Sorrow and Happiness
To be blessed means to be filled with a deep happiness. When Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says that you are blessed at the same time as you mourn, this doesn’t seem logical straight away. It was not that Jesus meant that every kind of sorrow would make a person blessed. In 2 Corinthians 7:10 it says:
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
This is the sorrow that comes when we long to keep God’s commandments that Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount— the sorrow that leads us to repentance and salvation.
The Sorrow of Not Measuring Up
The disciples had grown up hearing God’s laws in the synagogue. They knew what was right according to the law, but when they met Jesus, it became clear to them how much they were actually lacking. He presented something radically different. In him they saw a thoroughly good, true, and righteous man. One who overcame evil with good, who loved his enemies and blessed those who both cursed and persecuted him, who let himself be led only by God.
The contrast between Jesus’ life and their own became clear. This sorrow over not measuring up made their longing to follow Jesus even stronger. The disciples wanted to live the same life they saw in Jesus.
Another Kind of Comfort
When Jesus gave his sermons, there were many people who came to hear. Some came out of curiosity, others to learn. Some came to be healed. Healing is also a form of comfort. But when Jesus spoke about the blessed who mourn in the Sermon on the Mount, he was most likely speaking especially to the disciples— to those who had left everything to follow him.
He pointed to a deeper comfort: the comfort for those who mourn over their own limitations and their own sin. It is this sorrow that opens the way to salvation and transformation, that brings us nearer to God. That is why it makes us blessed.
The Longing to Become Like Jesus
Jesus wanted to speak to those who wanted to follow him. These were the people he addressed in the Sermon on the Mount— those who, like Peter, had left their fishing nets, left their old lives to follow Jesus, who wanted to become like him.
These people mourned over themselves and their own limitations, and Jesus had incredibly good news for them! He wanted them to rejoice about this sorrow, and at the same time he promised them that they would be comforted. This sorrow is not heavy to bear, because it brings us nearer to God. What a hopeful message for those who truly want to follow Jesus!