While grieving the death of his wife Lewis wrote: Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not in imagination. Yes; but should it, for a sane man, make quite such a difference as this? No. And it wouldn’t for a man whose faith had been real faith and whose concern for other people’s sorrows had been real concern. The case is too plain. If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards. The faith which “took these things into account” was not faith but imagination. The taking them into account was not real sympathy. If I had really cared, as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came. C.S. Lewis A Grief Observed

The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day. The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one’s heart. Easier said than done. And the contents become perfume only when it is broken. While they are safe inside they are more like sewage. Lewis

Some have tears enough for their outward losses, but none for their inward lusts; they can mourn for the evil that sin brings, but not for the sin which brings the evil. Pharaoh more lamented the hard strokes which were upon him, than the hard heart that was within him. Esau mourned not because he sold the birth-right, which was his sin, but because he lost the blessing, which was his punishment. William Secker

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

This follows naturally from poverty of spirit. There is the mourning over personal sin, and this follows naturally from the first beatitude, the first blessing. We think of Isaiah who sees something of the glory and holiness of God, such that even the very angels in heaven cover their faces and cry, “Holy, holy, holy.”

As a result, he is conscious of his un-worth, and he says, “Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips.” Or we think of Peter seeing something of the Lord’s spectacular power in the realm that Peter knew most about (namely, fishing) and saying, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.” We see Paul wrestling in Romans 7. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”

Do I view my sins in that way?

Do I mourn over my sins? Or do I view them with such calmness that I almost regard them as inevitable? We all have our little problems, right, Does every sin grieve me?
He was not talking about the crybabies of this world. He was not talking about the moaners. Their favorite hymn is “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” and the only pleasure they get in life is singing it to you.

The word here, “Blessed are they that mourn,” is the deepest word for sorrow. It’s the word for the grief that you feel at the graveside of a loved one. It’s a strong word, a word for lament. I think it’s described in Psalm 34 and verse 18: “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) That’s what He’s talking about, my dear friend.

Jesus was a man of sorrows. The most poignant verse in all of the Bible, I think, the shortest in our English Bible, is this: “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)

Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break ours?

That’s the question. Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break ours? “Blessed are they that mourn.” Do we have a dry-eyed church in a hell-bent world? One of the things that we have learned not to do is to mourn.

So many of our church services are filled with cheerleader enthusiasm. I’m not talking against joy. My dear friend, the Bible says there’s a time to laugh and there is a time to weep. Ecclesiastes 3:4
Now it’s out of vogue to mourn. It’s out of vogue to weep. We’ve done all that we can do to keep ourselves from feeling any pain.

We want to go from one entertainment to another, one amusement to another.

When we see our bankruptcy, then it brings our brokenness—bankruptcy and brokenness. When we see that we are spiritually bankrupt—that in our hands we have nothing to offer to God, but that even our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of a righteous and a Holy God (Isaiah 64:6)—it is then that we mourn.

The idea is simply that the Christian is a realist. He sees himself, he sees his finances, he sees the world’s predicament, and he sees its ugliness against standard of God’s transcendent purity, and he mourns.

Ultimately, we read that in a new heaven and on a new earth, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Perhaps here there is also that particular mourning that is the path of Christians who are persecuted, but that too will one day be gone, in a new heaven and a new earth, when the kingdom is consummated and the mourning and the weeping turns into laughter.

This does not suggest that Christians are to go around being morbid and weepy, but on the other hand, we’re not to be frivolous and cheap. The world likes to laugh. The Christian sees both himself and his world the way they are under God, and he mourns. He’s not being a pessimist. He’s not going around with a depressed face. Spiritual poverty leads to godly sorrow; the poor in spirit become those who mourn. Mourn is the strongest, the most severe. It represents the deepest, most heart-felt grief, and was generally reserved for grieving over the death of a loved one. Happiness, or blessedness, does not come in the mourning itself. Happiness comes with what God does in response to it, with the forgiveness that such mourning brings.

