Good Mourning (2)

The Blessed Mourning

"Blessed" or μακάριος, this means flourishing/happy/fortunate. Another good definition for this is "In good standing." The other significant word of this passage is "Mourning" or πενθέω which indicates an “extreme form of grief and anguish.” First, it's important to note that this is paradoxical. This doesn't make sense to the human mind or the normal way of the world. Especially to the Pharisees… In their self-righteous economy, mourning was seen as shameful. Yet, we all mourn. It is a common, feeling for all of us. It is especially common for those of us who fall into the category we discussed last week, "the poor in spirit." All the Biblical figures mourned in some capacity. Perhaps no one mourned in a more memorable way than David. He said in Psalm 55:6–8 "And I say, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; 7 yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah 8 I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest." So, there are different categories of mourning. We mourn over different things in life.

Bad Mourning

Sinful mourning is sorrow over sinful desires not being fulfilled. Example: Amnon (2 Samuel 13:2) "And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her." Example: David when Absolom died. Joab said the following in 2 Samuel 19:5–6 "Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, "You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, 6 because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased."

Good Mourning

Some examples of proper and appropriate mourning would be how Job mourned the destruction of his life, David mourned the son of Bathsheba's death, discouragement made Timothy mourn in 1 Timothy, etc. Yet even this is not the issue at hand that our Lord specifically is speaking of… He is speaking to a self-righteous and UNREPENTANT crowd. We understand that the first beatitude from last week described the "poor in spirit" which are those who understand their spiritual bankruptcy and come to God empty-handed. This means that "the ones who mourn" describes those who, because of their spiritual poverty, it leads them to spiritual sorrow. Godly mourning is when we mourn over sin. The reason Christ says that those who mourn are "happy" is because of the response from God that mourning over sin receives.

Mourning over the world's sin. Abraham looked out at Sodom and Gomorrah and saw the wrath of God kindled against their sin, and he mourned over them. They were wretched, sinful, and wicked. Yet, Abraham saw their sin and mourned over it.

Mourning over neighbor's sin. Did you know it is good and right to be saddened over your friend's sin? Now, we are not to do it in a "self-righteous" way. Rather, genuine sadness over a friend's sinful behavior is good. Caring about whether or not someone you love is walking with God is a good thing. We live in a culture that calls any acknowledgement of other's sin "judgmental"… the Bible calls it loving. Paul said it was necessary in the life of the Church. "Confessing our sins one to another."

Mourning over my own sin. But, most importantly… godly sorrow and mourning comes from our OWN sin. When we begin to reckon with how sinful we are in ourselves… that is when we truly mourn. Here is the natural progression: realization of being the poor in spirit leads to mourning because of my own sin, then that mourning over my sin brings God's forgiveness. Only mourners over sin are truly "blessed" or happy. Why? Because only mourners have their sins forgiven. That is the entrance gate to salvation… yet that is only the beginning.

"πενθοῦντες" is a present active participle… this means it describes a continuous action. NOT ONE AND DONE. Truly walking with God leads to a lifetime of mourning over sin - which Christ in turn says is actually "blessed." The true and faithful child of God is constantly broken over sin… the longer he lives in light of God, the more it becomes clear that he is unworthy. Walking with God does not mean sinlessness, that is reserved for Heaven… it actually means a greater awareness of sinfulness. Every saint mourned over their sin at one time or another. Paul tells us in Romans 7, "Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" The reason that true mourning over sin is godly and encouraged is because that mourning is not focused upon ourselves, or even our sin. It is focused upon God. So what is true mourning? and how can we as New Testament Christians truly mourn over our sin?

The Barriers to Mourning

Procrastination. Now this is the most common offender and roadblock to those dealing with conviction. This is the one who says, "One day I will make things right with God." Friend, one day may never come. Today could be the day that you meet The Lord. To push Him off would be like the foolishness of the prodigal son. How many days did he spend in the slop? He could have went straight to the father and sought forgiveness by mourning over his sin.

