Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, January 29, Matthew 5:4

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (KJV)

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 has a passage that is quite contrary to our thought: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."

A few verses later, some perspective is given: "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." (8)

When I see this, I think of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. He deliberately waited four days, for the belief was that after three days someone was surely dead.

He knew exactly what He was going to do, yet we see what people call the "shortest verse in the Bible", where "Jesus wept." (John 11:35). (of course there were no verse numbers in the original autograph, but you can win points in a Bible trivia game.)

Why did Jesus weep? We hear an awful lot of conjecture, but we'll never know until we see Him face to face. Personally, I think of that verse in Ecclesiastes. In reality, death is unnatural for God's creation. But it is the inevitable reminder of where our sin leads.

Jesus comforted the mourning. "Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

"She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." (John 11:23-27)

Any minister worth his salt will never perform a funeral service without giving the hope of the Gospel. This is really the only time even the biggest fool will be quiet long enough to listen. Any other time they will suppress their wretched, unbelieving consciences with stuff like alcohol, drugs, lusts, or whatever the world can blind them with.

Here, their consciences are forced for just a few minutes to listen. All the other stuff, the things people say about the one for whom they mourn are usually filled with a lot of exaggeration and euphemism. But it helps the mourners feel some sense of hope.

Yet when they look honestly, they will mourn, not only for the one who is now standing in the presence of Almighty God, but mourn their own sin.

The reaction of the people around Jesus after He wept was very telling: "So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" (36-37)

I think about this. Some saw His love and compassion. Others talked about a blind man, proving their own blindness to Whom it was they were seeing.

And finally, we see the reaction after the raising of Lazarus: "Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done." (45-46)

It was at this moment that the leaders decided to kill Jesus. And we find later that, instead of rejoicing with the risen Lazarus, "they made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus." (John 12:10-11)

Mourning in this life forces you to seek comfort. Will you continually be blind and seek the false comfort of this earth, or will you look up to where the comfort truly lies? The Bible teaches that death is the result of our rejection of God, and because of that we have gone our own way, and chose sin over the Savior. We think that we are saving our own skin, but in reality, we are losing our souls.

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? (Mark 8:35-37)

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps

"Blessed are they that mourn:
for they shall be comforted." (KJV)

Another easy and unforgettable word picture. And easy to link the verse number to it if you desire. You are in mourning. Picture the large "5-fingered" hand of God "blessing" you and "comforting" you by softly patting your back.

You can remember that this is verse four by replacing "mourn" with "fourn".

For me, I replace myself with my "Memory Character" "Ray" (R=4, vowels fillers) and place him on a wrestling Mat to represent "Matthew". This gives me a more complete picture in order to link the verse to Matthew 5:4.