Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
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In taking a look at mourning, the topic of today's verse, we need to understand what the word means. The dictionary defines it as 'to grieve or lament for the dead'. And that is indeed what it generally means and what the Lord meant also. It was what Jesus had in mind as He said that! However, now it is more important that we understand what 'dead' means!
Strange as it may sound, we true believers in God’s Word and who have been saved by the shed blood of Jesus, are only to mourn the walking dead! Mark Twain the famous American author once wrote after his obituary had been posted in a major newspaper that “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!” Maybe he was right, and maybe he was wrong. Death is not about the inability to draw breath and to walk around, it is about separation from God and His Son {Isa.59:2} because Jesus Christ IS truly Life. {Jn.14:6}
There was the instance when Jesus would tell a man who wanted to follow Him but wanted to wait until after he had buried his father, “Let the dead bury their own dead but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God!” {Lk.9:60}
We have been reconciled to the Father through Christ and now have a ministry of reconciliation. {2Cor.5:18} We can, and most certainly should be proclaiming the love of God and the Word of God—an imperishable seed that was used for us to be born again and obtain true life. {1Pt.1:23} Death and life are in the power of the tongue {Pr.18:21} and your tongue my brother or sister is connected to a heart that has been filled with the life-giving love of God—out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. {Mat.12:34}
As the Lord approached Jerusalem on one occasion He wept because the people there had not accepted the gift of life He was bringing to them. He was mourning for all of those people who were walking dead in their trespasses and sins. {Eph.2:1} He mourned for those spiritual zombies! And then He did something that would bring everyone who would accept it to a place of walking and leaping and praising the Lord—He went to the cross and offered Himself a living and holy sacrifice {Rom.12:1} and conquered death!
Tell somebody today about the Son of God who died so that they might live! And then, the mourners are comforted. Consider for a moment the scene in Bethany when Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus, dead and buried four days and then told those around Him to roll the stone away:
“So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.’
When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” (John 11:41-44)
REJOICE IN THE LORD, GIVE THANKS AND PRAISE |
