I am a Jesus pusher!!! “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,” (Matthew 5:4). The subject of the sentence is the Greek word “ho,” translated those. It is an article such as “the,” “this one,” or “that one.” The Greek word “penthountes,” translated who mourn, is a present participle, indicating continuous action. This participle is a verb acting as an adjective, which gives content to the subject, those. The subject becomes “the mourning ones.” Its usage in the Old Testament Septuagint is focused on mourning and lamenting at death. It is grief that is too deep for concealment. It is often joined with the Greek word “klaio,” translated “weep,” “to weep audibly.”
If you look exclusively at this second Beatitude without its context, there is no basis to judge the source of the mourning. Is Jesus referring to difficult circumstances of life? Is He highlighting eternal life that shall overshadow all grief connected to death? Perhaps His concern is persecution as related in the last Beatitude.
The context of our passage gives a ready answer. Evidently mourning is that feeling which is birthed from the sense of our spiritual poverty. The second Beatitude is but the complement of the first! It is in the context of realizing our poverty that we are enabled to mourn. Mourning takes on the quality and depth of helplessness. The strength of poverty becomes the expression of mourning. Mourning is the proper response to our helplessness that opens our lives to Jesus. He becomes the source of our lives. I am a Jesus pusher!!!