it was God’s will for them to forsake Egypt and surrender to Babylon, but they would not listen. When Josiah, a king who served God, died, his son Jehoahaz came to the throne, abandoned his father’s good policies, and did evil. As a result, three months after he became king, Jehoahaz was carried off captive by Pharaoh Necoh of Egypt and was killed. The kings who followed him, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, were likewise taken captive to Babylon, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, Judah and Jerusalem suffered the anguish of destruction at the hands of Babylon. Sadly, every word Jeremiah had prophesied came true. Jeremiah had proclaimed to the people that idolatry, false prophecy, reliance on the nations, and contempt for justice were sins of failing to fear God, and that they would be disciplined for them; but, deceived by false prophets, they paid no heed at all.
Jeremiah wrote down the message of Yahweh and urged the people of Judah to repent, but King Jehoiakim burned the scroll on which the prophecy was written. The result was that he was deposed in Babylon’s first invasion. Jeremiah told King Zedekiah that, because God had warned them in advance that they could live only if they surrendered to Babylon, they must obey this word; but Zedekiah resisted Babylon to the end, until his eyes were put out and he was executed. When the kings of Judah were all dead and even Gedaliah the governor had been murdered, Johanan became the leader of Judah, and he too ignored the word of God. He led the people left in Judah, and Jeremiah with them, down to Egypt. Jeremiah proclaimed the word with a mourning heart to save the people, but he suffered severe persecution, and it is thought that he was finally martyred in Egypt.
In the eyes of the world, Jeremiah seems to have lived an unhappy life, but to God he is more precious than anyone.
I cannot understand why the people would not obey the word of God, when they knew he was the Almighty who had brought their ancestors out of Egypt. The nation of Israel had been formed through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who obeyed God’s word, and yet the people relied on the nations rather than on God, until at last they were destroyed by Babylon. How it must have weighed on Jeremiah, who knew the will of God! God is the owner of this world; he rules every human life and even the life to come. Yet because the people did not believe in him as the King of kings, the word Jeremiah brought meant nothing to them. God declared that if they would not listen to his word of judgment, he would bring Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon to strike Judah.
We must not forget the almighty power of God, who uses nations, people, and the forces of this world both when he helps his people and when he judges. God said that he would put an end to all the sounds of daily life, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones; but the people told themselves it could never happen and would not listen to Jeremiah. Scripture records that until the day Noah entered the ark, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and that they did not turn back until the very moment the flood destroyed them all. It seems that people care more for their lives in this world than for the providence of God. Disobeying God’s word meant, as Jeremiah 25:11 says, being carried off to Babylon to serve as slaves for seventy years; even so, the people did not grasp how serious it was, telling themselves it would never happen and that, in any case, it was not happening yet. Caring more for the world they could see and for their own lives, they ignored the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah proclaimed the word with a mourning heart, feeling as though his insides were being torn apart and his liver poured out on the earth; but the people cast that word aside, and for that they were trampled by cruel Babylon.
You too will have felt that frustration at least once, watching a child who will not listen, or people who hear the word yet do not live wisely. When we walk with the Holy Spirit, the world and people’s hearts lie open before us, and it grieves us to watch people make foolish choices because they cannot give up their own foolish greed, stubbornness, and pride. They shut both eyes and both ears and listen only to the voice of their own hearts; we know how terrible the judgment that meets them at the end will be, but however we try to hold them back, they will never listen. Human beings are foolish: only when they suffer do they finally regret. Jeremiah knew the terrible suffering that lay ahead for the people of Judah, so he urged them to yield to Babylon, but they had closed their eyes and ears, and they persecuted Jeremiah instead. Still, Jeremiah had to save them as they ran headlong toward judgment, and he could not help proclaiming the word with a mourning heart.
When Jeremiah proclaims the word with a mourning heart, he has to be heard. Only by heeding Jeremiah could they live, for he told them that they must trust God’s promise that, if they obeyed his word, he would keep Babylon from harming them, however savage and beastly its invasion. Even now God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. Your life in this world may matter to you, he says, but you need to know that unless I protect you, the life you hold so dear will not exist. We must hear the word of the Holy Spirit, who grieves as he watches his people leave God’s embrace and warns that the world is a dangerous place under Satan’s rule. Jesus Christ promised plainly that he would come again, and he commanded us to take up our part as the light and the salt until then. If we value our own lives above this command, we will not only fail to meet Christ when he returns but may also face a terrible judgment.
John 11:33-35
33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept.
The New Testament records a few occasions when Jesus wept. In this scene, he sees Mary and Martha and the Jews weeping because Lazarus has died, and he asks where Lazarus has been laid. Even after hearing that Lazarus was near death, Jesus deliberately stayed two more days, and went to Judea only after Lazarus had died. Martha, who had been waiting for Jesus, reproached him, saying that if he had been there, her brother would not have died. Jesus told her that Lazarus would soon rise again, but Martha’s faith did not trust Jesus wholly. Because her faith was a matter of knowledge, she answered that she believed the people of faith would rise on the last day. Many believers make the same confession as Martha without realizing how vague it is, how far removed from what is real and present. Jesus asked the weeping Martha whether she believed that he was the resurrection and the life, that those who believe in him will live even if they die, and that whoever lives and believes in him will never die. He was asking whether she believed that he could raise Lazarus now. Because he is the Creator and the Lord of life, he could bring Lazarus back to life; what he wanted to know was whether she really believed this could happen in the here and now.
