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In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is highlighting how different life in his kingdom is from life in the world. Nothing captures that contrast more strikingly than the second beatitude - "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).
What a seeming contradiction! Who likes to mourn? How can sorrow be spoken of as a blessing? Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes our natural response to sorrow when he says, "The one thing the world tries to shun is mourning; its whole organization is based on the supposition that that is something to avoid. The philosophy of the world is, Forget your troubles, turn your back upon them, do everything you can not to face them…. The whole organization of life, the pleasure mania, the money, energy and enthusiasm that are expended in entertaining people, are all just an expression of the great aim of the world to get away from this idea of mourning…" (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p. 57).
Yet Jesus' words are emphatic. It is, he says, the mourners who are blessed. Their present sorrow will one day be turned into joy, but those who laugh now will mourn and weep (Luke 6:25). It all seems so upside down to our way of thinking. How are we to understand it?
First we need to be clear on the kind of sorrow that Jesus is speaking about. It is not the sorrow we experience when someone close to us dies. Nor is it sorrow we feel when we lose money, or employment, or health. People who mourn on account of these things are not necessarily blessed. The mourning that Jesus is speaking about is like that of godly men and women in Old Testament times during Israel's exile in Babylon. They mourned over their sin and unfaithfulness to God; they mourned because of the loss of his favour and presence; they mourned because of the terrible sufferings they were experiencing; and they mourned for the welfare of Jerusalem and the land God promised to their fathers (Ps. 137:1ff., Daniel 9:4ff.) .
Their sorrow, in other words, was a spiritual sorrow. It was a sorrow over their sinfulness, the suffering that it produced, and the dishonour it brought to God. They had come to see sin for what it really was, and they couldn't help but be grieved by it. It was to such mourners that first the prophets and then Jesus spoke words of comfort. The Lord would restore the fortunes of his troubled people, the prophets predicted (Isaiah 57:18), and one-day fill their mouths with joy and laughter. Jesus was announcing the arrival of that day (Is. 61:2,3; cf. Luke 4:18).
Those who know him today experience both sorrow and joy. They mourn because of their own sin, and because of the effects of sin that they see in the world - in its sickness, crime, injustice, deceit, greed and so on. And they mourn also because of the state of the church - often a divided, superficial, and powerless shadow of what it ought to be. Yet, at the same time, they are comforted. The gospel assures them that their sins are forgiven, and they see it bringing hope and salvation to others as well. What is more, they look forward to the time when all tears will be wiped away (Rev. 21:4). They cannot but be joyful even as they grieve.
This will inevitably make its mark on a Christian leader. Such a person will be an earnest person, a serious person, and a compassionate person. They will never be content with the superficial, the flippant and the bubbly. Without being morose or sullen, they will be serious and sober. The real issues of life - those affecting God, heaven and hell, and true happiness - will be too big for them to be content with the trivial.