Humble, Mournful & Gentle

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." Matthew 5:3-5

Thus begins Jesus' famous words know as The Beatitudes. The Latin word for "blessed" is beatus, from which we get the word beatitude. They are simply stated, but are profound in meaning. They guide. They point. They teach. They show us the values that Christ cares about.

I'd like to go through each one and try to understand what Jesus meant by what He said.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." KJV & NIV
"Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!" Amplified Bible
"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule. " The Message

"Poor in spirit" means to be humble, to think less about ourself and more about God and others. Humility is the realization that all our gifts and blessings come from the grace of God. To have poverty of spirit means to be completely empty and open to the Word of God, to be totally dependent on God. When we are an empty cup and devoid of pride, we are humble. Humility brings an openness and an inner peace, allowing one to do the will of God.

It is pride, the opposite of humility, that brings misery. For pride brings anger and the seeking of revenge, especially when one is offended. If every man were humble and poor in spirit, there would be no war and that would be the Kingdom of Heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." NIV & KJV
"Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!" Amplified Bible

The mourning that is spoken of here is not so much the mourning over someone who dies but over our sinful nature. If we are humble and appreciate that all of our gifts and blessings come from God, we grow in love and gratitude for Jesus Christ our Savior. But this can only produce mourning and regret over our own sins and the sins of this world, for we have hurt the one who has been so good to us. One also mourns for the suffering of others.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote in James 4:8-10: "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." Here you see the same idea...a mourning over our sin and the sins of others and a desire to be humble.

St. Gregory describes another reason to mourn: the more one ascends in meditation of Divine Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and then realizes the poverty of human nature, man can only be left in sorrow. When one contemplates that we were made in the image and likeness of God and lived in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, and compare that to our present state after the Fall, one can only mourn our present condition. But the sentence continues that they shall be comforted, by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and hopefully one day in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mourning in this context is called a blessing, because mourning our fallen nature creates in us a desire to improve ourselves and to do what is right!

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." NIV and KJV
"Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!" Amplified Bible
"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought." The Message

"Meek" does not mean weak as many people wrongly understand it. Meek can be translated as "power under control with humility and gentleness." Jesus was anything but weak, yet He is known as being meek. The same Greek word used for meek is also translated "gentle." This word is used to describe Jesus when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. "Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'" Matthew 21:5

Jesus describes Himself this way when He said: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29

Peter also uses this term to describe how godly women should be: "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4

St. Gregory of Nyssa taught that the Beatitudes build one upon another. A humble person becomes meek, or becomes gentle and kind, and exhibits a docility of spirit, even in the face of adversity and hardship. A person that is meek is one that exhibits self-control.

St. Augustine advises us to be meek in the face of the Lord, and not resist but be obedient to him. Obedience and submission to the will of God are certainly not popular these days, but they will bring one peace in this world and in the next.

Thus, in the first three Beatitudes, Jesus is encouraging us, His disciples to be
1) Humble
2) Mournful over our sins and the sins of the world
3) Gentle with self-control