The Beatitudes: The Biblical Pattern of Christian Experience

Introduction

In my initial article about the Beatitudes, I stressed the importance of recognizing the structure as well as the interrelatedness of the first seven Beatitudes. In these Beatitudes Christ not only gives us a perfect and complete description of the citizens of His kingdom, but within the context of this description He teaches us that true religion has an internal as well as an external dimension. It consists of Spirit-wrought experiences in the inner recesses of the hearts of God’s children which in turn manifests itself externally in a godly walk. Both the internal dimension of Christian experience (Beatitudes 1–3), as well as the external manifestation of internal grace (Beatitudes 5–7), revolve around the central of these first seven Beatitudes, which describes the focal or central experience of all true experience, namely, the exercise of faith which Christ by His Spirit defines as “hungering and thirsting after righteousness.”

However, as we consider each individual Beatitude within the context of this remarkable structure, of which God Himself is the Architect, we must do so with the understanding mat the order of the Beatitudes is sequential and cumulative. For our consideration of the second Beatitude this means that when Christ speaks of His people as mourners, He does so in relation to the first Beatitude where He has defined them as being poor in spirit. In other words, this mourning of the citizens of God’s kingdom is intimately related to the fact that by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit they have been made conscious of their spiritual poverty, of the fact that through their original and actual sin there has come a breach between God and their soul. This explains at once why God’s children mourn. They mourn because they miss God. They mourn over the fact that there is a separation between God and them. They mourn over the cause of that separation, sin. They mourn over the fact that through sin they are excluded from the presence and fellowship of God after whom their heart thirsts as dry land thirsts for rain (Psalm 63:1).

Definition of Terms

It is this spiritual mourning over spiritual poverty which Christ has in view, rather than natural grief to which all sons and daughters of Adam are subject in this vale of tears. This becomes evident when we examine the meaning of the Greek word “pen-theo,” which is translated by the verb to mourn. The lexicon describes the meaning of this verb as follows: To mourn for, to lament, to grieve as at the funeral of a loved one. It is this last dimension—to grieve at the funeral of a loved one—which is particularly important for our study of this Beatitude. It is this description of the verb “pen-theo” which conveys to us that the mourning Christ has in mind is an expression of intense, heartfelt grief. It is significant for us to note that the reference here is not to grieve in a general sense, which for example would be experienced by the majority of those who are present at a funeral. This grief to which Christ is referring is grief which is synonymous to the grief one experiences when bringing a loved one to the grave. In other words, in choosing the word “pentheo” Christ wishes to convey that this spiritual mourning is the expression of a heart that loves God, His attributes, and His precepts. It is therefore essential for us to understand that this mourning is pre-eminently an expression of the heart.’

This correct understanding of the verb to mourn helps us at once to deal with some misconceptions about the mourning of God’s children. It should be noted that Christ does not say here, “Blessed are they that weep,” or, “Blessed are they that cry.” Why must this be stressed at the very outset of our study? I believe that often mourning and weeping are considered to be synonymous. Such, however, is emphatically not the case. To illustrate this, let us consider for a moment what transpires at a funeral. Among the multitude present there will be some who are shedding tears and some who are not. May we conclude that only those who are shedding tears are truly mourning the death of the deceased, and those who cannot shed a tear at that moment are not mourning? Such is obviously not the case, something which will be understood by many who have lost a beloved relative. Tears indeed can be, and often are, the expression of internal grief, but it is equally true that many tears are the superficial expression of the emotion of the moment, rather than grief which proceeds from the heart. Many who mourn the loss of loved ones have times when they shed tears and other times when they do not. To suggest that during the times that they are not shedding tears they are no longer mourning is obviously not consistent with reality. Genuine mourning is something which transpires in the heart, in the inner, spiritual dimension of our human existence, which occasionally will manifest itself externally by means of tears. With some individuals this will occur much more frequently than with others, as our ability to cry is closely related to our emotional and psychological constitution and condition.

Why so much said about this? To dispel the notion that Christ would be teaching here that the shedding of physical tears is evidence of the gracious operation of His Spirit within a soul. Only God knows how many have deceived themselves or are currently deceiving themselves by entertaining a spiritual hope for themselves based on the fact that they shed physical tears when God’s Word is read or preached. Let me state emphatically that Christ is not referring to the shedding of physical tears, but He is describing the condition of the heart of His people. This mourning, this heartfelt grief, proceeds from the deepest recesses of the hearts of God’s children, a grief which to a lesser or greater degree is a continual reality during their entire sojourn here upon earth.

