Mourn

Bridges opens this chapter with an honest statement that this Beatitude is one he struggles to replicate the most; that is, mourning over one’s sin. Jesus did not state that we are to cry or shed a few tears over our sin, but we are to mourn over our sin. Bridges points out that Jesus used the strongest word for mourn in the Greek. We should have an intense mourning over our sin. 

This Beatitude follows after the first Beatitude (poor in spirit) in that one will not mourn over their sin until they are poor in spirit. Without realizing the extent of their sin, one will not be able to mourn over one's sin. And one ought to pray and seek God’s help to realize that their sin is rebellious against God. 

Bridges quotes from Psalm 51 where David writes about his mournful attitude towards his sin (specifically writing about when he committed adultery with Bathsheba). Bridges points to verse three where David states that he realizes his sin was against God alone. This is because all sin is ultimately against God and His law. Bridges then adds, “We will never see the seriousness of our sin and mourn over it until we see that it is against God.” 

Our lack of recognition to the fact that our sin is against God is why we do not experience mourning Bridges believes. We see it as affecting us by causing us to feel guilty, but we do not realize it as sin against Him. We defile God’s holiness when we sin, and, because He is holy, He cannot look at our sin with indifference, but with hate. 

Bridges further drives the point home that we lack a mourning over our sin because we don’t tend to look at our daily sins (pride, gossip, etc.) as sinful, or at least not that sinful. But Bridges quotes James 2:10 which states that if we have committed one sin we are guilty of them all. We ought to have a broken and contrite heart over all of our sins, not just the ones we deem as “big” sins. Bridges states that a “mark of a growing Christian, then, is a growing sense of his or her sin, and an attitude of mourning over it.” 

Bridges then moves to the blessing portion of the Beatitude. This blessing is that God will forgive. He will not despise a broken and contrite spirit. When David wrote this it was the Holy Spirit speaking through him, meaning it was not David’s opinion, but truth directly from God. When we mourn over our sin, He does not ignore it but He restores the relationship. 

Bridges concludes the chapter by sharing that the same Greek word for mourn was also used in 1 Corinthians 5:2, but this time was used for tolerating someone else’s sin. We all can see that society is becoming more and more wicked, but Bridges asks the question, do we condone, condemn, or mourn over societies sins? We ought to mourn over society’s sins, not stand far off judging society. We need to seek God’s mercy for our society, as Ezra did (Ezra 9:6), just as we seek God’s mercy for our own sins. This mourning, along with our understanding that all our sins are rebellious against God, and therefore we are not better than anyone else as we may like to think, is a true display of humility in action.