By faith you are called into this gospel mourning. We ought to mourn a world that is not right. We ought to mourn the rebellion of sin. We ought to mourn the turning away from God’s covenant promises. We ought to mourn the effects of sin–even the death of the Gospel Mourner, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those that mourn.” It is in this gospel mourning God comes to his people. The Spirit gives comfort as we mourn for sin and the effects of sin on a hurting world. We look to the Christ which came down in search of all those who would mourn by faith.
Gospel mourning leads the mournful to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can we say about the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship to this? What does Jesus have to do with this mourning?
When we think of the Christ of gospel mourning, we begin with asking how the Scriptures describe Jesus. What are the most prominent descriptors that we find in the Scripture to help us to know the character and personality of our savior?
One of the most substantial descriptions that we find of Jesus in the whole of the Scriptures is Isaiah 53. In The prophet provides a description of the Lord Jesus Christ—and we see something of his mourning in verse 3:
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Jesus Christ is described as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. The burden of Christ’s humiliation and taking on flesh for the sake of sinners was a heavy burden for our savior to carry.
As Jesus looked into a world tainted by sin and misery, it was a grief to him; a sorrow to know that which was created very good and those created in the image of God had rebelled. It is not unreasonable, but necessary, to say that life in this world grieved Jesus because of the great contrast of the holiness of Glory compared to the sinfulness of sin.
Did Jesus Christ know mourning?
Yes.
For he was the man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Does this mean that he never smiled or laughed or enjoyed life?
No it doesn’t.
But if you would ask those closest to him what he was like while living on this earth—I imagine that, in part, they would share the words of the prophet: he was a man of sorrows bearing the sins of the world.
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