Hi everyone. Let’s look at the second of the eight “blessed” statements Jesus made in Matthew 5.
We’ve already seen, while looking at the previous verse, that “blessed” carried a meaning something along the lines of “This is good news for…”
Who was Jesus referring to in this verse? Who were “those who mourn” in the context in which he was teaching?
And what does it mean that they will be “comforted”? How? And when?
And what could all of this mean for us in 2024?
Those who mourn
To whom was Jesus referring?
The most obvious reading of the verse might be those who were undergoing a period of intense loss such as bereavement and all of the emotional sorrow and heartache which came with it.
It’s certainly true to say that Jesus’ message offered good news to such people. Because of Jesus, death is no longer the end. Those who have lost a loved one, perhaps a family member or a close friend, can have hope of seeing them again when Jesus returns to the earth and the dead are raised.
It would also be true to say that such people in Jesus’ time were typically not the recipients of any “blessing” or good news from the religious leaders.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leon Morris) puts it this way:
“We generally regard mourners as the most unfortunate of people. We see them as people to be pitied, helped, comforted, but not as those to be envied as the recipients of God’s blessing.”
Yet it may be the case that Jesus was not referring exclusively to those suffering from something as specific as bereavement. It may simply have been a promise of good news for anyone whose life circumstances had reached a nadir of suffering.
The New International Commentary on the New Testament (R T France) adds the following:
“…the ‘mourning’ envisaged is not primarily, as modern use of the verb might suggest, that of personal bereavement, but rather of those whose situation is wretched…For those who, as God’s people, find their current situation intolerable and incomprehensible, there are better times ahead.”
Again we can see this as an example of Jesus subverting the expectations of his own 1st century Jewish culture. Remember it was the wealthy, the powerful and the successful who were seen as the recipients of God’s blessing for having lived a virtuous life.
Jesus by contrast reached out to the lowest of the low, in this case to those going through some of the worst moments a human being can experience.
This is a verse to keep in mind whenever you yourself are going through such times.
Leon Morris further argues that Jesus may also have been addressing those who mourn, not because of personal loss or suffering, but over the state of the society around them:
“Perhaps we should bear in mind that typically the worldly take a lighthearted attitude to the serious issues of life, a fact that is very evident in our modern pleasure-loving generation. In their seeking after self-gratification and pleasure they do not grieve over sin or evil. Because they do not grieve over what is wrong in themselves, they do not repent; and because they do not grieve over the wrong they share with others in the communities in which they live, they take few steps to set things right. Because they are not moved by the plight of the poor and the suffering, they make no move to help the world’s unfortunates. It may be that Jesus is saying that our values are wrong and that it is those who mourn in the face of the evils that are part and parcel of life as we know it, those who mourn over the way God’s cause is so often neglected and his people despised, who are the truly blessed ones.”
(Pillar New Testament Commentary)
They will be comforted
What did Jesus mean by the comfort that those who mourn would receive?
He was almost certainly alluding to Isaiah 61:1-3:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”
The most obvious reading of Matthew and Isaiah might be the promise of deliverance and new life at Jesus’ second coming. Those who were going through great suffering were promised that they would never again experience pain. Those who had lost loved ones received the hope of seeing them again.
However, Jesus’ message was not only an encouragement to endure hardship and heartbreak until the day when deliverance would come. Jesus wanted his listeners to be transformed, to live radically different lives, in a way that would be immediately evident to everyone they met.
Jesus did not want his followers to be merely stoic, enduring pain and suffering with a stiff upper lip. He wanted them to be truly joyful, confident in their shared hope and willing to endure even more pain and hardship in order to spread that same hope to others who might listen.
Some people have a stereotypical view of Christians as puritanical killjoys, perpetually stern and dour, critical and condemnatory of anyone who doesn’t “match up” to their standards.
That was not what Jesus wanted his followers to be.
One of the things that truly makes Christians stand out – both in the 1st century AD and today in 2024 – is the ability to both feel and express joy regardless of how difficult our life circumstances might be.
Even at the lowest point of our lives, we can still experience and share that joy with others.
People should see that joy in the way we speak and the way we live. But do they?
That’s the question we’ll address next time.
Thank you. God bless.
Nihilist to Christian 