Contrition for Comfort Matt 5:4
Mourning follows poor in spirit. It is poverty of spirit that says, “I am undone”; and it is the mourning which this causes that makes it break forth in the form of a lamentation - “Woe is me! for I am undone.” (Jamieson) Seeing our impoverished spiritual condition we mourn. Those who, feeling their spiritual poverty, mourn after God, lamenting the iniquity that separated them from the fountain of blessedness. Everyone flies from sorrow, and seeks after joy, and yet true joy must necessarily be the fruit of sorrow. The whole need not (do not feel the need of) the physician, but they that are sick do; i.e. they who are sensible of their disease. Only such persons as are deeply convinced of the sinfulness of sin, feel the plague of their own heart, and turn with disgust from all worldly consolations, because of their insufficiency to render them happy, have God's promise of solid comfort. (Clarke) Now, nothing is supposed to be more inconsistent with happiness than mourning. But Christ does not merely affirm that mourners are not unhappy. He shows, that their very mourning contributes to a happy life, by preparing them to receive eternal joy, and by furnishing them with excitements to seek true comfort in God alone. (Calvin). (Rom 5:3) What a generous and merciful arrangement of Almighty God that even life's sorrows shall bless and reward his servants! (Coffman) God’s mercies are always greater than our troubles. (Chrysostom)
The Way of the World
The Picture: The world would say that to mourn, be sorrowful, or depressed is seen as weak.
The Philosophy: The world’s perspective of happiness is; Don’t worry, be happy; Drown your sorrows, don’t recognize them and they’ll go away. Pleasure over pain at any cost! The whole structure of most human living . . .is based on the axiom that favorable things bring happiness, and unfavorable things bring unhappiness. Avoiding pain, trouble, disappointment, frustration and hardships are the way of the world to attain happiness (MacArthur)
The Walk in the Word
Gods’ way to happiness is different than the world’s way. We must go through the valley of tears to paradise. (Watson)
The Character of Contrition mourn
Severe grief -The Greek here is pentheo It is the strongest and most severe grief, the deepest and most heart felt grief as over the loss of a loved one. Our mourning for sin must be so great as to exceed all other grief (Watson)
Seen grief - To grieve with a grief that so takes possession of our being that it can’t be hidden. It is signifying grief manifested; that is too deep for concealment (Vincent). This kind of grief cannot be hidden.
Steady grief -In the Greek this is a present participle – it suggests a continuous state of grief not having mourned, but mourn. Gospel-mourning for sin is constant. There are some who at a sermon will shed a few tears, but this land-flood is soon dried up. The hypocrite’s sorrow is like a vein opened and presently stopped. John Bradford said that scarce a day passed him wherein he did not shed some tears for sin. Daily mourning is a good antidote against backsliding and a sure path to true happiness. (Watson)
The Condition that brings Contrition Those who
Realization of our improvised spiritual condition The men who are aware of their own essential poverty, not the men who are poor in friends, or poor in influence, or poor in requirements, or poor in money, but those who are poor in spirit, who feel themselves poor creatures who know nothing to be pleased with themselves for and desire nothing to make them think well of themselves, who know that they need much to make their life worth living, to make their existence a good thing, to make them fit to live. These humble ones are poor, whom the Lord calls blessed. “When a man says, ‘I am low and worthless,’ then the gate of the kingdom begins to open to him.” (George McDonald)
Recognition of our indwelling sin Sin must have tears. While we carry the fire of sin about us, we must carry the water of tears to quench it (Ezekiel 7:16). They are not blessed who mourn for the dead, but rather those who mourn for sin (Chrysostom) and indeed it is with good reason we mourn for sin, if we consider the guilt of sin, which binds over to wrath (Watson) The mourning intended here is not murmuring, natural sorrow, or grief, but the sorrow connected with sin-“godly sorrow”-the mourning in the house of affliction (Barker).
Response to our inadequate spirituality. Mourning over one’s sin and spiritual failure, brought about by a realization of our slowness of growth, our inward bondage to besetting sin, or unlikeness to Christ and our disregard for His word and His will is what is suggested here. (Sanders)
The Christlikeness of Contrition Blessed
Sorrow Exemplified – Jesus mourned. He was a “man of sorrow aquatinted with grief” (Is 53:5) He wept over the death of Lazarus (Jn 11:35) He mourned, wept over a rebellious city and people (Lk 19:41); Paul mourned over his sin to the point that he declared himself to be a “wretched man” (Rom 7:24).
Sorrow Encouraged-This is the kind of sorrow that produces repentance. A Godly sorrow is meant, a mourning over sinfulness. (2 Cor 7:10) (Johnson). It is sorrow over sin. . . a godly sorrow. The sorrow of the world is useless. It works death where godly sorrow works repentance, which brings salvation, which brings comfort (Mac Arthur). When I see God and His holiness, and contemplate the life that I should live, I see utter helplessness, hopelessness, and myself (Is 6:1-5). This is the essence of the sorrow mentioned in the text. (Lloyd Jones). It is the agonizing realization that it was my sin which nailed to the cross the Lord of Glory (Pink).
