Matthew 5.7

Matthew 5:7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Last week we discussed how:

1. We should—hunger and thirst for righteousness (and not become easily distracted from our pursuit of God by any of the trivial things after which we hunger and thirst)

2. God blesses—those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

3. Those who—hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (i.e. they will hunger no more, neither shall they thirst)

This week:

1. We should—be merciful

2. God blesses—those who are merciful

3. Those who—are merciful will be shown mercy (i.e. to them, He extends mercy)

We should desire to see others on the receiving end of mercy (when they don’t deserve it—otherwise it would not be called mercy) and we, as followers of Christ, should exude this mercy. We should become beacons of God’s infinite mercy.

All of that sounds lofty and nice and I doubt anyone would bother to disagree with anything I’ve stated so far. These are biblical and universal truths that we all know to be certain. People who don’t hold grudges live longer (especially in Steven Segal films) and happier lives. People who help those who can’t help themselves are obviously doing something right—something we can all agree is beautiful. Forgiving those who come to you broken and truly sorry is obviously freeing (and at times, fun) and so we do this 70x7 times (make sure you’re keeping count though because when offense# 491 roles around you’re in the clear). And all of these do indeed demonstrate mercy. But I want to present to you is that these images of mercy are not what Jesus is referring to in this sermon.

If you thought these concepts of mercy were what Jesus was talking about consider the final verses of Matthew 5. Here Jesus says if you only love those who love you first you’ve done something that even the corrupt (Godless) do and if you are only kind to those who are kind to you first, congratulations you have done something that even the pagans (anti-God) do (v.46-47). What I’m getting at here is that Jesus, in this beatitude sermon, (as I’m sure will become increasingly clear in the final four weeks of this series) is not calling us to live out common-knowledge-nice-guy/gal principles. When he ends this chapter he even recaps for us that he never intended to tell us the “rules of fair play.” We already know those, as do the corrupt and the pagans and the rest of the world. What Jesus is saying is that if you live this way (read: the way of the Kingdom of God) you will look immensely different from everyone else around you. Your decisions and actions and reactions and attitudes and longings will be peculiar and thought-provoking and possibly offensive (simply because people prefer to feel justified in their depravity by seeing others in the same state) to those around you.

So if Jesus is not simply calling us to show mercy the way that “even the pagans” do (i.e. the natural/universal way), then what is he calling us to do?

To answer this question (or at least to offer my best attempt at an answer to this question) I want to take a quick look at an event near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

In Matthew 9:2 “Some people brought to [Jesus] a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.” You’ve probably heard this before. The book of Mark gives us a little more detail on the story (that this man was lowered through a whole in the roof of a house where Jesus was teaching) because Mark wants us to see the man’s desperation. Matthew leaves these details out because he wants us to see Jesus’ mercy. And when we strip away the context and simply watch as the events unfold, we see Jesus forgive the man of his sins before the man or any of his friends even ask for forgiveness. Before he even knows if that’s why they’re coming to him. It’s not, by the way. They’re coming to him so that hopefully he will heal this man. Jesus (as far as I can tell) doesn’t even know what kind of a guy this is. He just forgives him without even asking him if he’s sorry for his sins and he forgives without judging whether he thinks this guy deserves to be forgiven or not. This is mercy.

There’s actually a very simple way of looking at this story and this beatitude when we consider Jesus actions here. Mercy is basically a predetermined forgiveness. Mercy is a completely different way of looking at the world all around us. When we are merciful we see everyone around us through a lens of forgiveness and grace.

I’d like to offer you two stories from personal experience that I feel outline two fundamentally important elements of this mercy to which Jesus is calling his followers:

· I have a (4 ½ years) younger brother who has pretty much been around since I was 4 ½. I cannot talk or even think about mercy without remembering what I was like toward my younger brother. I think of times when he crossed a line that we both knew he shouldn’t have and I think of how much joy it brought me to witness his punishment being administered. I can actually remember times when I was disappointed to see him punished less severely than what I considered to be fair. And I have to wonder if I really ever grew out of that barbaric state of mind. Part of me loves hearing stories of people being caught doing things they shouldn’t have been doing and then having their punishments administered. We love sex scandals and drug busts. We love to catch people in lies. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind. Mercy moves people toward forgiveness, not punishment.

· I was having lunch with a friend once and he started talking about someone he worked with who had been recently demoted to a less demanding position (the work load was weighing on her too heavily). It was okay with her (the demotee), possibly even prompted by her, and fortunately her bosses were able to work with her instead of firing her. But the conversation took a turn when this friend stated his irritation at the fact that this person’s salary was not lowered. My jaw dropped. He was serious, and clearly saw no problem with his position. (The mercy of the pagans says don’t fire her, but don’t pay her well either; the mercy of Jesus says “should you be jealous when others are blessed?” Matthew 20:15). I suggested that perhaps all salaries (and in turn) food, shelter, happiness, etc. should be distributed based on some arbitrary man-made gauge like physical strength or beauty or IQ. The weak, ugly, dumb ones of course should starve to death. And the beautiful and brilliant ones should have their pick of more resources than they could ever possibly need. (Perhaps this is where we currently reside.)

I’m sure there is some area of your life where one of these elements of mercy is being neglected. You may have a habit of judging people based on stereotypes or past experiences. The mercy of the pagans says this is okay as long as it’s true—make sure they get what they deserve. The mercy of Jesus says wipe the slate clean for people over and over and over (before they even ask for it). You may treat people certain ways (better or worse) based on their worth in your eyes. The mercy of the pagans says of course you do, some people are more valuable (talented, beautiful, intelligent, etc.) than others. The mercy of Jesus says everyone is valuable and deserves love, appreciation (perhaps compensation), and attention.

Do you see everyone around you with mercy? Are you the type of person who forgives even when the offender never apologizes? Are you able to avoid judging a person’s worth based on their appearance or natural abilities?

In the Kingdom of God mercy comes cheap—show mercy and you’ll be shown mercy.