Luke 10:30-37 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Matthew 5:1-10 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed Are the Merciful
This morning on our journey through the beatitudes we come to blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Our first question then must be what is mercy? When I thought about mercy this week a portion of a quote popped into my head. “The quality of mercy is not…” That was all I could remember and I didn’t know where it came from except that it wasn’t from the Bible. I would have been stuck there in years past but ahhh, the wonders of the internet. I typed the phrase in Google and almost instantly found out that Shakespeare wrote it in The Merchant of Venice, “The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” Isn’t that beautiful? We learn from this that mercy works in two ways. It blesses the giver of mercy and the receiver of mercy. This is what Jesus says, we are blessed when we show mercy and the blessing we receive is that we will be shown mercy.
Mercy includes compassion along with a desire to act to relieve suffering. Being merciful means compassion plus action. A sense of compassion for others’ misery will lead to a desire, almost an anxiety to relieve it. Mercy can be described as inward sympathy and outward acts in relation to the sorrows and sufferings of others. Mercy doesn’t stop at feelings, it continues into action. From the feeling springs an intense desire to relieve the situation.
Let’s connect mercy with the flow of all the beatitudes. They are not just a random list but are connected to each other. We are poor in spirit, we realize we have no righteousness, we realize that face-to-face with God and His righteousness we are utterly helpless and hopeless, without any ability to save ourselves. In addition to this, we mourn our sin, the Holy Spirit shows us the blackness that is within and we mourn our condition. This leads to meekness and a humble reliance on God. In this state we hunger and thirst for righteousness that will put us in right relationship with God; that will reconcile us to God and give us a new nature and a new life in Christ. It is from this new life within us that mercy will flow. Doesn’t it make sense that if we have known and experienced all this that our attitude towards everyone else will be completely changed? We will no longer see others through our own eyes but through the eyes of Christ.
There is a song that came out in 2008 titled ‘Give Me Your Eyes’ and it is addressed to Jesus. It says, “Give me Your eyes for just one second, Give me Your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing, Give me Your love for humanity, Give me Your arms for the broken hearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten, give me Your eyes so I can see” The author is asking Jesus for the ability to see the world through Jesus’ eyes, to have Jesus’ compassion and mercy. When God has mercy on us and forgives us, we are filled with righteousness and that filling leads to new life in Christ and part of that new life is the desire to show mercy to others ourselves.
This verse about mercy is a turning point in the beatitudes. So far they have been about how we need to be. Now we turn around and discover the type of person we will become when we truly see ourselves for who we are and turn to Jesus and ask Him to change us into the people we were originally meant to be. Jesus tells us that our heart must be right for our actions to be right. There is more weight given to our attitude than our actions. We have to be Christian before we can act as Christians.
Some people think to be Christian you need to pray certain prayers, say certain things and act in certain ways. That by doing these things we can become Christian. That’s backwards, that’s putting the cart before the horse. When we give our lives to Jesus Christ we will live out of that relationship. We will be controlled by that truth because we have been changed, we have become Christian by the operation of the Holy Spirit within us. As Paul so aptly put it in Galatians, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) Jesus Christ is in control, not us.
Jesus knew we could never save ourselves, it is impossible for us to ever be in right relationship with God on our own. Jesus died so we could be forgiven, He showed mercy to us. Our salvation was God’s plan from the moment of the Fall in the Garden of Eden. It is a plan of the entire Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and all three members of the Trinity are involved in salvation. God the Father sent His only Son. Jesus, the Son willingly came to save us and the Holy Spirit lives in us and changes us day by day.
We show mercy because we have been shown mercy. Our ability and desire to show mercy is related to our ability to appreciate the mercy we have been shown by God. The more we are aware of our own sin, the more we can appreciate what God has done for us.
The greatest example of mercy is when God sent His only begotten Son into this world, Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost. Why? Because there is mercy with God. He saw our pitiful state. He saw the suffering and, in spite of our willful turning from God, God was moved to action. He sent His only Son and Jesus came and dealt with our condition. Let us look once again this morning at our supreme example. Let us look at Jesus Christ upon the cross, Jesus who never sinned, who never did anything wrong or harmed anyone in any way, who came and preached the truth, who came to seek and save the lost. There He is, nailed to the cross, suffering untold agonies on that cross, and yet what does He say as He looks upon those who put Him there? “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus offers forgiveness, He shows mercy to those who showed Him none. We are disciples of Christ because we have been called and accepted by God, we have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit who works in us to change us bit by bit. Since we have received this great mercy, we become, in turn, a channel to convey mercy to others.
