Mercy
“Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.”
Matthew 5:7
Never before had the people
heard such things, such teachings. Jesus
taught as nobody else could. He spoke
the truth; He spoke the realities of a higher world; He spoke of the entrance
requirements of the kingdom of heaven.
And there on that grassy
hillside Jesus continued His teaching—this time on a topic that would really
pique the interest of the multitude and challenge them. The words flowed out of the Master Teacher:
“Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.”
Coming from the Merciful One,
the Compassionate One, the words seem to carry incredible weight. Evidently mercy is very important to the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. After all,
only the most important kingdom requirements are included in these Beatitudes.
Showing Mercy: Important
At a later time, Peter
thought he was being fairly gracious in quoting from the Jewish midrash, which
indicates that forgiving someone seven times is a noble act. Please turn in your Bible—you did bring your
Bible, didn’t you—please turn with me in your trusty Bible to the gospel of
Matthew, chapter 18, starting with verse 21.
Jesus used Peter’s question as an opportunity to describe the importance
of showing mercy in the eyes of the Father:
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often
shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy
times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted
to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts,
one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not
able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children
and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down
before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and
forgave
him the debt.
“But that servant went out and found one of his fellow
servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him
by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you
all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he
should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they
were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then
his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I
forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had
compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master
was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was
due to him.
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of
you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Matthew
18:21-35
After reading this, a person
gets an idea of what God has to put up with in dealing with our sins. Ten thousand talents in our day would be the
equivalent of 4.8 billion dollars!
Whereas, 200 denarii in our day is about $32. Do you see what’s happening here? The debt that we owe our Father in heaven for
the numerous sins that we have committed in thought, word and deed, is . . . .
. . . . . ENORMOUS!
God has lavished His
forgiveness on us, and that forgiveness cost Him the death of His own Son. The weight of our sin is enormous, and the
mercy that God extends to us to cancel that sin is enormous.
And the mercy that we are to
show to others, in comparison, is very small; it’s miniscule in
comparison. Do you see the difference
between what God does for us every day, and what He asks us to do for one
another? Forgiving others is the least
we can do to show our gratitude for the incredible mercy that God has shown us.
We are to forgive from the
heart. Not just words. Put your whole heart and mind and being into
it! One gets the idea here that God’s
mercy is meant to flow like a river right on through us and into the lives of
others. When we
stop the flow, no more water
springs from the Source. It’s serious
business to stop the flow of God’s forgiveness.
We could be lost!
Yes, it’s fair to say that
showing mercy is important to God.
There’s only one problem:
Showing Mercy: Difficult
Showing mercy . . . . . . .
is difficult.
As Abraham ben-Ahzad,
Pharisee, sits on his golden woven blanket on the grassy hillside, he at once
is deep in thought. What Jesus has said
about the blessedness of showing mercy has caused him to reflect on a recent
event that was troublesome for him, and embarrassing.
It was about a week ago. Abraham had been hoping that he would be
selected by the chief priest to be the one who would address the Sanhedrin in
the bi-monthly tribunal. Abraham and his
cohorts thought surely that he would be the speaker. But the chief priest sleighted Abraham,
publicly humiliating him in front of his peers, as he selected Abraham’s rival
instead.
As he remembered the
occasion, Abraham ben Ahzad’s anger burned within him. He recited the very words that the chief
priest had uttered, and sitting in the grass he vowed that he would never
forget the wrong done to him.
Jacob the peasant, also
sitting on the grass, upon hearing Jesus’ words about mercy, can’t help but
remember how he was treated unfairly just yesterday. It was at the marketplace, and he had been
bartering with the merchant—or at least trying to trade a newly-made basket for
two omers of figs for his family—when an affluent man came right up to the
merchant’s counter and stood right in front of Jacob.
Jacob remembers painfully how
immediately the merchant shifted his attention to wealthy man, and forgot all
about Jacob and his basket. Jacob
remembers feeling hurt and agitated about the whole thing. And even now, listening to the Teacher on the
hillside, those hurt feelings and thoughts of revenge come back forcefully to
Jacob, and he is plagued by them.
Zadok the fisherman, upon
hearing the words of Jesus, couldn’t help but remember what happened just a
handful of days ago. He was trying to
take delivery of the new net that he had ordered several weeks before, but he
was told that the net was not yet ready.
Zadok had told the stitcher that he had been waiting long enough, and
the net was needed yesterday, and that he shouldn’t have to wait any longer.
