Chapter Three: Mourn
MOURN
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
MATTHEW 5:4
“Blessed are those who mourn” is the Beatitude I approach with the greatest sense of inadequacy. I have done so little mourning over sin myself. Regret, yes; sorrow, yes. Even tears on occasion. But Jesus was talking about very deep mourning over sin when He said, “Blessed are those who mourn.”
As we approach this subject, we need to keep two truths in mind. First, these character traits are meant to be descriptive of all Christians. Second, none of us will ever exhibit any of these traits to the fullest. But we should all earnestly desire to grow in them. And one of the most difficult traits to grow in is mourning over our sin.
The word that Jesus used in this Beatitude is the strongest word in the Greek language for mourning. It is the word for Jacob’s mourning over what he thought was the death of Joseph (Genesis 37:35). It is used again of those who were mourning and weeping over the death of Jesus (Mark 16:10). Jesus uses this word to show the intensity of mourning He blesses here. He is, however, actually talking about mourning not over death but over our sin.
Each of the eight Beatitudes addresses a specific attitude of the heart. In this one Jesus is addressing our attitude toward our personal sin. James makes a similar point:
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
JAMES 4:8-10
In this Beatitude, mourning is not just a touch of sadness but deep heartfelt grief, accompanied by tears, over one’s sin. Probably very few Christians today ever experience this kind of mourning over sin, but Jesus said that those who do shall be blessed.
This second character trait of the Beatitudes naturally follows the first. Those who are genuinely poor in spirit will mourn over their sin. As John Blanchard wrote, “To be ‘poor in spirit’ is to be convicted of one’s sin, whereas to ‘mourn’ is to be contrite for it.”[2]
David’s prayer as recorded in Psalm 51 is an example of mourning over sin. But before we look at this prayer, let’s review the occasion for it, as recorded in 2 Samuel 11:1–12:15.
King David committed two sins: first adultery, and then (essentially) murder to try to cover up his adultery. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him, and in his skillful accusation of David, Nathan twice used the word despised (2 Samuel 12:7-11). First, David despised the Word of the Lord —that is, he despised the law of God (verse 9). In so doing, he also despised the person of God (verse 10).
Why is this true? Despising the law of God is not only an expression of rebellion. It is also a despising of His very character, since His law is a reflection of His character. This is true not only of such heinous sins as adultery and murder, but also of our more refined sins: pride, selfishness, gossip, and the like. So let us pray that God will indeed allow us to see our sin as rebellion against the rule of God —a despising of God’s law and even of His character.
With this in mind, now note the following words from Psalm 51:1-5:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! . . .
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.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
David acknowledged both his transgressions (actual sinful acts) and his iniquity (the evil heart from which his sins flowed). Then he acknowledged he was sinful from birth. He sinned because he was born a sinner.
But probably the most important statement in his prayer is “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” All sin is primarily against God and His law. We may wrong our neighbor, but it is God’s law that we have broken. It is God’s glory that we have sinned against. We will never see the seriousness of our sin and mourn over it until we see that it is against God.
Failure to see our sin as primarily against God is, I believe, the reason we experience so little heartfelt grief over it. We tend to view our sin first in terms of its effect on ourselves. Sin makes us feel guilty, and we don’t like to feel guilty. Then we may see our sin in terms of its effect on the other person. For example, we may have damaged his or her reputation with our gossip or unkind words. But we would just like to forget it and move on.
We fail to see that our sin is primarily against God. It is His law that we have broken. It is His holiness that we have defiled. Because of this, God hates our sin; He cannot look upon it with indifference.
The Puritans had a redundant but still very meaningful expression. They spoke of “the sinfulness of sin.” What is it that makes sin so sinful? It is the fact that it is against God. Until we grasp this in the depths of our hearts, we will never mourn over our sin. That is why David’s confession, “Against you, you only, have I sinned,” is so important.
Having dealt with the seriousness of his sin, David proceeds to the remedy for it.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
PSALM 51:17
As David admitted the seriousness of his sin, he was deeply broken and contrite. We may think he should have been repentant and contrite. After all, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed in battle. Compared to such heinous grievances, we think our more mundane sins can be adequately grieved at a more mundane level. But be it ever so small in our own eyes, when we sin we also break God’s law. And Scripture says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10). God’s law is seamless, one complete whole. So when we break any of it, we break the whole law.
I recall a time when I strongly identified with David in Psalm 51. His statement that God will not despise a broken and contrite heart deeply ministered to me. It wasn’t that I had committed some big sin, as we evaluate different sins. My sin was a wrong motive.
My wife and I were invited to minister in a country overseas. When I received the invitation, I thought, That would be a fun place to go. After consulting my wife, I immediately said yes. I wasn’t thinking about how I would serve the ministry that invited me or the people of that country. I was thinking of us. I knew I would be busy speaking and teaching God’s Word, of course, and as always I wanted to do a good job. But my motive for going was self-centered, not God-centered!
The trip turned out to be a ministry disaster. In more than two dozen speaking and teaching sessions, I never felt that I had the power of the Holy Spirit giving life to my words.
