“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). The word “comfort” means “strengthened.” It has the little word “f-o-r-t” right in the middle of it. “Fort” is a picture of a huge military protected area - a fort, strengthened. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” People in the world mourn for all types of things. Most people mourn because of some personal loss. Either they lost money, or they lost a loved one, or they lost their reputation, or they lost something of this earth, like their dignity, their position, their job, or something else like that. But Jesus is not speaking about such mourning. It is not mourning because somebody hurt me, nor is it weeping for my own sorrows.
Jesus never wept for His own sorrows, but He did weep for others. We read that He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and that He wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35), but never once did He weep for the way people treated Him, whether they called Him the devil or spat on Him. He never wept for Himself. Not only that, as He was taking up the cross and stumbling on the road to the cross, we read in Luke 23:27 that a great multitude of people were following Him as He was carrying the cross, and some women were mourning and loudly crying when they saw Him being whipped and beaten, and the blood flowing down His head and back as He carried this heavy cross, with a crown of thorns upon His head. Do you know what Jesus turned around and said to them? “Daughters of Jerusalem stop weeping for Me! I'm OK; yes, My back is torn, there's a crown of thorns on My head, and I am carrying a heavy cross. I'm going to be killed in a few moments, but I'm perfectly okay because I'm in the center of the will of God” (Luke 23:28)!
Can you have that attitude when you're suffering the most? “Don't weep for me, I'm OK, but if you want to weep, weep for yourselves and your children - look at their spiritual condition.” They are Pharisees, cloaked in robes and looking very grand. But look at their spiritual condition. What's going to happen in the day when Christ comes back and they say to the mountains, “Fall on us and cover us” (Luke 23:30)? That is the attitude of Jesus. He didn't have any tears for His Own griefs like the song says, but sweat drops of blood for my griefs.
The true disciple of Jesus mourns because he's not like Christ; he mourns when he has sinned, and when he has slipped up. He doesn't mourn for the way people treat him. He believes that's his appointed lot on this earth, to be dishonored for the sake of Christ. But he mourns whenever he has dishonored the Lord by sin or by failure. When he goes to a higher level spiritually, He also mourns for the sins of others, for the failure of others, like Jesus wept over Jerusalem. This is the mourning that Jesus spoke of. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be strengthened.” Perhaps the reason why some of us are not being strengthened is because we’re not mourning for our sin.
It's an even higher level to go beyond that to mourn for the sins of others. The apostle Paul had reached that higher level. He says to the Corinthians who had failed so miserably, “I'm afraid when I come to you, my God will humble me before you” (2 Corinthians 12:21). Why should God humble Paul? He had lived such an upright life, and was conscious of no sin against himself. But he says, “I will mourn over many of you who have sinned in the past and who have not repented of your impurity, immorality, and sensuality.” He lists some of the things they had in the midst of their church (verse 20): jealousy, anger, tempers disputes, slanders, gossips, arrogance, disturbances, etc. When he thought of all the sins among those people who called themselves God's people, he wept, because he was their spiritual father. It’s just like how an earthly father would weep if his son were very sick. If the father were spiritually minded, he would be very grieved that his son is going astray into drugs or evil habits.
Paul was a spiritual father to the Corinthians, and every true Christian shepherd or pastor should be a spiritual father to his flock. One mark of a spiritual father is that he won't just criticize the flock, but he will also weep over them like Paul wept over the Corinthians. Only such a man is fit to be a spiritual leader. In Isaiah 49:10 (Isaiah 49 is a great chapter on spiritual leadership) it says, “He who has compassion on the people will lead them.”
Who is fit to be a spiritual leader? It’s the one who has compassion on people. And so the “mourning” in Matthew 5:4 refers to mourning for oneself, for one's own sin, one’s unlikeness to Christ, and mourning for others. We will be strengthened if we do that, and we will find strength to be able to strengthen other people as well if we go along this way.
