After speaking in the first of the Beatitudes concerning the attitude of being ‘poor in spirit’, in Matthew 5:4, Jesus then spoke about the blessing that belongs to those who ‘mourn’. Rather than understand Jesus’ words to refer to people who are suffering from grief because of some sense of loss, he was instead speaking of those who mourn and sorrow over their sinful condition. Jesus even gave a parable on this very thing in Luke 18:9-14. There, the tax collector typified the kind of attitude Jesus spoke of. Why is this a blessing? Because as we mourn over sin and confess it, by grace and because of Jesus’ death for our sins, God freely grants forgiveness to the repentant