Those Who Mourn

Those Who Mourn
By M.T. Clark — P-2082 | 09/30/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast
Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of the vaulted deep-blue ceiling and stained-glass rose windows of the Basilica Notre-Dame in Montreal, Quebec, with its gothic peaks and illuminated sanctuary drawing the eye upward, comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this quiet moment inside the basilica on a family trip to Montreal on July 8, 2015.

Well, it’s Wednesday, and I share this photo of a soaring cathedral ceiling to mark another midweek summit, so happy hump day, and to remind us that even in the middle of a hard season, the Lord uses beauty to lift our eyes back up to Him, where the comfort actually is.

That family trip to Montreal that did not go the way any of us had hoped. My teenagers could not quite settle into a French-speaking city, the household was under a lot of strain, and I was a few months sober and honestly a fish out of water myself. We ended up leaving early. But before we did, I got to stand inside this basilica and stare up at those ceilings for a while, and it was the highlight of the whole trip for me. The peaks and arches of that sanctuary were built to do one thing: to lift a person’s eyes up to God, and even a rough family vacation couldn’t prevent me from remembering what was truly important. That was a season when I was a man seeking the Lord while a lot of what I loved was slowly coming apart, and the Lord used the beauty of that quiet room to remind me that He was still there and still in charge. God’s comfort has a way of finding us where we are.

Speaking of the Lord’s comfort for people carrying heavy things,

Our Celebrate Freedom support group meets tonight at Starpoint Church, where we walk with folks toward the healing and freedom Jesus won for them at the cross. If you are in the capital district and you are carrying a grief that feels too heavy to carry alone, we would love to have you with us tonight.

Speaking of the promise Jesus makes to the ones who are grieving,

Our series, “The Beatitudes,” continues today with the promise Jesus attaches to grief, and the comfort that He says is coming.

Those Who Mourn

This is the beatitude that sounds the least like good news until you hear what Jesus promises with it. Matthew 5:4 (NKJV) tells us: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Read quickly, it can sound as though God recommends sadness. He doesn’t. Jesus is telling us that God cares for us. He sees the pain of our loss and offers Himself as our comfort.

But let’s dig a little deeper, by looking at the original text our English translation. The Greek word for mourn used here is pentheō, and it is the heaviest word for grief in the language. It was used for mourning the dead. It doesn’t describe a quiet disappointment or a low mood. It describes a grief that shows. Jesus didn’t pick a gentle word and then promise a small comfort. He named the deepest grief we have, and He put the promise of comfort right after it.

There are two kinds of mourning presented in Scripture, and both of them are in view here.

The first is grief over loss, and God never once asks us to pretend we don’t feel it. Jesus stood at the grave of His friend Lazarus and wept, and He knew perfectly well what He was about to do. Grief is not a failure of faith. The psalmist says in Psalm 34:18 (NKJV) that “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” Nearness is what God offers the grieving, and nearness is what we most need. He doesn’t give us an explanation from a distance. He comes close.

I know something about loss. Years ago, I lost my infant son, Holden, and for a long time afterward I was lost in a grief-fueled search for meaning and comfort without God. I went looking for relief in alcohol, drugs, and sex, but those just kept me in a vicious cycle of pleasure and pain that made things worse. I eventually sought peace in Eastern mysticism, but the lies of Buddhism denied the loss and put the focus on my best efforts to manage the pains of life through disciplined living. That godless philosophy had seemingly pragmatic answers of how to deal with grief and the hardships of life, but they would have led me to destruction.  

What nearly killed me was refusing to bring my grief to God and trying to medicate it instead. When the Lord finally saved me, He didn’t erase my loss. He met me in it and assured me of His presence. He gave me a comfort that didn’t deny the sorrow, but he gave me a hope that He would make all things new someday and that there would be no more pain or death. God has since used the worst thing that ever happened to me to help other grieving people find Him. That is what God does with mourning that gets brought to Him. He heals it and uses it for good. 

The second kind of mourning in Scripture is grief over our own sin. This the godly grief that brings us to repentance that Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV), where he tells us that “godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” There are two sorrows, and they take us to opposite places.

Godly sorrow is what happens when God shows us the truth and our heart agrees with Him about it. It hurts, but it moves us toward Him.

Worldly sorrow is the sorrow that keeps us going back to the same failures without ever changing, and it will wear a person down to nothing. The difference between them is the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is specific and it always points us back to Jesus and His ways.

Condemnation is general, attacks who we are, and leaves us hopeless. Paul settles the question of condemnation for us in Romans 8:1 (NKJV) when he writes that “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” If the voice you are hearing is telling you that you are worthless and there is no way back, that is not the voice of God, and we don’t have to negotiate with it.

Now let’s look at the promise in Matthew 5:4, because Jesus chose His words carefully there too. He says the mourners “shall be comforted.” The Greek word for comfort, parakaleō, means to be called alongside, and it is the same root behind the name the Lord gives the Holy Spirit when He calls Him the Comforter. God’s comfort is not an empty sentiment called from a distance. It is a Person coming near and staying.

Let’s also notice that the promise of God’s comfort isn’t something we have to earn or work toward. Jesus doesn’t say the mourners will comfort themselves or talk themselves into feeling better. He says they will be comforted, which means somebody else does the comforting. That takes an enormous weight off of us. Our job in grief is not to fix ourselves. Our job is to stay in the room with God and let Him do what He has promised to do.

So, what does this promise of comfort mean for us?

It means that we don’t have to rush our grief and we don’t need to rush anybody else’s. It means we bring our sorrow to God honestly, because He can handle honest talk and He is not offended by tears. It means we can let a few people get close enough to help us. Grief carried alone gets heavier and grief carried together gets lighter. And it means we should take the difference between conviction and condemnation seriously, agreeing with God quickly about what He shows us and refusing the accuser’s version entirely.

I want to add one more thing as a coach. If grief has settled into your life and it isn’t moving, or if it is taking your appetite, your sleep, and your hope with it, that is not weak faith, and it is not something to carry alone. Talk to someone who can walk with you through it and get real help. God works through His people and through good care, and there is no shame in either one.

Remember, mourning is not the end of your story. Jesus promises comfort to those who mourn, and He does not make promises He has no intention of keeping. Jesus, Our Emmanuel, is God with us and He will be with us in and through our grief.  

Every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction. So, keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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