Experiential Perspectives

By pronouncing the mourners blessed, Christ defines for us what the second important element of saving conviction is, what the second element of Christian experience is which prepares the heart for the exercise of faith in His Person and work. In doing so He not only teaches us that there is a well-defined reason for this mourning, namely the experiential awareness of one’s spiritual poverty, but also that whenever it pleases the Holy Spirit to make a fallen sinner conscious of his spiritual poverty, this experiential consciousness will inevitably result in heartfelt grief. It must be stressed that these two elements of saving conviction are here inseparably linked together. Wherever the Holy Spirit is savingly at work in the heart of a sinner, his experience will always be distinguished by these two marks. In other words, the recognition of one’s sinnership is not a cold, intellectual conclusion which one reaches by merely reading the Word of God. Neither is the mourning of God’s children a mourning without a purpose, a mourning which does not have a well-defined focus. The intimate link between the first two Beatitudes communicates to us that the sinner who is savingly wrought upon by God’s Spirit understands 1) the essence of his sinnership, namely to be poor in spirit, and 2) mourns over his sinnership.

The mourning to which Christ refers here is therefore the inevitable and spontaneous fruit of the Holy Spirit’s saving operation. This is clearly observed in David’s confession in Psalm 69:29, “But I am poor and sorrowful: let Thy salvation, O God, set me up on high,” a confession to which all God’s children will whole-heartedly subscribe.

Having recognized the important relationship between the first two Beatitudes, let us focus on the experience of this mourning itself. As was true for the first Beatitude (and will be true for all others), also the focus of this Beatitude, of this experience, is God Himself! It deals with the mourning of a sinner who has been made conscious that he is without God, and therefore without hope in the world. It is the mourning of a sinner who has been made painfully aware that his sin is the reason why there is a separation between God and his soul, that his sin is the reason that he can not enjoy the favor and communion of God. How deep is the grief he feels in his heart that he has offended the God for whom his heart yearns and longs!

The focus of this mourning is therefore on sin itself. It is the regenerated sinner’s response to his recognition of the ugly nature of sin as an act of contempt towards God, as an act whereby he despises the law of God, offends the attributes of God, and ultimately rejects God Himself. It is this realization, which the convicted sinner may not be able to express in words at that moment, but as a living reality in his heart will inevitably bring forth this intense, heartfelt grief. This grief caused Peter to weep bitterly when Jesus looked upon him after he had denied His Master. This grief cannot be expressed more clearly than David expresses it in Psalm 51:4, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.”

God Himself was the focus of David’s mourning, and He will be the focus of the mourning of all His children who so often must confess with the psalmist in Psalm 38:6,7, “I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease.” It is such mourning of which the prophet Zechariah prophesied in chapter 12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him.” We must conclude therefore that the spiritual mourning of the citizens of God’s kingdom primarily relates to sin itself rather than to the consequences of sin. How many there are who mourn over these consequences rather than over sin itself, as an act whereby we offend God, His attributes, and His holy law. Such was the mourning of Cain, Saul, and Judas, as well as of Simon the sorcerer who, rather than repent and beg God for forgiveness, was merely concerned with the possible consequences of his wickedness. This is very evident from his response to Peter’s scathing rebuke, when he says, “Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.” How many there are who mourn as Simon the sorcerer did, who are only concerned with the consequences of sin, rather than sin itself. Dear reader, if such is the case with you then your mourning is not the fruit of the saving operation of God’s Spirit, but merely the result of a troubled conscience.

Spiritual mourning of the citizens of God’s kingdom primarily relates to sin itself rather than to the consequences of sin.

May God grant that we all may be acquainted with such God-focussed, spiritual mourning which Christ here identifies as one of the marks of spiritual citizenship. Only such mourners are pronounced blessed by Christ; to only such mourners the promise is made that they shall be comforted, a reality which we hope to consider in the second part of this meditation. Such mourners who love God and whose hearts yearn for God, who yearn to be reconciled to the God they have so deeply offended, who yearn for the favor and communion of God, shall in God’s time experience the joy of salvation. For it is this mourning, as the unmistakable evidence of experiential acquaintance with spiritual poverty, which will cause such a sinner to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will have a hunger and thirst which God, who loves His people with an everlasting love, will satisfy by leading all true mourners in Zion to the fountain of His everlasting love opened in the Person and work of His beloved Son. That is the rich promise of Scripture for all spiritual mourners. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5). “For the Lord shall comfort Zion” (Isaiah 51:3). He shall comfort them in the Son of His eternal good pleasure, a truth so clearly expressed in Isaiah 61:1–3, “The LORD God hath sent Me (=Christ)… to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.”

Next time, the Lord willing, we hope to consider how it pleases the Lord, in Christ and by His Spirit, to comfort them that mourn in Zion. May God grant for His Name’s sake that there may be many such spiritual mourners in the midst of our congregations.

Battel Elshout is presently on leave of absence as evangelist, and is translating W. Brakel’s The Christian’s Reasonable Service (Redelijke Godsdienst).

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