Happy Are the Unhappy

Happy people are unhappy people, because Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In the Beatitudes, the word “blessed” that Jesus used is interchangeable with “happy.”

To put it another way, happy are the unhappy.

“Well, that makes no sense at all,” you’re saying. “Either you’re happy or you’re unhappy.”

No, before you can truly be happy, you first have to be unhappy. You have to see your real state before God, which is a sinful state. And you have to mourn over that state.

Also, the word that Jesus used here for “mourn” is the most severe of nine Greek words for grief that we find in the Scriptures. It’s reserved for mourning the dead. While this verse applies in principle to all who mourn, let’s look at it in context.

Let’s go back to the previous beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3 NKJV). It’s a little scary to see what sinners we really are. But when we cry out to God and mourn over our condition, then we will find comfort.

As commentator Warren Wiersbe has pointed out, “It is as wrong to mourn when God has forgiven us as it is to rejoice when sin has conquered us.”

It’s better to mourn now and laugh later than to laugh now and mourn later. When you really mourn for your condition and repent of it, you can experience the true happiness that God wants you to experience.

Have you ever shed a tear over a sin in your own life? Have you ever done something you were ashamed of and wept over it?

The Bible tells us that godly sorrow will produce repentance (see 2 Corinthians 7:10). This can be a good thing, because that mourning can produce tangible results.