The Culmination of Contrition They shall be comforted
Tears dropping from a mournful, penitent eye, are like water dropping from the roses, very sweet and precious to God. A fountain in the garden makes it pleasant. Mourning goes before comfort as the lancing of a wound precedes the cure. Gospel tears are not lost; they are seeds of comfort. (Watson) While the penitent pours out tears, God pours in joy. If you would be cheerful be sad (Chrysostom), ‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy’ (Ps 126:5). There can be no comfort where there is no grief. (Bruce). Get it straight –this happiness doesn’t come from the mourning, it comes from God’s response to it. His response? Comfort. Keep sin in your life and bottle it up, and you’ll see how ruinous if becomes. Confess it and see the freedom and the joy that comes in forgiveness (MacArthur).
Personal- they -They are those who have mourned over their sinfulness. Once a man comes to know the deepest truth about himself and realizes his deepest need, his cry will be, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ Then the atonement becomes not a theory which he can discuss, but a Divine fact on which, with the gratitude of his whole soul, he rests. (C. G. Lang). Conviction fits for comfort. By conviction the Spirit sweetly disposes the heart to seek after Christ and then to receive Christ. Once the soul is convinced of sin and of the hell that follows it, a Savior is precious. The Spirit by conviction makes the heart willing to receive Christ upon his own terms. (Watson) Having seen his utter sinfulness and hopelessness he looks for a savior and finds Him in Christ. If we truly mourn, we shall rejoice, we shall be made happy, we shall be comforted. For it is when man sees himself in this unutterable hopelessness that the Holy Spirit reveals unto him the Lord Jesus Christ as his perfect satisfaction. Great sorrow leads to joy and without sorrow there is no joy. (Lloyd Jones) Some deny their sin, like the Pharisees did, and live a life of deception, trying to make everyone think they are perfect. (Matt 23:27-28). Others admit their spiritual bankruptcy and then try to change it themselves . . . Others admit their sin and then despair so much that they hang themselves like Judas (Matt 27:5). Finally, some admit if and turn to God for grace and mercy. That is what the prodigal son did (Lk 16:11-24). Did he deny his circumstances? I’m all right, it is really not that bad. Or did he admit he was down and vow to work his way up to respectability? Did he give up and drown in the slop? No, he admitted it and went back to his father where grace and mercy was to be found. He mourned and confessed and was forgiven and comforted and blessed. (MacArthur)
Present- shall be – Comfort is not just a future event but for now, it is a present expression which continues. Those that mourn thus shall be comforted. So those that grieve over sin; that sorrow that they have committed it and are afflicted and wounded that they have offended God, shall find comfort in the gospel. Through the merciful Savior those sins may be forgiven. In him the weary and heavy-ladened soul shall find peace (Matt 11:28-30); and the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, shall sustain them here (Jn 14:26-27), and in heaven all their tears shall be wiped. (Barnes)
Perfect – comfort – The Greek word here is parakaleo, it means to call to one's side – is a compound word: para -alongside , and kaleo – to call. It is used in John 14:16 of the Holy Spirit the paraklete where comfort runs alongside of mourning. As long as you will continue to mourn, you will continue to be comforted. As we deal with our sin, God comforts us by the inside work of the Spirit, by the work of the Word, by the ministry of other believers. (Mac Arthur) Here in this life we will experience comfort, by the God of all comfort, by Christ the comforter; by the Spirit of God, whose work and office it is to comfort; by the Scriptures of truth, which are written for their consolation and by the promises of the Gospel (Gill) When the heart is broken for sin, now it is fittest for joy. God pours the golden oil of comfort into broken vessels. The mourner’s heart is emptied of pride and God fills the empty with his blessing. The valley of tears brings the soul into a paradise of joy. The mourner’s sorrow brings forth joy. ‘Your sorrow shall be turned into joy’ (John 16:20). The saints have a wet seedtime but a joyful harvest. (Watson). God shall turn all his people’s sadness into gladness, all their sighing into singing, all their musing into music, all their tears into triumphs. (Trapp) Strange as it may appear, there is a comfort, an exceeding great comfort, in mourning for sin; insomuch that the true Christian reckons the seasons of his deepest humiliation among the happiest hours of his life. View him when he obtains a glimpse of his Lord and Savior, and a taste of his pardoning love: with what " unspeakable, and even glorified joy" is he filled! The admiration, the love, the gratitude which he feels on such occasions, sometimes overwhelms him; and he is silent, not for want of will, but for want of power, to declare what God has done for his soul. Yes, beloved; his poverty and mourning, so far from robbing him of these joys, are the means of obtaining, enhancing, and perpetuating them. Know you then, that " God is the only fountain of living water:" (Jer 17:13) in Christ only can you " find rest for your souls." (Matt 29:11) Continue to seek happiness in the world, and you will only treasure up sorrow and disappointment: begin to seek it in the exercises of Biblical faith, and you will soon find that " her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." (Prov 3:17). If there is some hidden sin that you do not see or will not part with. If so, it is no wonder that you are not happy: you may as well expect to be at ease when thorns are festering in your flesh, as to be happy while sin is harbored in your souls. But if it be indeed so, that you are upright before God, and are seeking the Savior with true humility of mind, and yet, through the present clouds that encompass you, you are not happy, God directs you to "stay yourself on him," (Is 26:3-4) and gives you this word for your encouragement, that "light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart:" it is sown, though at present it be under the clouds; and in due time it shall assuredly spring up in your souls : your " heaviness may endure for a night; but joy shall come in the morning." (Ps 30:5) (Simeon)
He knows the bitter weary way,
He knows the endless striving day by day
He knows how hard the fight has been,
The clouds that come our lives between,
The wounds the world hath never seen
He Knows.
He knows O thought so full of bless
For Thoughts our joys on earth we miss
We still can bear it feeling this
He knows.
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