Sermon on the Mount: Mourning & Comfort (Mt 5:4)

While the first beatitude had little OT tradition to fall back on (read about it in “Sermon on the Mount: Beatitude 1“), the second beatitude is ripe with OT background.  I also have a suspicion that as I go through the beatitudes, what I’m going to begin to find is that Jesus is doing something far more theological in a sense than merely offering words of comfort to those in need.

One of the difficult things about studying the beatitudes is that they’ve been done so many times before and virtually every interpretation and application I’ve ever heard of them always turns them into these meek and mild words of pastoral encouragement.  There’s a place for that and I have little doubt that they actually served that purpose.  But we also need to recognize that that sort of interpretation is theological baggage that we need to put off to the side is we want to really engage the text and Jesus’ message.  That’s one of the reasons why you probably haven’t heard much in the way of a typical interpretation of Matthew from me.  I don’t believe I’m being heretical, but I will admit that I’m looking to put aside the standard understandings and try to get at how all this stuff would worked together to make an impression on the original audience.

Let me begin with defining some terms…

1. “those who mourn” – it’s all one Greek word, penthountes, participle form of the word penthos (πένθος).  Penthos means exactly what you might expect: “to mourn.”  However, we need to keep in mind that there is an important distinction between mourning and sadness.  While the two go hand-in-hand, they are different.  Mourning is the outward expression of sadness through any number of rituals; sadness is an emotion.  We frequently see in the OT stories of people mourning by tearing there clothes, shouting, and sitting in ashes.  Those actions are outward expressions of the sadness they are feeling inside of them.
2. “will be comforted” – comes from the Greek word parakaleo (παρακαλέω).  In non-Christian Greek culture, the word is rather simplistic with the idea of “calling upon, comfort.”  It’s only associated with providing support during times of distress and sadness.  However, Matthew is a Jewish gospel written to a Jewish audience and this particular scene has a Jewish rabbi speaking directly to his Jewish disciples with a mish-mash of other Palestinians listening in (I talked about this in “Sermon on the Mount: Introductory Thoughts“).  And Jews, because of the Septuagint, had a highly nuanced understanding of parakaleo…

Mourning and comforting had a vital role in the life of Israel, especially in messianic prophecy.  It was understood that with the arrival of the messiah, mourning – both literally and figuratively – would come to an end and God would comfort his people and restore them to their former glory.  I would argue that Isaiah 61 serves as a background text for this beatitude (excerpt is Is 61:1-3):

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called mighty oaks,

a planting of the Lord

for the display of his splendor.

Isaiah 61 is speaking about what will happen when the messiah comes.  Notice about half-way down, the line, “to comfort all who mourn.”  I think when Jesus climbed upon the mountain and began proclaiming his beatitudes, he had these verses in mind.  This is a connection I believe most Jews would have made when they heard the words, “Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted.”

This is the nuance that Jews applied to parakaleo; when Hellenistic Jews translated the Bible from Hebrew to Greek they needed a word that would communicate the idea contained in the Hebrew word for “comfort.”  Unfortunately they couldn’t find a perfect replacement, so they essentially made one up.  Although parakaleo can be found in a number of contexts within the Septuagint, a majority of its uses – and the most significant – point the reader toward the messianic promise of salvation and restoration.

So what exactly was Jesus/Matthew doing?  Was he simply offering hope and encouragement to those who needed it?  While I certainly think that’s part of the equation (because that’s one of end results of the cross and resurrection), I think this also stands as a declaration that the messianic age has begun (it’ll be interesting to see if this continues and becomes a primary goal of the beatitudes as a whole – a declaration that Jesus is the messiah and therefore all these things are fulfilled).  With the arrival of the messiah, comes the kingdom of heaven (5:3) bringing an end to mourning and the fulfillment of ultimate comfort (5:4).