Holy Boldness

2nd Beatitude: Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

This beatitude, like the first, seems counter-intuitive. How can those who mourn be blessed? Once again, this describes a disposition of acknowledgment of the genuinely grievous situation that the world is in. These have mourned not because they are perpetually depressed but because they are genuinely disappointed. True mourners cannot be professional mourners. They do not mourn because they are in the habit of making much out of nothing. They are people who have had a deep hope and expectation but have felt the weight of true disappointment. This is not pretending. To mourn is to have hope of righteous results deferred by some great darkness. It is to expect goodness and encounter evil instead. A. M. Hunter writes, “ The mourners are to whom the evil in the world is a continual grief. ” 14 They are not the superficial but those who share the Lord’s burden for the darkness that testifies against the Lord’s designs. The wonderful promise of God to those who mourn is, “they shall be comforted.” This is a subtle promise of a great event. How can those who mourn wickedness be comforted by anything less than true righ teousness? The promise insists that righteousness will win the day. God will give the mourners “beauty for ashes” (Isa. 61:3) and their “mourning will be turned into dancing.” (Psalm 30:11) “Blessed are they that mourn” because their mourning is not all for nothing. “We are not like those who mourn without hope” , Paul said. (1 Thess. 4:13). No! The mourning is unto a purpose. They shall be comforted with real-world transformation. Indeed, the mourning that is referred to is a type of intercession and prayer. God carries a grief in His heart until His expectation is fulfilled. The mourners are those who enter into this deep place of communion with the Lord. They shall be comforted for their desire shall be realized. This beatitude is a direct quote from Psalm 37:11, a Psalm where one finds the foundation of much of what Jesus says in His entire message. In a way, all the beatitudes can be found in Psalm 37 and it would not be hard to believe that it was Jesus’ own meditation upon this magnificent Psalm that served as the womb of Jesus’ Sermon. This brings up an important point; Jesus was a student of the scriptures, but not in a Beatitude #3: Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

14

Hunter, p. 32

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