Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Scripture | Matthew 5:1-12 (NIV)
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Our current sermon series, Blessed, is taking a look at the upside-down, inside-out, crazy way of God’s Kingdom. Throughout this series, we’re exploring the Beatitudes – Jesus’ discipleship program. We’re asking what does it mean to be a part of this Kingdom? What does it look like to actually be a Christian Disciple?
Last week, we looked to the first Beatitude: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. We discussed how this crucial first Beatitude is also our first step into the Kingdom of God. When we are poor in spirit, we realize the gravity of our situation. We look upon our lives with wide eyes and see that we are, in fact, people who are full of sin. Even with all the good we have tried to do, the reality is that we have more often than not separated ourselves from God and ignored His callings on our lives. We have worked against God in many situations and because of this, we realize that we really have nothing that matters – nothing that counts towards anything in the long run because we have separated ourselves from the one Person Who does matter.
But there is a blessing in this realization – for it is through this understanding, this clear view on things, that we can take our first step into the Kingdom of God and receive our full forgiveness. Through this fully-seen poverty of our soul, we can turn to God and be filled. It is only through this poverty – knowing how little we really have when it comes to our spirit – that we can begin our journey living in the Kingdom of God. Now we turn to Matthew 5:4 where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
There was quite a lot of mourning last week, Sunday. Did you watch the Super Bowl last week? Who did you cheer for, the Rams? For the Bangles? Did you watch only for the commercials? May be you boycotted the game in protest of the Packers not making it? In any case, I know one person who did a bit of mourning even before the Super Bowl even started. My best friend is a big 49ers fan and over the last season I watched as he got more and more excited as his team got closer and closer to the Super Bowl. I think most people here might not have a lot of sympathy, as the 49ers were the ones who kicked the Packers out of the running for the Super Bowl. But my friend just got more and more excited. I actually got to watch the Rams vs. the 49ers with him. It was the last game before the Super Bowl. Whoever one it, was going to Los Angles.
For the first three quarters, it seemed like the 49ers would pull it off and then in the last quarter the Rams pulled it out from under them. All the hopes of the last season, all of the amazing games and surprise wins, everything that had been building to this moment of victory now led to this moment of searing loss. As many of you die-hard football fans can attest, that loss is a hard one to take. After feeling like you and your team are on top of the world, unassailable, king of the hill, to fall can be devastating. This is the essence of what Jesus is talking about in our scripture for today. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
What’s interesting here is that Jesus is talking about mourning in a very complex and expansive way. In one way, He’s speaking to all those who mourn over anything. Even the murders who mourn over the fact that they got caught, the drug addicts who mourn over not having their addiction, the sleezy money lenders who mourn when they’re caught. To all who mourn, the reality is that there is a blessing in that mourning. The blessing is that in mourning, we naturally open ourselves up to, and move closer to God. In the extremes of our anguish, for no matter the reason, we begin looking upwards to the cosmos and call out to the One who is in control. In between our sobs, our mourning often makes it possible for us to hear that still small voice calling out to us. This is why when a loved one passes away, we often find that our faith is increased. This is why when bad things happen, we instinctually turn to God.
But Jesus is saying more than the fact that in our moments of mourning, we have a blessing which is that we draw closer to God Who is the great comforter. He’s saying this keeping in mind what He has just taught: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Jesus knows that the moment when we realize our poorness of spirit, the moment we call out to Him and receive His forgiveness and grace – in Methodist circles we call this Justification – at the moment when we are Justified, we feel like we are unstoppable. We feel like sin can never do anything to me now that I am set free! We are on top of the world, unassailable, king of the hill. But, as John Wesley puts it, “our Lord well knew that this triumphant state does not often continue long.”
The reality is that while that moment of Justification, or being poor in spirit, is a wonderous one in which we can begin to feel the fullness and depth of God’s grace but it does not stay permanently. After that moment, we begin to do the work of Sanctification or becoming holy and righteous. All of that is to say that our lives after we are justified are going to be full of the hard work of growing in our faith, avoiding our temptations and sins, and seeking after God. The mourner who Jesus is primarily talking about in our passage for today are these people: the people who are living lives as justified people seeking after God. They are the people who have come down from the mountain top and are now living in the valleys of life.
Wesley says, “They mourn after God, after Him in whom they did ‘rejoice with joy unspeakable’ when He gave them to ‘taste the good,’ pardoning ‘word, and the powers of the world to come.’ But He now hides His face and they are troubled;’ they cannot see Him through the dark cloud.”[1] This speaks to the actual truth of following God: that it’s A) Not easy; B) Not always fun; and C) Going to have times when we feel like the world is crashing around us and we can’t find God.
We have all had moments where we’ve wondered where God was. Moments when the world seems to be crashing down – whether it be around us, or in the realities of natural disasters, wars, and famines a world away. Jesus is realizing and talking about that there will be times when we can hear that voice in our head saying, “Where’s your God now? Where’s the blessings you’ve been talking about? Where’s the Kingdom of God you’ve said you believed in? Did God really forgive your sins? If so, you wouldn’t act this way. Is God really a loving God? If so, the world wouldn’t be this way. Clearly God didn’t say anything like that – it must of all been a dream.”
That voice makes you look back on your life and makes you imagine that the wonders you have seen and the good God you have witnessed never existed. It’s like looking back on the football season and being unable to see the wins anymore. And in these moments, we mourn because we cannot see God; we cannot hear His voice; we feel like we’re loosing our faith and don’t know where to go or what to do. For those who mourn because of these things, Jesus says, “You are blessed and will be made happy for you shall be comforted.”
It is true that in this moment – in the present mourning – it is not pleasant. It is not a wonderful thing to have to mourn. But blessings come from those who mourn and continue to follow after God. Happiness comes from dealing with this sadness by choosing to still seek after God and not give up. In these moments of mourning, we are brought closer to God but we are also at our weakest. When we hear that voice telling us that everything we believed in is fake, that same voice reminds us of what it says is real. It tries to lead us back to our lives full of mistakes and sins. It’s comfortable. It makes sense. It’s easier. Everyone else thinks this is right.
In our moments of mourning, we can choose to return to the life we lived before we turned to Jesus. But, happiness comes from rejecting the ease, the lies, and the false comfort of sin. Happiness comes from being in mourning, feeling lost, and still seeking after God. Because choosing to deal with mourning like the world does – with drugs or actions which numb your senses to the feeling you feel – does nothing to deal with the actual mourning itself and keeps you from the source of happiness Who can grant happiness back to you.
The process of both mourning for an absent God and recovering the joy of His presence is something which is foreshadowed and talked about by Jesus with His disciples the night before His crucifixion. John 16:19-22 says, “Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”
We, as followers of Christ, are promised that there will be times when we grieve, when we mourn, but we also have the promise that if we choose to follow Christ through the grieving and mourning, we will always return to His presence (Not that we ever really left). In many ways, our lives can be like football seasons – sometimes, we’re on top of the world thinking we’re going to the very top, sometimes we win the Super Bowl, other times we fall short. In every season, one thing remains constant, whether we celebrate or mourn: God’s constant presence and faithfulness. Upon that faithfulness, we can build our lives. We can shape our actions and thoughts around our God because we know that He is always constant, He is unchanging, and He is forever faithful. Even in moments when it feels like we cannot see His face, in moments when it seems as though He has forsaken us and left us to dry, we can continue on knowing that in our mourning and through our grief, we will be comforted. We shall draw closer to God and know His Spirit. That is truly Good News. Thanks be to God! Amen? Amen.
[1] John Wesley, Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Discourse the First (1748), II.3.