We tend to consider those who mourn as unfortunate. No-one is happy about mourning—if they’re happy, then they aren’t really mourning, but the joy of salvation is something that is independent of the circumstances of the moment.
People have this idea that if they could do whatever they want, they would be happy, when experience has shown, over and over again, that experience, unbound by morality, just brings death and destruction.
those who mourn
Mourning is when grief inside us pours out from us in some outward expression, often tears or crying out. Now, our first instinct, especially as adults is often to conceal grief.
Passages like James 1:6-10 make it clear that we are to walk like a Citizen of Heaven, as a child of the light, walking in the light, in fellowship with Jesus.
John 3:19-20 : Hiding and refusing to come to the light is not new. It is, and has always been, the natural fleshly reaction. While Jesus was saying these words, there was a crowd at the bottom of the hill that mostly just didn’t want to hear it.
Mathew 5:20 says 20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Because everyone thought that the Pharisees were the most righteous people there were, then these Pharisees had a reputation to uphold. Well, if our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, what should be our reaction to sin? Cover it up and appear to others to be Super-Christian? No. Walk in humility before your God. Self-righteousness always causes problems. Self-righteous attitude is often a defense mechanism that we use so that we don’t have to bring our sins to God and confess them.
But when you mourn over sin, you will find that God mourns with you over the hurt and pain that the sin has caused you, over the anguish and grief that it has caused others. He will hurt with you, because you are hurting. That’s God’s reaction to confessed sin. It is the unconfessed sin that hurts us, as we try to carry that weight around. Proverbs 28:13 tells us He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.
Model of mourning and sorrow over sin, repentance and forgiveness in Luke 7:36-38.
37 And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, 38 and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, and began kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.
Her sins were forgiven (v. 48). Simon the Pharisee thought of the woman only as a sinner, and was probably worried about his own reputation when this woman came to his house. Jesus ties her remorse for her sin together with her love for him, saying “her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.” If we love Jesus, we obey Him, and a fundamental teaching of Jesus is that we should repent of sin, and be mournful of it.
Is God going to refuse someone who comes to Him in this way? NO! When we come to Him with remorse, in brokenness of spirit, He will comfort us, as he did this woman.
Mourning over sin doesn’t feel like a good thing, but it is. Paul talks in II Corinthians about Godly Sorrow in chapter 7vs.10 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
They shall be comforted
The Corinthians Godly sorrow and repentance will cause them not to suffer loss. It caused them to turn from their evil, and to stop missing out on the blessing and reward that can be theirs now by obeying God, and will be theirs someday, when they stand before Jesus to be rewarded for their faithful service to the Kingdom. But there is also a more fundamental meaning as well: If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, and you do come to God in humility with repentance and sorrow for sin, you will find salvation. Remember Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, God, You will not despise. He will not turn away from you—He will make sure that you have the opportunity to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and give you the faith to step out and receive Jesus into your heart.