“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)
We have been looking at mourning and how it is that those who mourn are blessed. You may think that this is a terrible subject to speak of since we should be telling people how to have joy in God. However, if Jesus is right and not those that say things like that, in dealing with the subject of mourning we are moving people toward a true and biblical joy. After all, the text tells us with no real degree of ambiguity that those who mourn are the ones that are blessed (happy, inner joy). Then the text tells us the main reason for that and it is this: “for they shall be comforted.” Another way to put that would be that only those who mourn will be comforted and therefore blessed or truly happy. In order to pursue true joy, therefore, we must teach people about true mourning.
The world pursues joy and happiness in all manner of activities and ways. It hates any sort of sadness and thinks sadness is a form of depression. This means that when the world hears of a person being sad or mourning it thinks that people are depressed. So the world rushes to cheer that person up with all sorts of positive thinking and light activities. In doing that, however, it just might be crushing any true joy that a person may have. Scripture speaks of people mourning and being broken over their sin. This is a natural result of a person coming to the stark realization of his or her poverty of spirit. The drive to make everyone outwardly light and happy in and out of the church has had terrible results in the spiritual realm of people. People must learn to truly mourn over their own sin and the glory of God or they will not have true joy.
Our text tells us that those who mourn will be comforted. So we must learn to mourn in such a way that it is only God and His balm that is applied to the soul that will comfort us. What keeps us from mourning in a biblical way? The world sees this as ridiculous (happy are those who mourn) and thinks mourning should be avoided at all cost. In fact, it is setup to avoid pain and mourning. For example, the entertainment industry is thriving in its efforts to help us keep our minds off of mourning and hell. To the degree, then, that the church has bought into the entertainment model is to the same degree that the church is opposed to true mourning and true joy. This text demonstrates that there is a real problem in the Church because it has been caught up with entertainment just like the world except that it is termed “Christian.”
The world is seemingly nothing but a variety of entertainment these days. We have movies, music, television, computers, video games, bars, novels, and the list goes on and on. The world seems set up to keep people entertained so that they will not have to think of the looming danger and reality of eternity. If once a person begins to think of eternity and others see him or her as depressed, the entertainment industry is thrust at that person in an effort to get him or her out of depression. However, what that does is bring many people out of a serious thinking about eternity and reality and gives them the opiate of entertainment which is a great form of delusion. While it has been said that religion is the opiate of the masses, the truth of the matter is that entertainment in our day has become that which dulls the mind and the soul to eternal things and reality. It is the opiate of the masses.
But is the Church any better? Sure, we may say, it is far better. But to what degree is it better? If our services are set up to keep people happy and not bored, what are we saying? If we desire quality music and entertaining preaching, though we would use different words, aren’t we going down that same path and in reality the worldly model of entertainment has entered in? If we lighten up the preaching, though we say we are making it more relevant, aren’t we really being more entertaining? If the preaching is filled with stories and jokes, then we are focused on entertainment. If our children programs and youth programs are meant to entertain or be funny and light over all, can we say that the entertainment model has not been brought into the Church?
For a church to desire true happiness in the members it must seek to make them mourn. I know that sounds utterly ridiculous and even heretical in certain circles, but do we believe the words of Christ or not? If only those who mourn are truly blessed and happy, then a church that loves the people will pray and teach in such a way that it leads the people to mourn. If we truly desire the true spiritual good of the people in the church, we will not be interested in positive thinking as such and we will want to throw the entertainment back to the pit. We must preach and teach in ways that our people will learn to mourn so that they will truly be happy. Of course they must learn what to mourn over and to have a heart of true love for God.
A second reason that we do not mourn is simply because some are too intellectual in the worldly sense. Christianity is approached from the intellectual point of view and when a person gains some information about a doctrine or truth that is thought to suffice. Another point is that even if we teach that the intellect is not enough the heart is so deceptive it tricks us into thinking that if we have had some experience relating to that bit of information or doctrine that we have had enough. Receiving a doctrine in the brain alone is not enough to make us mourn in truth. The Holy Spirit alone can drive the truth into the depths of our hearts and open our minds and souls to the reality of the great truths of Christianity. The truth of a doctrine must be seen how it relates to God and how people are to respond from the inner man to it. Christianity is a life that comes from the heart and is not a façade. Christianity is more than just an intellectual system; it is having the very life of God in the soul of man. This is far more than an intellectual challenge of game, it is life itself.
A third reason that we do not mourn flows from the fourth reason (see below). Between the two we will call both of them the main reason. We do not mourn because we do not love God enough. We either do not love God at all or we do not love Him enough. Either way we have little of no affection for God. If we don’t love Him then we will not mourn for the way people speak His name and go on to treat His name. We will mourn when our political party loses or when our sports teams lose, but we won’t mourn when the name of God is abused. This shows that our hearts do not love God more than our politics and our sports. Some will spend much time mourning over the moral or social ills in our nation or world and yet that mourning is not over how the name of God is being abused and ridiculed in the entertainment industry and the media.
We mourn over the things we love. We mourn when what we love is spoken ill of. We get down if our name is despised or dragged in the mud, but we desire to be socially acceptable when the name of God is blasphemed. We are horrified if something bad happens in the church and it goes public because we don’t want our church to be spoken of in a derogatory manner. However, where is our love for God and His honor? It honors God when church discipline is carried out in certain circumstances, but when we don’t do that because we don’t want things to be known and the church to be spoken of in a certain manner, we show that it is not God’s name that we love.
A fourth reason that we do not mourn is because we have no sense of God’s majesty. We have been deceived into thinking that if we run the church and keep certain doctrines, then we are doing God’s work. Others think that if the numbers are high and they give to missions, they are doing God’s work. In reality, no work for God is being done if it is not done out of a love for His glory and majesty. When the church becomes more of an institution than a place where God is exalted, then formalism and ritualism are being done no matter whether it is an entertainment model or a liturgical one. When God’s majesty is gone, the music can be contemporary, rock, country, or hymns and it will all be nothing but ritual in one form or another. No mourning for His glory will be done.
A fifth reason is that we have no true desires for His glory and kingdom. This reason flows from a love for God and a sense of His majesty. All that we do in the church apart from love for God and a sense of His majesty is just work to keep the institution going and perhaps to keep people busy in the church so that they will think that they are serving God. It is important to many people to think that they are serving God so that they can deceive themselves into thinking that they are Christians and good people. As long as the church is not seeking the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom in reality out of a love for Him and His majesty, it is deceiving the people that are in it and keeping them from true Christianity.
How does this all relate to mourning? It shows several things that are related to mourning and why those that mourn are blessed. Next week I intend to show several essential Christian practices that are inextricably intertwined with true mourning. But for the moment I hope that it is clear that a mourning heart is at odds with the entertainment model of church. Churches in that model are in effect destroying what it takes to be truly happy. Churches that do not teach what true love for God is and how utterly glorious He is and focus on practical things (so-called), are really destroying what it takes to truly mourn and therefore true joy. True joy and happiness must come from God and come from the work of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22ff). Those who mourn in truth are those that have finished with the world and desire their joy from the very working of God in their souls. Those who love God desire His glory and kingdom in this world more than their own happiness. When that happens, God blesses those people with Himself and comforts them with the joy that the world knows nothing of.
God Loves... Himself 
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