In a world that seeks a quick fix for bad feelings, the phrase, “blessed are those who mourn” is an extremely foreign and unwelcome thought. Bad feelings and emotions are discouraged as many seek the next distraction from any negative experience.
For the one who has come face to face with his own spiritual depravity, however, mourning is a blessing. He is struck to the heart with how truly corrupt and dead he is. Real grief takes hold and hits hard. The scales fall from his eyes and he is able to see his true condition before God. He is shocked and horrified. He comes to the end of himself, realising there is nothing he can do to save himself.
He comes face to face with a holy and just God and he is undone. He has defied God, and he is deserving of judgement. He has scorned his Creator, mocking Him to His face. He has no where to hide; his sin and shame are impossible to cover up as the eyes of the righteous Judge are set on him.
In that moment of grief, when the utter dismay of being a God-hater and sin-lover pierces him to the heart, God does not leave him there. The joy and the hope of the Gospel pierces his soul as he is met with true hope. The reality that he is a failure is met with the reality that Jesus is not. Joy arrives as the sufficiency of Christ’s work brings comfort. The fulfilment of the Law, the Consolation of Israel, the Saviour of the world stands before him as the One who has done it.
This truth confuses the world. For, to be truly comforted, one must be truly broken. He must mourn over sin, he must mourn over his state before God. Because only then will the beauty of Christ be truly glorious. This Saviour meets him in his despair, in his hopelessness, in his depravity and poverty of spirit. This Saviour gives him the power to stand, and to stand boldly in grace. This Saviour empowers him to run the race set before him and to finish it well. His constant sin and failure is met with the constant perfection and beauty of this glorious Saviour. He is reminded daily of the truth that Christ is the Great Physician for the sick and the Saviour of sinners.
And one day, his mourning will cease forever. He will breath his last as his eyes open for the first time to sheer glory. All sorrows will fall away; his mourning will be saturated with pure, perfect, eternal joy. Sin will be banished as his tears of grief are wiped away forever.
No more will his heart sigh in agony, and no longer will he fail to truly love the Saviour of his soul. His broken and contrite heart shouts for joy as he rejoices with all the hosts of Heaven at what God has done. He is welcomed into the throne room of the God he once scorned, as this same God, the God of all comfort, saturates him in radiant joy. This mourning, grieving heart finally comes face to face with the Delight of his soul, and he is comforted.
I do not know when I am more perfectly happy than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the Cross.
Spurgeon
To The Heart 