Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
“The truth is that there are such things as Christian tears, and too few of us ever weep them.” - John Stott

 We live in a sinful and fallen world. You’re a sinner. I’m a sinner. Everyone we know is a sinner. So in some form or another, you and I are always reacting to sin. It seems to me that the three most common reactions to sin, in order of frequency, are: indifference, anger, and hopelessness.
 
Sin is so prevalent, both in our lives and in the world, that we most often react to its presence with indifference. We don’t notice sin as sin, and when we do notice it we honestly don’t care. Our internal monologue sounds something like this: “Oh there’s another pride parade. Oh well. Oh I snapped at my spouse again. Oh well.” Jesus condemns indifference to sin in the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is not those who are indifferent to the suffering sin caused that are praised, but the man who cared enough to do something about it.
 
In spite of our overwhelming indifference to the presence of sin, there are sins that make us angry. In some ways, anger is a positive response. It is a blend of positive and negative emotion. Anger indicates that something you value is being threatened, and anger urges you to do something about it. So at times, perhaps when our family or our church is threatened by sin, we notice and we become angry. Jesus displayed this kind of anger when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. His Father’s house was being threatened, and he became angry.
 
A third common response to sin is hopelessness. You give in to temptation and fall into a besetting sin yet again, and you lose hope. You don’t know if you can ever overcome that addiction or that way of believing or behaving – so you give up. Hopelessness, like indifference, is an unbiblical attitude toward sin. 2 Corinthians 5:17 promises, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
 
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus directs us to a fourth attitude toward sin: mourning. John Stott was right when he said, “The truth is that there are such things as Christian tears, and too few of us ever weep them.” Very few of us mourn for sin – the sin in ourselves, in our families, and in our world. No wonder then, that we do not receive comfort for the sin all around us. Heed the call of Jesus – the call to weep and mourn over sin. Then, and only then, will you be comforted.
 
Your Pastor and Friend,
 
John Knox Foster