As I study the Scriptures, I see a lot more mourning than I see when I look at the church.  Church, worship and mourning do not seem to go together in our thinking, except maybe at a funeral service.  But, in the Bible, there are hundreds of laments– people grieving over many issues of hardship in their lives.  I want us to have a better theology about grieving, because grieving seems to be a normal human response to certain circumstances, and the called for response when we suffer due to our sin.
This morning, we continue in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached, and we are looking at the second Beatitude.  Last week we set up this series by talking about the background behind this sermon and then preached about our poverty in spirit, that as we embrace our poverty– the truth that we have nothing righteous to give to God– we gain the Kingdom of Heaven, meaning we become a part of the Kingdom and are used by God to build His Kingdom!  This morning, we are looking at this emotion of mourning and what that has to do with the Kingdom of Heaven.  When we see our sin as God sees our sin, and truly grieve for the pain it has caused, then we will know the peace and grace of God.

I. Mourning for our sin before God.

Remember what we said last week about being blessed by God.  This is a state of God’s goodness and favor resting upon you.  It is more than a mere wish, but is a declaration of truth which affects both our thinking and what is taking place in the heavenly realms.  Here, Jesus declares that we are under the favor of God if we mourn.  At first hearing, it seems like a strange declaration, almost a contradiction.

To understand this more fully, let me give to you a few biblical pictures we find in the Old Testament and see how they strike you:  Joel 1:8‑9

Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
grieving for the husband of her youth.
Grain offerings and drink offerings
are cut off from the house of the LORD.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister before the LORD.

Joel 1:13
Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.

In this passage in Joel, mourning is the proper response to the judgement of God.  They will mourn for what they have lost. The people of God have sinned against God, causing Him to send judgement on them.  They are reaping the results of their sin.  The proper response is to mourn. What is Jesus asking us to mourn about in the Sermon on the Mount?  The answer to that question is “Our sin.”  Last week we talked about the poverty of our own spirit– the fact that we have nothing to offer to God, nothing righteous in and of ourselves.  The reason this is true is because of our sin.  Each of us was born in sin because of Adam’s original sin.  Because of Adam’s sin, we are born with a sin nature– our natural tendency will be to sin, to act out of selfish motives, in everything we do. The truth is we have sinned repeatedly against a holy God.  Our sin has caused the broken relationship between us and God.  We have lost much because of our sin! 

Think about this with me.  Compare, for a moment, the joy of being with your family, in the midst of loving relationships, in the midst of worship where the Spirit of God is so rich that you can taste the presence of God, where you enjoy the harmony of reconciled relationships as God intended; with a family where there is hate and distrust, where each person is only looking out for self, where the ethos is abuse other so you will not be abused yourself.  The first picture is God’s design for us– to live in family and community with others, who are all seeking to love and serve one another, so the harmony of God is experienced in their midst.  Few or none of us have experienced this on the level which God has designed for us to experience it.  Most of us have experienced quite a bit of pain in our relationships with others, causing us to withdraw from others into isolation.  This is but one picture for you to think about when you meditate on the cost of your sin.

When I was in a small Muslim tribe in Uganda, to learn about this people the church was adopting to reach with the gospel, I watched how they lived and interacted with one another.  I saw men playing gambling games while their wives and mothers worked out in the field digging with a hoe.  I literally saw a 70 year old women digging in the field while her healthy son played games.  In this culture, women were owned by the men.  A Muslim man can have 4 wives.  He does need to provide separate structure for each of them and their children, but he can literally do anything he desires with them.  The women work from sun up to sun down.  There is fighting and jealousy among the women over the man.  Poverty is pervasive.  Fear is the strongest emotion you see exhibited.  Power struggles were common.  Now, I know I am painting a picture of what sin looks like in another culture, but many of these same issues are present in our culture, although not quite to the same degree.  Is this the will of God for us?  Is this God’s best?  Absolutely not!!  Sin has ravaged relationships in our lives. We settle for so little when God is offering us so much!!

I honestly do not believe we are aware of the tremendous consequences of our own sin– how much our sin cost the Lord, and how much pain it has cost others.  It is obvious perhaps with the father who threw his 4 kids off of a bridge to their deaths, or in Hitler exterminating thousands of people, but it doesn’t seem very apparent in our lives.  The reason for this is because we compare ourselves to those living around us or those on the news for crimes they have committed.  But, if you sat in my seat or that of a counselor, the tremendous cost of each person’s sin becomes more obvious.  Person after person comes into a Christian pastor or counselor’s office struggling with their self-image and with relationships which have been broken due to their sin and the sin of others against them.
When I take a long hard look at my own heart, and honestly reflect what is there, against the mirror of the Scriptures and God’s demand that I be holy as He is holy, I quickly become aware of the waywardness of my own heart.  If each one of us could honestly look at the negative impact that our sin has had on those around us, on the church of Jesus Christ, and even on those we dearly love, we would be undone! 

