Jesus taught these Beatitudes across the region of Judea as countless numbers heard something new, fresh and divine, which if they had taken it to heart, could have immediate yet eternal impact on their lives.I have heard it said that Jesus’ Beatitudes are meant to reorient our thinking into “having the attitude of…..(fill in the blank)…or “be of this attitude”…. That is certainly a great interpretation, or way of looking at the Lord’s teachings, as we will discover while digging into the riches of His Word.
In the second Beatitude, we see the Savior proclaim the following “Blessed are those who mourn. for they shall be comforted. That positive, warm and healing truth from the Creator of the World! BUT, hold on, there is more…as there always is, with King Jesus! If we examine the original language closer, we find another gold mine (with more to follow in the other Beatitudes).
Here we have mourning and comforting. We are all acquainted with the mourning, grieving and sadness that comes with losing a loved one. The older we get, we face the stark and sad fact that our grandparents, parents and other loved ones pass on from this earth, into eternity. Even if our loved ones are solid, born-again Christians, we still grieve and mourn their passing. The loss is actually our loss, as our believing loved ones have just happened to have gone ahead to their eternal reward with Christ. This is the “mourning” with which we are most familiar.
However, the word “mourn” in the Bible, (pentheó in the original Greek) means more than just grieve at the death of a loved one! It means to lament and feel a measure of guilt, over a sin, shortcoming or transgression against the Lord that is so strong, sadness and guilt takes possession of our spirit. How a person processes this guilt over loss of a relationship, person, or something important to them, is indicative of the maturity or strength of their walk with Christ.