Introduction: The Constitution of God’s Kingdom
The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ is rightly considered one of the most influential texts in world history. Its thoughts and images have penetrated so deeply into our culture that even people far from faith constantly quote them. “Salt of the earth,” “light of the world,” “speck in the eye,” “turn the other cheek,” “judge not, that you be not judged”—all these expressions originate here. The central prayer of Christianity, the “Our Father,” is also part of this great teaching.
Many theologians call the Sermon on the Mount the “Constitution of the Kingdom of God.” It describes not how we deserve God’s favor, but how citizens of His Kingdom live. And this constitution begins with the eight beatitudes.
Last time we talked about the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. We saw that this is the foundation—the recognition of one’s spiritual bankruptcy. Today we move on to the second beatitude, which sounds no less paradoxical: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).
If you think about it, this statement sounds like an oxymoron. In our usual understanding, bliss and mourning are antonyms. Happiness and sorrow are at opposite poles of the human experience. The world says: “Happy are those who laugh, who enjoy life, who have no worries.” Jesus, however, asserts something directly opposite. How can this be? Can a person at the funeral of a loved one be blessed? Can someone whose house has burned down or who suffers from an incurable disease be happy?
To understand this, we need to understand what kind of mourning the Lord is talking about.
The Meaning of the Word “Mourn”
In the Greek text of the Gospel, the word penteo is used. This is the strongest word for sorrow in the entire Greek language. Most often it was used in relation to mourning the dead. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), we find it when Abraham mourns Sarah or when David weeps for his son Absalom.
This is not just a light sadness or tears from a fleeting resentment. It is a deep sorrow from the realization of irrevocable loss, from the impotence to change anything. It is a weeping that tears the heart apart.
And it is precisely this state that Jesus calls blessed. Why? Because this mourning, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, is directed not at external circumstances, but at the cause of all of humanity’s problems—sin.
What Did Jesus Weep Over?
To better understand this beatitude, we should look at Jesus Himself. Interestingly, in the Gospels we nowhere find a direct mention of Jesus laughing. We know that He was at weddings and feasts, He surely had a sense of humor, but the authors of Scripture emphasize something else.
Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah as a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). And we see how Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the Bible says: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). This happened at the grave of His friend Lazarus. Even though Jesus knew that in a few minutes He would resurrect him, He wept. He saw the grief of Mary and Martha, He saw the destructive power of death, and His heart was broken.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem, which rejected Him and thereby doomed itself to destruction. He grieved in the Garden of Gethsemane, when His soul was “very sorrowful, even to death.” In all these cases, the reason for His tears was the same—the consequences of the fall. Jesus wept over what sin had done to His beautiful creation.
The Great Tragedy in Eden
It all began in the Garden of Eden. After the creation of man, God looked at everything He had made and said: “It was very good.” Man was created in the image and likeness of God; he possessed what we call “original righteousness.” Adam and Eve had the opportunity not to sin. They lived in perfect communion with the Creator, possessed a meaning for life and authority over creation.
But, as Ecclesiastes says: “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Eccl. 7:29). At the moment when man decided to become independent of God, when he transgressed the single commandment—a catastrophe of universal proportions occurred. Righteousness was replaced by sinfulness. Blessing was replaced by a curse.
The punishment for sin was death. The Apostle Paul explains: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Since then, every person born into this world bears the mark of Adam. We die not just because it is a “biological process,” but because we are part of fallen humanity.
When we look at death, at diseases, at wars and injustice—we see the consequences of that choice made in Eden. And if we realize the scale of this tragedy, we cannot help but weep. Jesus wept at Lazarus’s grave because death is not how everything was supposed to be. It is an ugly intrusion of sin into God’s world.
Total Depravity of the Heart
The Bible gives a very honest and sometimes frightening diagnosis of the state of the human heart. Someone might say: “I’m not such a bad person, I try to do good.” But God, who sees the heart through and through, says otherwise.
Even before the flood, the Lord saw that “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Isaiah says that all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. Jeremiah asserts: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9).