As I continued to pray about the difficult situation, it seemed as if God said, “Why are you here?” And I realized that my motive had been primarily for our pleasure, not the benefit of God’s people.
As I began to realize how seriously I had sinned against God, I became brokenhearted and contrite about it. And that is when Psalm 51:17 deeply ministered to me.
I would like to say that upon my repentance, God immediately turned things around. But He didn’t. I struggled with every message and teaching session the entire trip. Through that experience God drilled into my heart the importance of God-centered motives.
I use this personal illustration to impress on our hearts the seriousness of all sin. In that incident I didn’t do anything wrong. I simply acted from a self-centered motive. And God was displeased with that.
Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who mourn —those who are brokenhearted and contrite over their sin. Yet we see so little mourning over sin today. Why is that true? I believe it is because we do not see ourselves as sinners. We do not take seriously such sins as our pride, our selfishness, and our judgmental spirit toward others. We may not utter the words of the Pharisee, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11), but deep down that is too often our heart attitude.
Is mourning over sin just for those first coming to Christ? No, Jesus’ words are in the present active tense. We could literally translate them as “blessed are those who continue to mourn.” He is pronouncing a blessing on those whose attitude toward their sin is characterized by mourning. One mark of a growing Christian, then, is a growing sense of his or her sin, and an attitude of mourning over it.
Now we need to see the blessing of mourning over sin. Jesus did say that those who mourn shall be comforted. How will they be comforted? I think it is the experience of God’s forgiveness. It is the assurance that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20), that though our “sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).
Note how David ends Psalm 51. He is confident that God will not despise a broken and contrite heart. This is not just David’s opinion or hope. Remember, he is writing under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit (see 2 Peter 1:21). Thus David is saying what the Holy Spirit prompted and directed him to say. Knowing that what the Bible says, God also says, I sometimes like to restate a verse with God as the speaker. In this case, I restate it as God saying, “A broken and contrite heart I will not despise.” Think of that! What greater comfort can one who is mourning over his sin receive? God will not despise my broken and contrite heart.
As we saw earlier, Jesus used the same word for mourning as the Bible uses for mourning over the death of a loved one. Jesus did this to show the intensity with which we should mourn over our sin. But there is a profound difference between the two causes of mourning. In the case of death, there is no hope of ever seeing that loved one again in this life. Most often at the time of mourning, especially in the case of sudden and unexpected death, the hope for eternity is of little comfort. We miss the person now, and the thought of never seeing our deceased loved one again in this life is overwhelming. As a result, we mourn deeply.
Mourning over our sin is different. Unlike death, there is hope in the here and now. If we are repentant, we can take that sin to the Cross and experience immediate forgiveness. We can experience the truth that God will not count that sin against us; He will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
Because of this we can be honest with ourselves about our sin. We do not need to minimize it or try to excuse ourselves. Instead we can see it for the vile and despicable act of rebellion against God that it really is.
Our problem, however, is that we do not recognize the sin that still remains in us. We do not recognize that failing to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, would bring us under the curse of God apart from the work of Christ on our behalf (Galatians 3:10). We do not see the immense chasm that exists between the infinite holiness of God and our own righteousness on our very best days. In short, we do not see ourselves as sinners —saved sinners to be sure, but still practicing sinners in need of the forgiving grace of God every day.
So mourning over our sin is truly a display of humility in action. We cannot be proud and mourn over sin at the same time. We cannot be judgmental toward other believers, or even toward unbelievers, if we are truly contrite and brokenhearted over our own sin.
There is yet one more application from this Beatitude we need to make. The Greek word that Jesus used for mourn is used twice elsewhere for mourning over sin: 1 Corinthians 5:2 and James 4:9. James uses it in the context of our sin, but Paul uses it in the context of tolerating the sin of someone else. I think that in Paul’s use there is a lesson for us to apply in today’s culture.
There is no question that our nation is sinking more deeply into gross sins of violence, immorality, murder (especially of the unborn), flagrant dishonesty, and other kinds of vile sins. What should be our attitude toward these sins? We have three options: condone it, condemn it, or mourn over it. We certainly don’t condone it, but I think most of us merely condemn it.
It is the third option we should pursue, and the attitude of Ezra at the time of the Jews’ return from exile can be an example to us. Ezra was a godly man; he “had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Although a godly man himself, Ezra identified with the sins of the people and mourned over them. When he learned that the returned exiles had again begun to intermarry with the idolatrous people of the land, he tore his garments (a sign of deep mourning), and prayed:
O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
EZRA 9:6
Notice how Ezra identifies himself with the sins of the people: our iniquities, our guilt. I believe this is the attitude we should pursue in our day. It is so easy for us to stand apart from the culture and do no more than express self-righteous judgmentalism toward it. But those of us who grieve deeply over our own sin will not do this. Instead we will mourn over the sins and wickedness of our nation and will pray most urgently that, just as we want God to be merciful to us, so we want Him to be merciful to our nation as a whole. This will be another expression of humility in action.