Blessed, Part 3: Those Who Mourn

Victory Life Church, Central — Sunday, May 31, 2026

Link to a downloadable PDF:
2026-05-31 – Blessed, Part 3

Scripture Reading

Matthew 5:1–12 (ESV)¹ Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: ³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. ⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. ⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. ⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. ⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. ¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Those Who Mourn

Matthew 5:4 (ESV)⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Remember, Jesus uses “blessed” (makarios), happy, fortunate, and in a state of flourishing to describe those in this state of mourning. Mourning in no way would describe a life of flourishing according to the world’s standards and aspirations, yet this is a state that is perfectly suited for God’s kingdom reign and the blessing that flows from life with God. Mourning, according to Jesus, is the way to “the good life.” Why? Mourning, somehow, is a way of being in the world that makes us ready for and dependent on God’s work.

As I stated in the series introduction, Jesus doesn’t define blessing in terms of wealth, possessions, or power. Instead, He shows us that the kingdom of God is built on a bedrock of blessing, where the least are most, the last are first, and the lost are found.

Being blessed by God doesn’t come from accumulating wealth, achieving success, or acquiring fame. Being blessed by God comes from knowing and following Jesus.

So what does Jesus mean to describe the ones who mourn as being in a state of flourishing or experiencing the good life?

Those who “MOURN” (Greek: Πενθοῦντες, penthountes): “mourn” is a strong word for grief, often used of mourning the dead. Not mild sadness but active, visible grief that cannot be hidden; it is more formal and intense. This could be translated “Blessed are the brokenhearted!”

“Mourn” is a strong word for visible, intense grief, often used to describe mourning the dead. This could be translated “Blessed are the brokenhearted!”

What makes us brokenhearted? Mourning, grief, and being brokenhearted have to do with losing someone or something we love. The natural human response to loss is sorrow. To mourn a loss is to enter a period of grieving the disconnection from what or who we love. If there were no love, there would be no mourning, and the level of mourning indicates the level of love we had. Mourning and grieving are clear indicators of our loves.

Do I love things and people in appropriate ways? Do I love God above all?

To mourn is to go through the process of “letting go.” When we let go of anything or anyone that we love, we automatically and emotionally go into a period of mourning. Let me differentiate “things” from “people.”

The Loss of Things

There are many things that we love in this world beyond people. There are tangible things, such as possessions, jobs, sources of income, and creature comforts; and there are intangible things, such as reputation or status; or a change in season of life, your kids growing into a new season you weren’t ready for, or the process of aging out of youthfulness and vitality. These are not inherently bad; as a matter of fact, many of these things are often gifts from our gracious Heavenly Father. Some of these things in life are a result of hard work, and some are a result of the culture we live in. When we lose these kinds of things, it will initiate a grieving process if we loved them. This grieving process is an important time to evaluate whether we loved those things appropriately or depended on them for our happiness and fulfillment more than on God. Where we get stuck in our grieving is when what or who we have lost was a greater source of happiness and fulfillment in life above God, and we refuse to let it or them go. If we get stuck in the grieving process when we lose things, this is an indication of potential idolatry.

What can frustrate and hinder our growth and maturity, stagnate our transformation, is to try and squeeze from earthly pleasures the happiness they were not created to give. These gifts of life are to be a delight and a grace, but not the source of absolute happiness and fulfillment. That is idolatry. We are not “blessed” because of what we have. Nor are we no longer blessed at the loss of these things.

Matthew 5:4 (ESV)⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

When we mourn, going through the entire process of mourning appropriately, and we accept the loss of what is gone, then we can be comforted. Only through the process of mourning can we be restored to a new level of freedom because what we formerly depended upon too much has been let go of.

Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Paul lost reputation, career, credibility, possession, and everything else for the sake of Christ. This put “things” in their proper place in his heart. We may mourn the loss of “all things,” but in the mourning we turn to Christ and gain a deeper relationship and dependency on him. We can enter into a new relationship with the things we currently have based on a new freedom that does not require from them the happiness they were not created to give. Mourning can cure us from idolatry, making this particular pleasure or experience an idol, something to substitute for the happiness that we are not experiencing from intimacy with God. Only in turning to Christ can we be truly comforted in the face of losing all things. Only in Christ can we get a proper perspective of things we have and things we need to let go of.

This is what makes those who mourn blessed: they are in the right position to receive the gracious gift of the kingdom of God made known in personal fellowship with Christ.