This response Jesus is calling from His disciples is beyond what most of us have fully experienced.  The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon may help us here.  He said, “Sin confessed with tears, sin which causes the very heart to bleed– killing sin, damning sin– this is the kind of sin for which Jesus died.  Sham sinners may be content with a sham savior, but our Lord Jesus is  a real Savior, who did really die and died for real sin.  Oh, how this ought to comfort you who are sadly bearing the pressing burden of an abominable life!  You, too, who are crushed into the mire of despondency beneath the load of your guilt!”  You see, too often we treat sin like the doctor, who, on discovering you had a tumor buried in your body, responded, “Take 2 aspirin and you will be fine”.  Or perhaps like the fireman who responded to a three-alarm fire by saying, “It’ll probably burn itself out soon enough.”  Or the policeman who, on arriving at the scene of a robbery merely shook his head and said, “Boys will be boys”!  In each case the response is inappropriate to the situation.  Too often, our response to sin is also inappropriate! 

Do you remember the story of David, the man after God’s own heart, who sinned against the Lord by committing adultery and then having Bathsheba’s husband killed so his sin would not be found out.  God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David with his sin, and when he does, David confesses his sin before the Lord:  2 Sam 12:13‑17 it says, “13 Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD."

Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."

15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.”  The child dies because of David’s sin!  Further than this, the sword never left David’s house because of his sin!  His whole family was undermined because of his sin.  Here, David weeps and fasts for his child, but judgement still falls upon him.  There are tremendous consequences to our sin.  When sin we have sown is harvested, there will be much pain in the lives of those around us!!  We need to acknowledge our sin and the cost of it and the pain it has caused us and others around us!  Jesus calls on us to mourn over our own sin!  This is Jesus’ expected response from us!

II. The comfort the Spirit brings as we grieve.

What happens when we do weep before the Lord for the pain of our sin?  What is the result?  I love the picture in this word translated “comforted.”  Literally, the word means to be called near.  God will call those who mourn over their sin near to Himself.  When we are near God, we will experience His comfort.  People look for comfort in all kinds of places– alcohol, sex, food– but none of these works long term.  In fact, most ‘God substitutes’, which is what these ultimately are, actually leave a person feeling worse than before, because you still have the grief you had, but you also have a hangover, guilt or a stomach ache to deal with on top of the grief.  But when you respond by looking to God, he calls you near Himself.  There is great comfort in the feeling of being near someone.  Most of us simply want a hug when we are feeling hurt or grief.  We want someone who will hold us and love us unconditionally.  This is exactly what is meant by this idea of comfort.  After you have wept over your sin and the pain it has caused you and others around you, then you experience the forgiveness God has pronounced over you.  You know that when your Judge looks upon you, He has declared that you are not guilty, because the full penalty was already paid.  You know that His love for you has not changed at all, but is still very present.  You know that He is with you, beside you and as your Father in heaven will hold you in His arms.  You know that He is ready to take the places of pain and to soothe them to make them whole and healthy in His sight.  All of these things are completely available to you as His child.

The idea of comfort the Lord brings is powerfully expressed in this true story.  Dr. R. A. Torrey, one of the great Bible teachers of a past generation went through the tremendous pain of losing his 12 year old daughter in an accident.  The funeral was held on a gloomy, rainy day.  They watched as the body of their little girl was laid in a box in the ground.  Mrs. Torrey said, “I’m so glad that Elizabeth is with the Lord and not in that box.”  Even though he knew that was true, Dr. Torrey’s heart was broken. He was walking down the street the next day and a wave of grief came over him– the loneliness of years ahead without her presence, the heartbreak of an empty house and all the other implications of her death.  He was so burdened by this that he looked to the Lord for help.  He said, “And just then, this fountain, the Holy Spirit that I had in my heart, broke forth with such a power I think I had never experienced before, and it was the most joyful moment I had ever known in my life.  Oh, how wonderful is the joy of the Holy Ghost!  It is an unspeakable glorious thing to have your joy not in things about you, not even in your most dearly loved friends, but to have within you a fountain ever springing up, 365 days in every year, springing up under all circumstances unto everlasting life!” 

This is the point of it– if we would just own our sin in all its horror, and weep over its effect and the pain it has caused us and others, then we would also experience the great power and joy of knowing His comfort.  The cross is not some cheap thing, as we often treat it, but it was at a great cost that Jesus went to Calvary!  My sin cost Jesus dearly, and has cost even members of this church who have in some small way not experienced the fullness of God’s grace through me because of my sin at various moments every day when I have walked in my flesh instead of by His power.  The horror of this thought can almost overwhelm me at times...until I turn to my blessed Savior and lay it all down at His feet.  And then I come to a fuller understanding of the depth of the love of Christ for me.  In that place, I know His comfort, His grace over me, in me and flowing through me! 
People of God, this is a tremendously challenging verse for me.  Own your sin and the fullness of pain it has caused.  Then leave it all at the cross, and rejoice once again in the comfort that only.. Only!! Our Lord can give to us– the nearness of our Lord to us as He holds us in His loving arms!!