Passion. Another hindrance is the fact that some of us love our sin too much. An example of this is Solomon is the wisest king to have ever lived. Yet, the Torah clearly prohibited the marriage and mingling of women from foreign countries. Yet in his later years, he had acquired a harem of wives and concubines for himself from foreign countries. The result of this? Foreign women meant foreign gods, foreign gods meant the replacement of Yahweh… the direct result of this is the fall of Israel and eventually her exile and destruction. All of this took place because Solomon loved his sin too much to properly mourn over it.

Pride. Sometimes the biggest hindrance is the presumption that I just don't that much grace. The popular gospel of today would say that we technically we need "salvation", but we are all around a good person. This kind of thinking is the “pride of life” that John warns us about. Your sins, along with my sins, need to be confessed repented of and forsakes. Isaiah 55:7 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

The Basics of Mourning

Starve. To properly mourn sin, we need to starve it. It is difficult to fight sin when we give it ammunition. What I mean by this is you'll hear someone say they struggle with a particular sin but there is no steps it avoid that sin taken. Example: If you are here and you are married, and you have already been having wondering eyes for that coworker at your job, rather than your husband or wife… stop creating scenarios where you're alone with that person. If you have a problem with drinking, stay away from the bar. A lot of times we say, "Oh I'm really fighting this sin." Yet, we haven't taken the first step to stop it. If we truly desire to not be tempted, then we must STOP creating scenarios where there will be temptation.

Scripture. Another step toward godly mourning is to look at "sin" in the Bible. We, in ourselves, do not innately understand how horrendous sin truly is. However, God's word gives us example after example of men whose lives were ruined because of sin. Nations torn, families destroyed, people died, over unconfessed sin. When we live our life, we see sin from our perspective. When we look at the Bible, we see sin from God's perspective. From God's perspective, He sees not only the pleasures of sin but the repercussions of sin. He sees the devastation and destruction. This should teach us from Isaiah to say Isaiah 6:5 "And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"" Or from Peter to say, Luke 5:8 "But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." or Paul when he said 1 Timothy 1:15 "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost."

Sacrifice. Finally, the key to godly sorrow and mourning is sacrifice. Sacrifice? That sounds like the OT, Judaism. We don't sacrifice! Turn to Psalm 51. - Let me paint the picture for you: David is a man after God's own heart. His sin is few and far between. From 1 Samuel, it seems David can do no wrong. He is the humble shepherd boy who God raises to be the mighty warrior. He is anointed king and is loved by all. Yet, David fell into a deep and dark sin. He saw Bathsheba and lusted after her. He was intimate with her, and she conceived. He had her husband killed so that it wouldn't be known. Months later, Nathan the prophet comes to David and tells him the parable of a man who had robbed another of his sheep. David says the guilty party should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and then Nathan tells him "David, YOU are the man!"

What was David’s response? It should be the response of every Christian. It was indignation. He didn’t get offended. He did not become defensive. David's response was this: Psalm 51:4 "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." David repents. He then says, Psalm 51:16–17 "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Do you know why David was a "man after God's own heart" and Saul was cursed? It wasn't because David was perfect and Saul was not. No, their sin is oftentimes quite similar. It was because when David sinned, he had true repentance. Saul thought, "I can do what I want and as long as a sacrifice some bulls, God will be okay." This was the ideology of the Pharisees. Yet, David was right when he said that the true sacrifice God desires is a broken heart over sin. That is the sacrifice He can redeem, that is the person He can work with. That's exactly who Jesus is describing in verse 4. The person who says, “I am poor in spirit, incapable of doing any of this on my own. AND because of my sinfulness and shortcoming, I am grieved over that. It has cut me to the heart. Therefore, I mourn over my sin and simply commend my heart to God.” How will God respond? “…for they shall be comforted.” I wonder how many this morning would determine in their heart to say, "Today, I will stop reveling in my sin and I will start mourning over it." That can start right now in this moment, surely in your mind's eye you can see yourself at 3 pm on Tuesday afternoon being tempted with that same old sin and same old shackle. Start mourning it now, and God will give you freedom over it!