Different Kinds of Mourning 

The primary Old Testament background governing the entire Beatitudes sequence is Isaiah 61:1–3. Jesus read from this passage in the Nazareth synagogue at the start of His ministry, announcing its fulfillment in Himself. The beatitude declares that those who mourn in the manner described by Isaiah — those in condition of exile, grieving over judgment and longing for restoration — are the ones the Messiah comes to comfort.

Isaiah 61:1–3 (ESV)¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; ² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; ³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Though this is the over-arching background of the beatitude, the key for this beatitude is to see that Jesus, the Messiah, moves toward those who are brokenhearted and mourning. Through the entrance and establishment of His kingdom, their condition is reversed. When God acts through the work of Christ Jesus, those are in mourning will be comforted.

Implied within “those who mourn” are different kinds of mourning. There are three kinds that I want to focus on: Repentance, Bereavement, and Compassion.

Mourning from Repentance:

The first kind of mourning we should be experiencing is to mourn over our own sin. We must recognize our own sin and capacity to do evil. There is no comfort for those who harden their heart toward their own sin. The self-righteous see no need for a Savior; the unrepentant see no need for salvation. This is a dangerous place to be in.

James 4:8–10 (ESV)⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James, the brother of Jesus, calls us to not be smug and indifferent toward what is still broken in our lives and hearts. There is no point where we are no longer in need of the grace of Jesus. We have messed up and done wrong, we have become distracted and idolatrous in our hearts. He calls us to clean hands and a pure heart, to not let our comforts and complacency keep us from recognizing our great need for grace, even though we have received Jesus.

“This Beatitude also calls on the faithful to mourn over evil in their own lives as they realize their inability to conquer it unaided. Failure to love God and our neighbors should produce grief. The bless-ed are those who experience this mourning.” ~ Kenneth Bailey

When we can see our failure to love God and love our neighbor for what it is—sin, then we can experience the comfort promised with God’s forgiveness and love.

Psalm 51:17 (ESV)¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Mourning from Bereavement:

This is mourning and broken-heartedness over the suffering we endure, especially when we lose someone we love. To mourn is to go through the process of “letting go.” When we let go of anyone that we love, we automatically and emotionally go into a period of mourning. And it’s only the refusal to let go of what is gone from us that creates the tension. A helpful way to see this is through the various models that describe stages of grief. One model presents five stages of grief as “denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.”

Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

This is not the space to go into detail on each stage, but these are common to everyone and can vary depending on the level of grief or person, and each stage isn’t successive; most people will bounce around through them. What is important is to go through the whole process. Not only that, it’s important we navigate the entire mourning process recognizing and depending on the personal presence of God.

Psalm 34:18 (ESV)¹⁸ The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

It is important to remember that in the midst of mourning and grieving, God has not abandoned us in our questions and our suffering. The Lord is drawn to and near those who are brokenhearted and whose circumstances have made them crushed in spirit. God has not forsaken us in our mourning, but draws near to Him while in the midst of the grieving.

Psalm 147:3 (ESV)³ He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

God is present in the midst of pain to bring healing to the brokenhearted. Where we get stuck in our grieving is when the person we have lost was a greater source of happiness and fulfillment in life above God, and we refuse to let them go. This is a great pastoral tension, so hear me all the way through. I want to balance faith with suffering and loss. But first, there is one more kind of mourning to elaborate.

Mourning from Compassion:

This can be a great challenge when we are exposed to so much suffering around the world. Compassion-fatigue is real; however, the people of God must not harden our hearts toward those we encounter who are in the midst of suffering, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the role of a Christ-centered community.

Romans 12:15 (ESV)¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

We enter into the mourning alongside people, not to wallow or mope, but to join with them in their pain, walking alongside them through the whole process. Martin Luther, in his German translation, translated this as Leidtragen (“sorrow-bearing”). The disciples do not merely feel sorrow — they bear it.

Galatians 6:2 (ESV)² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

By sharing one another’s burdens when in the midst of mourning, we learn how to reach out into the wider world and participate in the burdens of humanity.

“The disciple-community does not shake off sorrow as though it were no concern of its own, but willingly bears it. And in this way they show how close are the bonds which bind them to the rest of humanity.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is why all three forms of mourning are important to practice. They keep our hearts softened to pain and suffering so we can receive comfort and extend it to those in need. Practicing compassion enables us to bring solutions to the world’s pain.