At this the stitcher had told
Zadok that he was an inpatient man, and that he was mean. Mean!
Zadok mean! Impatient! Zadok still could not believe that anyone
could say something like that about him.
Why, he had the right to demand prompt service for the net that he
ordered! The nerve of that guy,
anyway! What kind of business does he
run?
As Zadok listens to Jesus
speak about mercy, he, along with Abraham and Jacob, thinks that IT MUST BE
VERY HARD TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD, IF IT DEPENDS ON SHOWING MERCY!
Mercy.
Why Difficult
Why is it so hard to show
mercy towards people who say and do mean, selfish, unfair things to us and
toward us? Here is why:
Personal violation leads to loss of
personhood.
Put in simple terms, when we
are mistreated, it takes something out of us.
We experience loss. Loss of
respect, loss of esteem, loss of identity, loss of control, loss of happiness. We feel threatened.
But I am here today to tell
you that THIS NEED
NOT BE.
Do you want for me to explain
why this is the case? Okay, I will.
If Established in Christ: New Person
If you are established in
Christ, you are a new person. In the
Bible we are told, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation;
Now, becoming a new person in
Christ involves laying aside the hang-ups and the concerns of yesterday. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are
exempt from natural feelings of dismay, hurt, abandonment, etc. We are still wired the way we are wired from
the beginning of our lives. And we are
still human, though saved by grace, and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
It is in our humanness that
we come to each and every new day. We
have the privilege to have our empty tanks filled with God’s goodness and
strength before we rush off into the day.
As we pause to start the day with our God, our humanness is exalted and
transformed; it is strengthened and empowered for right living.
If Loved by Christ: Impregnable Personhood
A disciple who is daily
immersing him/herself in God’s Word and pouring the heart out to God in prayer
is not going to be prone to being crushed or greatly disappointed when someone
is mean-spirited or unfair.
As we experience the
tremendous love that the Father has for us, and we accept the gift of His Son,
we are suddenly held captive by this love.
We acknowledge the fact that God values us and therefore nothing
external coming at us can devalue
us. IF GOD SAYS WE ARE VALUABLE, WHO
DARE SAY THAT WE AREN’T!! IF GOD SAYS HE
LOVES US WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE, WHO DARE INSINUATE THAT WE ARE UNLOVABLE!!
Think of all the garbage that
gets thrown at us day in and day out—from all directions, when we least expect
it, and when we do expect it any time.
It’s amazing that anyone can survive the negativity that comes our way!
But a child of God can deal
with any amount of garbage, grow from it, and still know that nothing can
change the way God loves you. The child
of God is wrapped in a protective, impregnable covering of divine grace. The child of God is surrounded by a spiritual
filter that does not permit dangerous or unhealthy words and actions to go any
farther. The child of God is coated,
as it were, with a Teflon
layer of the Holy Spirit, so that no
matter how much garbage is thrown at you, IT JUST DOESN’T STICK!!
You follow me? When someone wrongs us in some way, we have
the privilege, because of the love and presence of the Lord in our lives, to
take a step back. Just take a step back
and say, “Now, just wait a minute. I’ll
have to run that by JESUS the Supervisor of my life, JESUS the Guardian of my way,
JESUS the Lover of my soul, before I
respond to you.”
After all, nothing comes to
us, nothing bombards us, nothing attacks us, nothing comes against us that
JESUS DOES NOT FEEL! Do you believe
that?
Who you are in Christ—the
real you, the real me—stays intact even when under attack. That’s the beauty of it. We are enabled to grow from the negative, and
who we are as a person need not be lessened one bit.
It’s like water off a duck’s
back.
If Taught by Christ: Personal Responsibility
This is J.J.’s story. J.J. is a 26-year-old male in the
workforce. J.J. is active, he works out
regulary, and he is generally easy-going.
But J.J. has a problem in the area of judgment. He has the tendency of making poor decisions
at times, due to being impulsive by nature.
When under stress, J.J. tends
to resort to food, mindless activities, and sometimes drugs in order to deal
with his anxiety. Because he tends to do
these kinds of things, other who work with J.J. have often commented to him
that he ought to get a hold of his life, or that he should finish projects on
time more often. These somewhat negative
comments tend to irritate J.J. and he gets mad at the people who say these
things, and holds grudges.
This is a classic case of not
taking responsibility for his own actions.
