The Master's Blesseds: Chapter 2 - The Beatitude for the Mourner
By J.R. Miller
"Blessed are those who mourn--for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4
The house of sorrow is a strange place to look for joy! Mourners are the last people, that the world would call blessed or happy. Men in their quest for happiness, would not think of looking for it in the shadows of grief. Yet Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn."
There are many who mourn. Few are the homes in which there is not some grief. Not all sorrows hang the death-crape on the door, or wear a badge of grief. There are secret troubles, and tears are shed where no eye sees them fall.
Does Jesus mean that all who mourn are blessed? No! there are sorrows which yield no peaceable fruits of righteousness. There are those who suffer--and are not blessed. He means that the state of mourning is one in which divine blessing may be received--rather than in a state of tearlessness. The deepest happiness is not that which has never suffered--but that which has passed through the experience of sorrow--and has been comforted. The happiest home is not one which has never known grief--but one whose songs of gladness have in them a minor strain.
There is a story of a German baron who made a great Aeolian harp by stretching wires from tower to tower of his castle. When the harp was ready, he listened for the music. But it was in the calm of summer--and in the still air, the wires hung silent. Autumn came with its gentle breezes--and there were faint whispers of song. At length the winter winds swept over the castle--and now the harp answered in majestic music.
Such a harp is the human heart. It does not yield its noblest music in the summer days of joy--but in the winter of trial. The sweetest songs of earth, have been sung in sorrow. The richest things in character, have been reached through pain. Even of Jesus we read that He was made perfect through suffering. This does not mean that there were evils in His nature which had to be expelled by the heat of trial, that there was dross in the gold of His being which only the fire could remove. The meaning is that there were elements even in His sinless humanity, which could be brought to full ripeness only through pain.
There is given us in the book of 'Revelation', a glimpse of the heavenly life, in which this same truth is revealed. It was in a vision of the redeemed, singing their praises to God. Among them were some who appeared to have special glory--a great multitude which no man could number, gathered out of all nations, standing in the place of honor before the throne, wearing white robes and carrying palms in their hands. When the question was asked, "Who are these highly favored ones--and where did they come from?" the answer was, "These are those who came out of great tribulation." This joyous multitude came from homes of sorrow. They were the suffering ones on earth who had passed through a baptism of tears. In heaven they wear the white robes, stand nearest to the throne, and bear the emblems of the most complete victoriousness.
How strikingly this vision interprets the beatitude: "Blessed are those who mourn"! Earth regards suffering as a misfortune. The world pities those who are called to endure sorrow. The condition of mourning, is one from which men shrink. But in the kingdom of heaven those are the favored ones who are called to suffer. Instead of being the unfortunate, they are the blessed.
The same teaching runs through all the New Testament. Affliction is not a mark of the divine disfavor--but a token of the divine love. "Whom the Lord loves--He chastens." Instead of being hurtful to the life, working harm and marring--trial promotes the cleansing of the heart and the enrichment of the character. "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous--but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
The secret of this strange teaching is revealed in the second part of the beatitude. Why are those who mourn, blessed? It is because they shall be comforted. It is not in the mourning that the blessedness lies--but in the comfort which comes to those who mourn. Sorrow in itself is not a blessing. Sickness, pain, affliction, trial--are not favors in themselves. These experiences can be nothing else but hard and bitter. It is only in their fruits--that the blessing comes.
The divine comfort is such a revealing of love and good, that it is worth while to mourn in order to receive it. It is a blessing too which we never can have--until we have entered the experience of sorrow. We would never know of the glory of the stars--if the sun did not go down; but it would be a sore loss to us if we were to live our three score and ten years in this world without ever seeing the wonder of the starry skies. It is a blessing to have the night come--that we may see the splendor of the heavens. We would never know God's marvelous comfort--if we never had sorrow.