“Because they do not grieve over what is wrong in themselves, they do not repent; and because they do not grieve over the wrong they share with others in the communities in which they live, they take few steps to set things right.” ~ Leon Morris

Understanding Suffering

Mourning through repentance, bereavement, and compassion are important ways Jesus leads us away from hard-heartedness on the one hand and comfort-worship on the other. But how do we reconcile this with faith? How do we trust God while making sense of suffering?

First, it makes me sad to see how many in American Christianity have gotten the idea that if you are obeying God and if you have enough faith, you will not suffer at all. You have to ignore a significant portion of Scripture to get this idea.

Second, this is not the space to make sense of the great philosophical question, “How does a good God allow suffering?” This is not the space for this, though many great Christian minds have set themselves to offer wisdom to this great question.

Third, the real pastoral question at hand is something like this: “How do I have faith for God to work and move while also facing great suffering?”

Lament and Trust

The Psalms of lament and mourning suggest that grief directed at God is not a failure of faith but its expression. More than half the Psalms are laments, not to mention there is an entire book dedicated to lament: Lamentations. Lament verbalizes the tension between an expectation of God’s promises and the experience of suffering in prayer. The second beatitude legitimizes the tradition of lament and places it at the center of the kingdom community.

Those who mourn are those who take God’s promises seriously enough to feel the gap between what is and what should be.

How do we navigate the seasons where we are believing for God to move and work, when we are believing for healing, and yet experience the pain of death?

We live in a world of brokenness and pain. We experience suffering. These are not signs of God’s abandonment or a lack of faith. Suffering can come from an infinite number of sources, many of which are completely outside of your control. Yet this is the world that Jesus entered, releasing healing and restoration into the brokenness of the world. What do we do when we are in between the pain and suffering of the present moment, with the promises of God?

Psalm 130:1–2 (ESV)¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! ² O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

What do we do when we are in the depths? How do we live while in the dark? We remember the past of God’s faithfulness; we anticipate the future of God’s promises, and we hope while we are in the present. In the depths, in the dark, while we are waiting for the dawn, we pray. We learn to pray with eyes wide open, acknowledging the pain and brokenness in our lives and world, yet being grounded in the hope that God will fulfill all of His promises in Jesus.

The scriptures do not shy away from sorrow and pain. It gives voice to them, it gives us a language for them, a language of prayer.

Psalm 62:5–8 (ESV)⁵ For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. ⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. ⁷ On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. ⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

We pray and believe for God to act on His Word, and yet we trust Him no matter what happens. We stand on His promises, and we honestly lament our pain. We speak and believe in the power of God’s Word, and we honestly pour out our pain and mourning before Him as our final refuge. We believe His Word and trust Him with the outcome.

In prayer, sorrow and pain are not the final resting place; the scriptures lead us through it and into trustful hope.

Psalm 13:1–6 (ESV)¹ How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? ² How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? ³ Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, ⁴ lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. ⁵ But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

One of the patterns we see in Biblical Lament is the honest expression of sorrow followed by the remembrance of God’s faithfulness and character. This is why the Apostle Paul can make such a bold claim as this:

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Gratitude in the midst of mourning is the healthy shift of our focus from the loss we have experienced and back to the ever-present reality of God’s nearness, His presence, and His character. We can be grateful IN all circumstances, not FOR all circumstances, because we can be confident God is with us. No matter what we are suffering, God is with us in the midst of it. We are called to lament before Him, yet no matter what the outcome is, trust that He is with us and is still working on our behalf.

Psalm 23:4 (ESV)⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

They Shall Be Comforted

Mourning and grieving have no inherent virtue. The happy and fortunate nature of mourning is that it places us in a position to receive the comfort that the Lord brings us in the midst of that mourning by His Spirit.

Matthew 5:4 (ESV)⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

The phrase “shall be comforted” (Greek: Παρακληθήσονται — paraklēthēsontai) is the passive voice, which is a divine passive; meaning God is the agent of comfort. The verb parakaleō is the root of paraklētos (the Comforter / Holy Spirit), “mourners receive the Spirit’s own comfort.”

John 14:16–17 (ESV)¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“Helper” (Greek: παράκλητος paraklētos) can be translated as “advocate, helper, comforter.” The noun refers to one who helps, advocates, or comforts someone on behalf of another. Outside the New Testament, a paraklētos is a legal assistant or an advocate in a court of law. The concept combines the legal and relational: advocate and helper.