THE BEATITUDES
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 5:4, ECCLESIASTES 7:1-4
SEPTEMBER 16, 1990
Do you know what lachrymose means? The word lachrymose refers to people who cry a lot. It refers to people who shed a lot of tears. In ancient times, people had lachrymatories, tear bottles. They would collect their tears and place them in these tear bottles, tears of sorrow and tears of joy. They would give these bottles as gifts to the living and the dead. Some people in the ancient world, even in Palestine, were very proud of their tears.
Today we live in a world where some people like to cry. They like to go to movies that make them cry. Other people do not like to cry at all. Some people will do almost anything to keep from shedding a tear. The Bible indicates that it is good for us to cry from time to time, not only physically and emotionally but also spiritually. It is good for us to mourn, good for us to weep, good for us to cry. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
The word mourn in the Greek has three meanings, and these comprise our three teachings today. First of all, the word mourn in the Greek means penitent. Those who mourn are those who have a penitent heart—who have true sorrow for their sin, who feel remorse for their sin, remorse to the point of tears. In James, chapter 4, Verse 9, people who sinned are exhorted to mourn and weep that they might find repentance. The Greek word used there is the word pénthos, which is the same word used in this Beatitude.
Perhaps there are some of you here today who have heard of a man named Theodosius I. Theodosius I was born in Spain. He became the emperor of the Roman Empire in A.D. 379. He was called Theodosius the Great by the Christian community because he claimed to be a Christian and sought to remove all pagans from the Roman Empire. But Theodosius I was not always Christian in his behavior. In fact in A.D. 390, Theodosius I took his armies through Thessaloniki and killed 1,500 civilians. Subsequent to that, Theodosius I was banned by the Christian church. When he returned to Milan and to the Milan Cathedral, he was refused access to the cathedral by Bishop Ambrose. Theodosius I said, “If I have committed murder, then I am no different from David who was a man after God’s own heart.” Bishop Ambrose said, “If you would imitate David in his crime, imitate him also in his repentance.” It is said that Theodosius I was forced to bow before a statue of the crucified Christ.
Rubens, in his famous painting, which is in the Imperial Gallery in Vienna, portrays this scene where Theodosius I is refused access to the Milan Cathedral by Bishop Ambrose. His message in this great painting is that people cannot enter the presence of God unless they have a penitent heart. How true that is. Unless you have a penitent heart, unless you mourn for your sin, unless there is true grief and remorse for your sin, unless you have sorrow, you will never be blessed. You will never be comforted, and you will never find forgiveness. Who knows if Theodosius I truly mourned.
Outward appearances do not satisfy God. He looks on the heart. You can go to a desert and eat locusts and honey. You can wear sackcloth and ashes. You can participate in self-flagellation and whip yourself, but God knows your heart. Unless there is remorse in my heart for my sin, I am not blessed, I will not be comforted nor forgiven.
If you have read the Psalms, and I hope and pray you read them often, you cannot miss the fact that David mourned for his sin. To the point of tears, he mourned for his sin. The sorrow in his heart was great, and God’s grace and mercy poured down from heaven upon him because of his penitent heart. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not, “Smile, God loves you.” The message of Jesus Christ and the message of the gospel is this: “Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:7). Unless we repent, we are not okay. Unless we repent, we have no cause to smile. Unless we repent, we will never really experience the love of Jesus Christ. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
This word mourn has a second meaning. It can also refer to vexation—vexed at the sin, the evil, and the tragedy that is in the world. Vexed to the point of tears. Vexed to the point of sorrow and mourning. Sometimes the word pénthos used in this Beatitude is used in that way. Vexation.
Most of you have heard of the city of Ephesus, which today exists on the coast of Turkey. The city of Ephesus in New Testament times was great and boasted the greatest harbor in Asia. It was called the greatest city in Asia. It had the Temple of Diana, as the Romans called it, and the Temple of Artemis as the Greeks referred to it. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The temple was 425 feet long and 225 feet wide. It had 60 pillars, each of which were donated by a different king from a different part of the world. Thirty-six of these 60 pillars were inlaid with gold. The temple was majestic.
To the Greeks and the Romans, Diana/Artemis was the goddess of fertility. She was portrayed as multi breasted, having three rows of breasts, four breasts in each row, twelve breasts in all. In the temple were thousands of prostitutes—1500 female prostitutes and many male prostitutes. They were there to serve heterosexuals and homosexuals. People would come for promiscuity from all over Asia and other parts of the world.