Jesus is speaking not of an abstract faith but of a real one, a faith that anything can happen in the present. It is not the vague faith that says God will answer someday; it is a faith that looks to see miracles take place in real life. Then Martha answered, in John 11:27, that she had come to believe he was the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world. Yet she then told someone standing beside her to go and call Mary; though she said she believed, her actions had not changed at all. Her answer makes it plain that she had no idea what the word Christ meant, or what it meant that the Son of God had come into the world. Anyone who believed that Jesus is the all-knowing, all-powerful King of kings, risen and seated on the throne, could never behave this way. If she truly believed Jesus was the Christ, she should have pleaded with him earnestly. She should have pleaded: I believe that you are the Christ and the Lord of life, and I believe in the resurrection on the last day, but now raise my brother Lazarus. Jesus had come to that place to teach, by raising Lazarus, that he was the Lord of life, so if only Martha had made a true confession of faith, she could easily have received her answer. But like a parrot, Martha recited a confession she knew only in her head. A prayer that is not sincere cannot bring a miracle and cannot be answered, and a faith known only in the head has no power.
Mary, who came running at Martha’s call, had also heard and learned much from Jesus and had seen his miracles with her own eyes, yet when she met a problem beyond the limits of her own reason, she could not trust him. Martha and Mary had loved Jesus; that was why they served him meals and hung on his words, afraid to miss a single one. When they saw him turn water into wine, heal the blind, raise up the lame, and work the miracle of the five loaves and two fish, they were proud to be with him. In those days they would have rebuked those who rejected the gospel, asking why they could not make up their minds when they saw God so plainly alive and at work. But once all of this became their own problem, they doubted whether a miracle would really happen for them, and they could not take the step of faith. When it was someone else’s trouble, they could share the gospel with confidence, but once the trouble was their own, they could not show a faith that rises above the world. Now all they had was the complaint: if only Jesus had come a little sooner, we would not have had to suffer like this; why have you come only now? Their one thought was that everything that had happened, and all the pain they were suffering, had come because Jesus did not help them. If they thought Lazarus had died because Jesus did not work a miracle, then a healthy faith would not complain but would cling to Jesus to the end. Their very resentment, after all, testifies that Jesus had the power to raise Lazarus.
Could your faith, too, be centered on yourself like this? Have you rebuked others when you saw them waver, asking why they show such unbelief when God answers those who pray? Or do you know that he is the Christ and the Lord of life, yet think that this matters only when you go to heaven, and lose heart because you cannot solve the problem in front of you right now, and conclude that Jesus cannot solve it either? Or do you resent him, asking whether, if he really is the Son of God, he ought not to have stepped in beforehand so that this never happened? If you are complaining, why me, why must it be my body that is sick and my family that suffers, then I hope you will repent now. You must learn to mourn when you see your own spiritual condition, because only when we mourn over our own sin of failing to trust him to the end can we mourn over the unbelief of others.
Jesus would weep over Martha and Mary, and over us, asking whether we still do not trust him, whether we have made ourselves the master and put him in second place. Seeing their unbelief, Jesus worked an astonishing miracle, as though he had resolved to show them plainly who he was, the one they knew only in their heads. When he commanded the dead man, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus came out as though he had been waiting, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and Jesus told them to free him and let him go. Because Jesus had resolved from the start to raise Lazarus, Martha and Mary, had they shown him true faith, would have taken up more work for the Kingdom of God through the miracle of Lazarus.
We have already received our answer by faith. The Holy Spirit, who is with us and knows even the deep things of God, will give great comfort to those who mourn and plead for the salvation of souls. Do you believe that you are a child who has been given grace and comfort? Are you mourning and praying with a faith that longs for our nation, our people, and the church to stand on the rock of faith? Such good deeds of the poor in spirit are what it means to lay up treasure in heaven.
The word comfort carries the sense of coming alongside and calling out. When our hearts are weary and aching as we watch a world that is rotting away, he will draw near, hold us close, and comfort us, telling us not to worry, for he knows it all. Simeon, who walked with the Holy Spirit, called Jesus righteous and devout, the consolation of Israel. Jesus, who comes to our side to be our Comforter, calls by name those who serve him even to the point of death. Jesus said that after he ascended he would send the Counselor. The Counselor is the Holy Spirit, whose name means the one who comforts; he walks with us and helps us repent of our sin. Upon hearts that pray with mourning for souls, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, our Comforters, will pour out great power and grace.
Those who pray for the salvation of souls are greatly comforted when they see their brothers and sisters and their neighbors healed by God’s grace. You who have received that grace know well, I trust, how warm God’s comfort is and what strength it gives. The comfort we receive in this world can only be partial, but the perfect comfort we will be given in heaven on the last day, whether that day is the end of our own lives or the end of the world, will last forever. On the last day it will be made plain whether we lived as those who mourn for the salvation of souls and for the will of God, or as those who wounded other souls and hindered the work of God.
If you are living in peace now, it is perhaps the answer to the prayers of brothers and sisters in faith beside you, who mourn and pray for you. If you recognize that you are living by grace because someone is praying for you, you must walk humbly before God. Those who know how to give thanks for small things understand God’s will, and so they truly mourn for the salvation of souls. When God sees someone who mourns, he knows the devotion that reveals the goodness of their faith, and he will comfort them. Since you know how good God is, it is my earnest hope that you will give yourselves to him with all your heart, mind, and soul, and receive his comfort.