Sometimes but not always mercy includes forgiveness. I have a beautiful example of mercy from the Old Testament, of mercy that includes forgiveness. Remember Joseph? His brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. Years later when there was a famine in their land their father, Jacob sent Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to buy grain. They came before him and Joseph literally had his guilty brothers ‘at his mercy’ yet he showed them exactly that. There was compassion as he wept at their misery, and then action as he met their needs. There was forgiveness as he restored them all to his grace, saying, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
When God showed us mercy He forgave us for our sins. We are to forgive others as we are forgiven. Jesus said, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. I have always found this statement frightening. It is not always easy to forgive. Yet, if we ask God for the ability to forgive He will strengthen us to do so.
What this Beatitude means is that those who are truly God’s children, and as such are objects of his mercy, will themselves be merciful and will receive mercy in the end.
Showing mercy is evidence that we have received mercy. We, who truly understand the freedom of being forgiven, will want to share that same release with others. There are other times when mercy does not have any forgiveness such as in the parable of the Good Samaritan. There was no need for forgiveness in that example.
Mercy is not the same as grace. Grace is shown to the undeserving; mercy is compassion to those less fortunate than us, those who are in need. There is no qualification in mercy. Mercy is not something a person deserves or does not deserve. Mercy can be shown to all.
Mercy means identifying in the suffering of others, going through it with them, entering into others’ problems with understanding and acceptance. This is what God did for us in Christ, identifying with us and suffering on behalf of our sin. If we are merciful we will remember our own sin and God’s mercy to us and that will enable us to forgive others.
Our ability to feel mercy towards others comes from our understanding of our own sin, our true repentance and sorrow and our understanding of how we are forgiven. This is not legalism. We do not show mercy because we have been shown mercy; it’s not as if God says to us; “I’ve shown you mercy, now you must show mercy.” It’s the reverse. When we are truly aware of God’s forgiveness and love, of God’s tender mercy towards us, when this really sinks into the depth of our souls, then mercy will flow from us naturally for that will be our new nature in Christ.
Our first reading this morning was the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told this story to show the lawyer that his neighbor is everyone he encounters but Jesus’ story is also an excellent example of mercy. We know that both a priest and a Levite saw the man but did nothing. We don’t know what they felt. They may have felt very sorry for the man but neither one actually did anything. Therefore they did not show mercy. Only the Good Samaritan who acted showed mercy. Compassion without action is not mercy and it isn’t very useful either.
I have a story for you and I want each of us to put ourselves into this story. A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out. We all encounter people every day who have fallen into a pit, large or small, accidentally or through their own doing. The pit might be poverty, unemployment, drugs, illness or injury, whatever. There are many kinds of pits in the world. A variety of people come along and interact with the man. This is where I want us to put ourselves into the story. Which person would you be?
An emotional person came along and said, “Oh, I am so sorry, I really feel for you down there.” A logical person came along and said, “That’s a deep pit, I can see how you fell down there.” A judgmental person said, “Only bad people fall into a pit, you deserve to be there.” A mathematician measured and calculated how he fell into the pit and explained it to the man. An IRS man came by and asked if he was paying taxes on the pit, after all we must all do things properly despite our circumstances. A news reporter wanted an exclusive story on how he fell into the pit, he saw a way to take advantage of the man’s position. An optimist said, “Cheer up! Things could be worse.” A pessimist said, “Watch out! Things will get worse.”
These people all interacted with the main in the pit, they showed a variety of emotions and some were sorry for the man but none showed mercy. A merciful person, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit! The others in our story felt for the man in various ways but they took no action. Only the merciful person saw him, felt compassion and acted. Mercy is compassion in action. So who would you have been in the story? Something to think about.
Do we understand God’s mercy in our hearts? Has the Holy Spirit indwelt us and changed us so we see the world through God’s eyes and are filled with compassion and moved to act with mercy toward others as the Good Samaritan did on the road to Jericho?