In the temple, the Ephesian letters were sold. You may have heard of them. Charms were put around the ankle or sometimes around the neck. These Ephesian letters generally had the name of some pagan deity inscribed on the charm. The charm was said to be endowed with power—power for healing if you were sick, power for protection if you were traveling. People came from all over Asia to the temple to buy the Ephesian letters. Selling took place in the temple, and there was a lot of buying.
In and around the temple were many criminals because the temple was a refuge. It was a sanctuary for those who had broken the law. If you could make your way to the Temple of Diana/Artemis or be within a hundred yards of the temple structure, no one could touch you no matter what your crime. Criminals came from all over Asia to Ephesus to the Temple of Diana/Artemis. Ephesus was an incredible city, yet is said to be one of the most immoral cities in all the world.
In Ephesus there was a philosopher; his name was Heraclitus. If you remember your history from when you were in school, you know that Heraclitus throughout the Greek world was called “the weeping philosopher.” This was how he was known throughout Asia and Europe. He was asked once why he wept. He said he wept because of all the evil that was around. He said, “How could anybody live in the city of Ephesus and not weep? How could anybody live in the city of Ephesus and not mourn? How could anybody live in the city of Ephesus and not be riddled with sorrow at all the sin, at all the tragedy, the rampant evil?” So he wept, and he was not a Christian. He was not a Christian because Heraclitus lived hundreds of years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, but he had the spirit of a just man. He was vexed, vexed in his soul to the point of tears at the evil that was in the world.
Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Cities of sin, condemned by God and reduced to ashes. Lot was spared. In the book of Hebrews, Lot is called one of the heroes of the faith listed there. Why was Lot spared? Why is he a hero of the faith? The Bible’s answer is simple. He is a hero of the faith, and he was spared simply because he was vexed in his soul at the evil that surrounded him.
How do you feel about the world in which you live? Are you vexed at all? Do you mourn at all? Do you feel even just a twinge of sorrow when you look at the world in which we live? Does it bother you that more than a million babies are aborted in America every year? Does that cause you any sorrow? Does it bother you that America is the pornographic capital of the world? Ninety percent of the pornographic magazines in the world are produced here. Does that cause you any tears? The growing crime. The growing promiscuity. The use and abuse of drugs. The world our children have to grow up in. Does that cause you any grief? Any sorrow? The poverty. The hunger. The fact that a billion people go to bed hungry every night. Does that move you? Blessed are those who mourn. If you really mourn, if you are really vexed, you are going to seek to change the world, to make the world a better place, to fight the darkness and light a candle.
This word mourn has a third meaning. It refers simply to grief, the grief that people feel when they lose someone they love. The word pénthos was used to describe how children felt when one of their parents died, how parents felt when one of their children died, how a wife felt when her husband died or a husband felt when his wife died, how people felt when any loved one died. That is mourning. That is grief.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was certainly one of the most gifted men ever to live. At the age of 5, he wrote an advanced concerto for the harpsichord. At the age of 7, he was able to perform the most advanced compositions of Bach and Handel. At the age of 12, he wrote his first opera. He was called the greatest pianist and composer of his time, and there are those today who think he was the greatest composer of all time. Yet he died in poverty and in relative obscurity at the age of 35 in the year 1791. When Mozart died, his wife did not grieve. She showed little interest in his death. Few people came to the church. The weather was not good, and no one bothered to go to his grave. When someone inquired about his grave months later, they could not find it. To this day, the grave of Mozart remains unmarked and unknown. Few people mourned him in death, and no one grieved over his grave.
It will most likely not be that way for most of you. When you die, someone will mourn. When you die, people will grieve. There are people who love you. If you choose to be buried in a cemetery, then someone will mourn there out of love for you. There is a lot of mourning in this world, a lot of grief. There are 60,000 funerals every day in this world. There are countless committal services and graveside services. There is a lot of suffering and sorrow, mourning and grief yet very little comfort in this world.
Some people have a pain so deep it seems that there is no comfort. Yet Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4). This promise, however, is not given to the world. This promise is given to the people of God. This promise is given to the people of Christ. Blessed are Christians who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The Jewish people struggled with death. They struggled with grief. They had mourning rituals. When someone died in the Jewish community in the Old Testament era, and really throughout the ancient world, the entire family and community were required to participate in that mourning. There would be wailing with loud cries. Sometimes there was flagellation where people would whip themselves. There were cries of agony. There were funeral dirges. There was the singing of music that was designed for such occasions and the playing of the flute. Poems were written that were designed for comfort. People would gather around. There were many tears, and people would put their tears in bottles. The mourners would follow the body to the grave.
