Isaiah 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; Some seek to comfort by telling us that sorrow is wrong. They say that we should be brave and not allow our feelings to become so deep. It is true there may be excessive grief, and so grief may become sinful. But to say that we must not sorrow is to try to induce us to outrage our nature and to deprive us of one of the most effectual means whereby God educates and purifies. Christ is not come to deliver us from suffering, but to enable us to derive good from the suffering. How does Christ "comfort all that mourn"? I. BY HIMSELF BECOMING THE SUFFERER FOR US, TO TAKE AWAY SIN. Christ bore the curse of it for us, and in doing this He removed the root of our mourning. II. BY HIS SYMPATHY. He feels with us and for us, and by oneness with us in sorrow gives us comfort. Sympathy means suffering along with another. Job spoke of it when he said, "Did I not weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?" III. By showing us THE ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF SUFFERING. Nowhere except in God's revelation in Christ do we learn how and why affliction and sorrow come upon us. Our Lord Jesus Christ explains all. And His explanation goes down to the very root of the matter. Suffering is necessary in order that we enter into the fulness of God's love in the gift of His Son. He who has received Christ as his Saviour is instructed, sanctified, made more meet for the Master's use, becomes more heavenly minded, by means of all the affliction through which his Heavenly Father causes him to pass. To suffer in Christ is to live more deeply. "Love and sorrow are the two conditions of a profound life." IV. BY ASSURING THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THEY SHALL BE EVERLASTINGLY WITH HIM TO BEHOLD HIS GLORY. We learn — 1. That the comfort Christ imparts is effectual. It is not limited or partial. See how fully this is set forth in the passage with which the text is connected. What variety of imagery is used to picture to us the fulness and perfection of the remedy Christ brings for human guilt and misery. The healing He effects is for our whole nature, for heart, mind and conscience. He completely redeems and blesses. 2. The comfort Christ gives is enduring. It is no momentary or temporary assuaging of grief. It will never fail, it will increase in its influence and power. 3. The comfort Christ bestows is offered to all and is adapted to all. "To comfort all that mourn." "All ye that labour," etc. Whatever burden, whatever sorrow, there is in Him comfort for all. (G. W. Humphreys, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; |
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