Paul in the Epistle to the Romans summarizes: “None is righteous, no, not one… no one seeks for God… All have turned aside” (Rom. 3:10–12). This is the state of “total depravity.” This does not mean that every person commits the maximum possible evil. It means that sin has affected every sphere of our being: mind, feelings, and will. We are blinded and unable to come to God on our own.
The realization of this truth should cause us deep sorrow. If we understand how much a holy God hates sin and see this sin inside ourselves—we begin to mourn. And this mourning is a sign that our heart of stone is beginning to turn into a heart of flesh, a living one.
Sorrow as a Path to Salvation
Why then are those who mourn blessed? Because contrition over sin is a necessary step to salvation. In the Bible, we see that a true turning to God is always accompanied by sorrow.
Remember King David. His sin with Bathsheba led to terrible consequences: adultery, the murder of a faithful soldier, the death of a child. David wept much. But he wept not only about the consequences, he wept about the very essence of his act: “Against you, you only, have I sinned… Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51). Psalm 51 is the cry of a broken heart, and it is precisely such a “sacrifice” that God does not despise.
Remember the Jews who returned from captivity. When Ezra and the Levites read them the Law of God and explained its meaning, “all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law” (Neh. 8:9). They realized how far they and their fathers had gone from God’s standards. Their mourning was the beginning of the spiritual revival of the nation.
Remember the tax collector from Jesus’ parable. He stood afar off, beat his breast and prayed for mercy. His sorrow was so great that he did not even dare to lift his eyes. And Jesus said that it was he who went home justified. Why? Because God accepts the sorrow of a sinner, not the self-confidence of a “righteous man.”
The Apostle Paul in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians writes: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret” (2 Cor. 7:10). There is a “worldly grief” that mourns only missed opportunities or punishment. And there is a “godly grief” that mourns that we have offended the Loving Creator. It is precisely such grief that leads to life.
Frivolity—the Enemy of the Christian
Unfortunately, we modern Christians often treat sin very lightly. We are used to the thought of God’s forgiveness and sometimes sin “on credit,” thinking: “It’s okay, I’ll repent later, God is kind.” But in such a position there is not a drop of contrition.
We divide sins into “terrible” and “acceptable.” We condemn those who commit obvious crimes but do not weep over our own selfishness, pride, or lack of love. We become like the Corinthians, about whom Paul wrote with bitterness: “And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?” (1 Cor. 5:2).
Sin is not just a mistake. It is a rebellion against the King. It is what nailed Jesus to the cross. If we stop mourning over our sin, we stop valuing Calvary. John in his epistle warns: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8). A saved person should have a constant reaction to sin—he should be “sickened” by it, he should strive for purification.
The Great Comfort
The beatitude ends with a promise: “for they shall be comforted.” When will this comfort come?
Like everything in God’s Kingdom, this comfort has two aspects: “already now” and “not yet.”
Already now: He who sincerely mourns over his sin and comes to God with repentance receives immediate comfort. This is the comfort of forgiveness. God takes away our guilt, He cleanses us with the blood of His Son. We receive as a gift the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called the “Comforter.” He bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God. A heavy burden falls from our shoulders, and in place of sorrow comes a deep peace.
Not yet: We still live in a fallen world. We still get sick, lose loved ones, and see injustice. We continue to mourn from the consequences of sin. But we have a great hope.
John in Revelation describes the future that awaits the citizens of Heaven: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Rev. 21:4). This will be the ultimate comfort. In the New Jerusalem, there will be not only no consequences of sin, but no sin itself. We will no longer have the opportunity to sin and offend God. This will be a state of perfect and eternal bliss.
Conclusion
All the beatitudes are inextricably linked. The poor in spirit realizes his poverty (this is the work of the mind). This realization inevitably leads to mourning and contrition (this is the reaction of the heart). True mourning over sin leads to repentance.
Further we will see how this repentance generates meekness and causes the saved person to thirst and hunger for righteousness. This is the logical chain of spiritual growth.
Are you blessed today? Do you mourn over your sin, or are you too busy with self-justification? Remember that only those who sow in tears will reap with joy. God is near to the brokenhearted. Come to Him with your tears, and you will find comfort that this world can neither give nor take away.