Jesus begins one of his greatest teaching moments of the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. He starts with a series of beatitudes or blessings (ways in which we can have spiritual health). At first glance they seem to propose an ascetic way of life more common to a monk than a human being active in the workforce. Jesus isn’t just speaking to monks, he is speaking to his disciples: he is speaking to you and me.

Maybe it is in the way that we read the Beatitudes that skews our perception.

My favorite Beatitude has become a prayer. I often ask God to allow me to view sin the way he does (both my sin as well as others). I pray, “God, would you let me see sin with your eyes?”

Jesus says in Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Most scholars and theologians will tell you that the “mourning” Jesus refers to is not what you might read at first glance.

When I hear mourning, as you do probably, we think of mourning the loss of a loved one. For me, it is remembering one of my grandparents who have died.

What Jesus is saying is to mourn sin.

What do you feel or experience when you do something that is counter to what God would have? What do you feel when you see someone else do something wrong? Do you “mourn”? Probably not.

When I do something that I know is wrong (pride, lust, greed, etc.), I normally do not mourn doing it. I might mourn if I was to get found out or suffer due to my choice. I obviously wouldn’t experience strong feelings of death and loss over it or I wouldn’t do it in the first place.

What if I see someone else living in such a way? What if I were to see an addict suffering from a drug addiction living in a criminal lifestyle? Would I mourn? Probably not.

This is why I pray that way. “God, I want to see sin with your eyes.”

When I am sinful, I want God to let me see it the way he does: full of death and pain that it causes. May I mourn my choices and view sin as God does.

When others are caught-up in sin, I want to see their actions as God sees them: seeing the pain that it causes them and others, and seeing the death that it creates in their lives. I never want to see their sin and hold it against them, but maybe begin to feel more compassion for people.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

To see sin as God sees sin, would cause us to mourn, and would change our views about living in ways that are contrary to God. It would prevent us from thinking one lifestyle or sin is better/worse than another. It would stop me from seeing my life as better than others, and draw me to helping others see the destruction that their choices are causing. It would cause me to “mourn” the things that wrong in this world, instead of marginalizing them.

Inevitably, we would live differently. And, we would be comforted.

God, let me see sin with your eyes.