Matthew 5: Blessed are those who mourn

Major Malcolm Martin wonders if the deepest joy stems from coming through the most difficult times.

Key texts

Matthew 5:4

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted … to comfort all who mourn’ (Isaiah 61:1 and 2 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition).

There are striking parallels between the Beatitudes and Isaiah 61, perhaps understandably so given Luke’s account of this prophetic text as foundational for the ministry of Jesus (see Luke 4:16–21). The various declarations in Matthew 5 demonstrate that Jesus stands firmly within the Jewish tradition of proclaiming the blessings of God.

The Old Testament includes Beatitude-type statements within the wisdom and prophetic traditions. Wisdom writers – generally concerned with offering practical advice for successful living – observed that those in fortunate circumstances should be understood as blessed (see Job 1:10 and Proverbs 28:20). The prophets – who more frequently addressed situations of crisis – declared that those facing challenging circumstances would be blessed in the near or distant future (see Jeremiah 17:7 and 8 and Isaiah 25:8).

The biblical exploration of God’s transformational blessings eventually leads to a confident assertion: ‘Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ (Revelation 21:4 NRSVUE).

If taken in isolation, the statement ‘blessed are those who mourn’ (Matthew 5:4) seems wholly incongruous, even more so if the alternative translation of ‘happy’ is deployed. The noted 20th-century preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones observed: ‘The world would, and does, regard a statement like this as utterly ridiculous.’

The sense of being blessed within these statements is significantly deeper than the momentary feeling of being happy. The blessings of God are an objective reality, not a subjective state of mind – these are statements of fact, not just whimsical aspirations. Contrary to the repeated assertion in Pharrell Williams’s song ‘Happy’, happiness is not the truth. But blessedness is.

Pause and reflect

Read Isaiah 61:1–4, perhaps a couple of times to enhance the impact of these promises.
How might these declarations of good news comfort someone facing challenging circumstances?

A strictly literal reading of this Beatitude might consider that it applies only to those suffering personal bereavement, rather than a broader anguish in the face of intolerable circumstances. At the other extreme, it can also be tempting to view mourning in an overly spiritual sense, to consider that it refers solely to awareness of personal wrongdoing, rather than comprehensive despair at the way things are in the wider world.

From the life of Jesus, we see mourning in connection with personal bereavement and the grief felt by others (see John 11:35), as well as tears over the corporate failings of society (see Luke 19:41–44). The expressions of lament that form the largest category of biblical psalms address varied circumstances, including personal failings and contexts of communal desolation.

There is, therefore, a strong biblical foundation to use the language of mourning in a broad sense. Blessed are those who have lost loved ones or things they hold dear, whose heartbreaking sorrow moves them to tears. Blessed are those discouraged by extreme polarisation of discussion and diminished civility in public life. Blessed are those who grieve the demonisation of the ‘other’, who are dismayed by situations of oppression and injustice. Blessed are those who lament the persistence of destructive conflicts and the disproportionate loss of civilian lives. Blessed are those dismayed by the destruction of the world’s resources. Blessed are the faithful followers of Jesus who mourn the loss of right relationships, who lament the condition of God’s people and who pray for God’s Kingdom to come more fully in our lives and our world.

Pause and reflect

Reflect on these lyrics: ‘Knowing my failings, knowing my fears,/ Seeing my sorrow, drying my tears./ Jesus recall me, me reordain;/ You know I love you, use me again’ (SASB 715).

There is a future beyond mourning.

How might lament be incorporated appropriately in your personal devotions and corporate worship? Robert Browning Hamilton highlights the scope for learning from experiences of sorrow in his poem ‘Along the Road’:

I walked a mile with Pleasure;

She chattered all the way,

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow

And ne’er a word said she;

But oh, the things I learnt from her

When Sorrow walked with me!

As with all the Beatitudes, the second part of this statement is as important as the first. ‘For they will be comforted’ offers a positive promise that mourning will be transformed. There are many biblical examples of how situations of sorrow can be transfigured. Ecclesiastes 3:4 notes that there are occasions for weeping and mourning, alongside those that call for laughter and dance. In Jeremiah 31:13, all generations share the joy of dancing when mourning is turned into gladness. Jesus promises his disciples that their ‘grief will turn to joy’ (John 16:20) and Revelation 7:17 speaks of a time when every tear will be wiped away.

There is a future beyond mourning. However, perhaps the deepest joy stems from coming through the most difficult times, having drawn upon the comfort offered by God and other people.

Paul reminds us to exercise compassionate comfort in all circumstances: ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12:15). In this way, we can all experience what it is to be truly blessed by God.