After the burial, they would continue to mourn for seven days. In some cases, as with Moses and Aaron, the mourning lasted 30 days. In the case of Jacob, the mourning lasted 70 days. There is a lot of mourning, a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow, and a lot of energy expended. They would hire professional mourners. That is what they really did. They hired professional mourners who were particularly good at wailing, particularly good at crying, and particularly good at writing poetry, too. They would pay these professional mourners to be with the grieving family. These professional mourners would cry as they were gifted to do. They would write poems of various length, depending on the status of the one who died, and, of course, the amount of money they had been paid. There was no real comfort, however, in all of this. It really did not take away the grief and the sorrow. There were mourning rituals but very little comfort.
It is not meant to be like that for any of you. If you know Christ and you love Christ, there is a special comfort and blessing that is meant to come to you in the midst of your mourning and your grief. The Bible says, “We would not have you ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep but you do not grieve in the same way that others do who have no hope, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God through Jesus will take with Him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). The Bible says, “Comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
Do you really believe that Christ rose from the dead? Do you really believe He lives? If you believe He lives, you can face tomorrow. If you know that your loved one in Christ has left this world and gone to heaven, you can face tomorrow. If you know that someday you are going to be there in heaven with the Lord and with all the saints, you can face tomorrow and can live for Christ today. There is comfort and even blessing in our mourning as we are forced to draw closer to Christ and deepen our faith and fellowship with other Christian friends. Blessed are those who mourn.
Peter Marshall was the pastor of a well-known church in Washington, D.C. Some of you know the story of Peter Marshall. Hollywood made a movie, “A Man Called Peter.” In Peter Marshall’s church, there was a little boy whose named was Kenneth. Kenneth had an incurable disease and was dying though he did not know it. Kenneth’s mom was a committed Christian. She loved Jesus Christ. She was a member of that church in Washington, D.C. She did not want to tell Kenneth that he was dying because she did not want to take away his joy. As Kenneth became weaker and was not able to go outside to play with his friends as much, she would try to occupy his time with the things he loved to do. She played games with him in the house. She read to her little guy oftentimes. She read him adventure stories. He loved adventure stories about places long ago and far away. As Kenneth had to spend more time in bed and was not able to get up and around, he had less and less energy. He would look out the window and would see other kids playing. He began to sense and suspect that maybe he was dying.
One night his mother was reading to him the story of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and Sir Lancelot. She came to the point of the great final battle where so many gallant knights died. After hearing of their death, Kenneth looked up at his mom and said, “Mom, what’s it like to die?” That was the question she did not want to answer. She did not want to deal with it. She left the room and went into the kitchen for a while. She prayed that the Lord would give her words to say, words of comfort. She came back and felt like the Lord had given her insight. She said, “Son, you know how many times when you were really tired or maybe a little bit fearful, you would ask if you could sleep in our bed. Dad and I would let you climb into our bed. You would fall asleep there with us, but you would always wake up in your own bed, in your own room, because in the middle of the night, your dad, with strong arms, would lift you up and would carry you to your room, to your bed.” She said, “Son, for us, as Christians, that is what death is like. You go to sleep, and you wake up in your own room, in your own bed because the Lord, who loves you, carries you there.”
Peter Marshall said that this little guy, according to his mom, did not ask any more about death. He had comfort. He died a few weeks later, knowing that he was going to be with the Lord in his own room, in his own bed. There is a profound biblical and theological truth in this story because for us, as Christians, this world is not our home. It is not our room. It is not our bed. We are passing through. When we die, it is a door for us, as Christians, through which we pass. We wake up in our own bed, in our own room. Jesus Christ said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions, many dwelling places. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also” (John 14:1-4). If you believe those words, there is comfort.
There is also comfort in Christian friends who love us in times of mourning and sorrow, who express their love in special ways. There is comfort from the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Comforter, who comes and ministers in our soul and spirit in special ways in times of grief. In fact the Bible tells us that we can be blessed through grief in a way that laughter is not capable of blessing us because it is in times of grief and mourning when we are drawn close to God and learn to trust God, to utterly depend upon God, to reach out to God, to deepen our faith in God. It is in times of mourning and grief that we draw closer to our friends in Christ, our brothers and sisters. It is in such times that the Holy Spirit empowers us and anoints us in special ways, transforms us that we might be better able to serve Him in this world.
One day we are going to go to heaven as Christians, and there will be no more mourning. Think of Revelation, chapter 21, where it says, “Behold, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heavens from God, having the glory of God prepared as a bride adorned for her bridegroom, and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men and He shall be with them. He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes and death will be no more. Neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.’ And He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Write this for these words are trustworthy and true. It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega.'”
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who are penitent, truly sorrowful for their sins. Blessed are those who are vexed at the evil that surrounds them. Blessed are those in the midst of grief who reach out to Christ, for they shall be comforted. Let us close with a word of prayer.