Only mourners over sin are happy because only mourners over sin have their sins forgiven. Sin and happiness are totally incompatible. Where one exists, the other cannot. Until sin is forgiven and removed, happiness is locked out. Mourning over sin brings forgiveness of sin, and forgiveness of sin brings a freedom and a joy that cannot be experienced in any other way.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” James tells us. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:8–10).

Mourning over sin does not focus on ourselves, not even on our sin. It focuses on God, who alone can forgive and remove our sin. It is an attitude that begins when we enter the kingdom and lasts as long as we are on earth.

Mourn is a present participle, indicating continuous action. In other words, those who are continually mourning are those who will be continually comforted. In his ninety-five theses Martin Luther said that the Christian’s entire life is a continuous act of repentance and contrition

The Person Who Mourns:

Understands Their Guilt

Many of us come to church quite satisfied with ourselves. As a matter of fact, some of us have the idea that we’ve done God a wild favor just by getting there. And one of the hardest things for us to do is to really see that we have anything to weep over, that we have anything to mourn over.
Mourners are not deceived by their sin,

“Ye have heard that it hath been said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:21–22)

Now most of us have a little list of do’s and don’ts: “I do this,” and, “I do this,” and, “I don’t do this,” and, “I don’t do that.” And, you know, that little list of do’s and don’ts can just lead to pride in our lives. We don’t mourn our sin, we just think we don’t really do that bad.

The Apostle Paul was a proud Pharisee. He kept all of the Ten Commandments outwardly, except one of them.

Romans 7:7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

Mourners are not defiled by their sin

Many of us do not realize how deceitfully wicked our hearts are. Our hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9)

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:29–30)

With our eye we are able to behold beauty. The eyes speak of the pleasurable things of life. What does the hand speak of? With the hand we grasp and hold things.

Sin takes these things and it perverts them: the beautiful things, the precious things, the things that we behold and the things that we hold.

Sin has a way of perverting these things. The devil takes the good things of God and he perverts them.

Mourners understand how sin can destroy

5:30 here: “And He said, “if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

He’s not saying that cutting off your hands is going to get you to heaven. Plucking out your eye is not going to get you to heaven. Christ died for those sins.. You mourn over sin because you know it destroys.

We Mourn, We are Broken Hearted

There are many words for sorrow in the Bible. This is the deepest, It means “to lament, to be consumed with grief.”

Many people in our churches are baptized pagans. They have united with churches like they have joined country clubs. But they have never been broken over their sin.

2 Corinthians 7:10: For godly sorrow worketh repentance, godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

What is godly sorrow?

It is not mere regret. Many of us have done things that we regret.Now regret is primarily in the mind. Remorse goes past the mind to the heart. Remorse without repentance can be a dangerous thing. A person filled with remorse is one who loves his sin and hates himself at the same time. He loves his sin, but he hates himself, because he can’t quit. That’s remorse. A person who has repented is a person who hates his sin because he loves his Savior. That’s the difference.

Are you broken from your sin, that is not what your sin has done to you; but what your sin has done to God. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Those who Mourn are Comforted

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
They shall be comforted.” Once you see the guilt, and feel the grief, then you know the grace. The word comfort is not a word filled with sympathy. It’s a word filled with strength.

How does God comfort?

Through the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17. Jesus Christ gave us this incredible promise. Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter ” isn’t that what we’re talking about: comfort? “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” There is One who lives in my heart today. He is the Holy Spirit of God. He gives me that comfort. He speaks to my soul.

The Holy Spirit of God is the One to those with a broken heart, those who confess their sin He comes with strength to save and impower you to live for Him.

When we come to honest brokenness over our sin; when we come to that place, the Holy Spirit of God gives us such comfort that our sin is forgiven; and then when we need help, when we’re in jeopardy, when we fail, the Holy Spirit of God stands near to the broken; He is a help; He is strength. We can know that strength day by day.

At the individual level, the mourner grieves over his sin because he sees how great is the offense before God; but he learns to trust Jesus as the one who has paid sin’s ransom (Mark 10:45).

But even this great comfort will be surpassed: one day in a new heaven and new earth, the kingdom of God will be consummated, and God himself will wipe away all tears from the eyes of those who once mourned. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away (Rev. 21:4).