Instead of admitting to himself that he has impulsivity problems, he
chooses to get angry at people. And then
the anger turns inward at himself, and he becomes depressed. The fact is, J.J. is not a worthless human
being; he is a blood-bought precious soul whom the Father loves and
cherishes. He is not
worthless, just
impulsive. He needs to start taking
responsibility for his actions, and start showing mercy to those who are fed up
with him.
That’s what Christ enables us
to do. He wants us to be real with
ourselves, so that we are freed up to grow from the garbage that comes at us,
and we are able to be merciful.
If Controlled by Christ: Loss of Self
Now you may be saying to
yourself, “Come on, preacher, lay off the ‘self’ stuff. We can’t be anything less than who we
are.” This is true. You can’t be anything less than who you
are. But
you can be MORE.
I believe that when we accept
the leadership of Jesus Christ in our lives, we actually become more than
before Christ. Our lives are ENHANCED by
His presence in them.
When I speak of “loss of
self” I am really talking about aspects
of our sin nature that are given up at the cross of Christ. There are certain things that, as disciples,
we just are not interested in any longer.
I will give you four examples of such things.
No longer interested in personal rights.
Oooooh, this is a big
one. We were all taught since we were
knee-high to a grasshopper that we gotta stand up for our rights, else we’ll be
trampled. Isn’t that right?
Well, the next time you feel
like you need to stand up for your rights, and defend yourself in the face of
unfairness, think about Jesus. Jesus
never once stood up for His rights, even though He was mistreated time and time
again, and people often said and did things to Him that were downright cruel
and untrue. He didn’t seem to be very
interested in defending Himself against accusations or attacks. Very interesting.
He knew who He was, He was
fully surrendered to His Father’s will and purpose, and He seemed to care more
about the people making the remarks than about Himself. He was lost in His Father, saying things such
as, “For I
have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 6:38
This is the example that the
Lord has given us. We are to be hidden
in Christ, devoted to His purposes, and dedicated to His mission of mercy in
this world. We do His work in this
world, sharing His love with others and being helpful and ready to teach. God will look after our rights just
fine. He operates in such a way that if
one of His children is wronged, that child will only grow because of it, and
the wrongdoer will come to regret what he did.
God will see to it.
No longer concerned with temporal
pleasure.
When we are ruled by the love
of pleasure, a lot of evil comes our way.
Oh, the misery we could be spared if only we weren’t so caught up in the
pursuit of pleasure!
Can you imagine the apostles
being caught up in temporary pleasure?
What if that were what motivated them back then? What if Peter and Paul and Silas and Barnabas
were more interested in what women would be at the synagogue, or whether the
new wine or the old wine was going to be served at
It would be a sham. There wouldn’t be any book of Acts in the
Bible. It never would have made it into
the canon of Scripture.
The truth is there is no
greater joy than the joy that is to be found in serving the Lord, plain and
simple. Raise your hand if you believe
that’s true. The disciple of Christ is
freed up to desire greater pleasures than this world has to offer.
Many times we endure anxiety
or personal pain when a desire or pleasure of ours is blocked. To give you one
example of this, the teen who loses the use of his/her cell phone for a week
experiences probably a whole range of emotions such as anger, resentment, a
sense of loss, etc. Why? Because a personal desire or pleasure was
blocked, in this case the pleasurable routine of chatting incessantly with a
myriad of friends.
This is a simple and harmless
example, but some times the stakes are high when desires and pleasures are
blocked. This is especially the case in
addictions of all sorts. A person can
get to the point where a specific activity or substance or food item and the
accompanying pleasure are so much a part of the person’s routine and life that
psychological and even physical dependence have occurred.
People have been injured and
even murdered simply because desires and pleasures were blocked. Not to mention the resentment and hatred that
can result from blocked pleasure. In
Christ, we are freed from this kind of control that the pursuit of pleasure can
have over us.
No longer interested in measuring
personal worth by feedback of others.
In the field of social
psychology, the concept called the looking
glass eye theory indicates that there are two different ways of looking at
ourselves. We have our own personal
views of ourselves—what we believe about our looks, attitudes, mannerisms,
strengths, personality, etc. And then
there is the view of ourselves that we see when looking through the eyes of
other people at ourselves. This view can
be quite different than our own view of ourselves.
Indeed, the greater the
differences between these two views the greater the dissonance and anxiety that
we experience. We would all like others
to see us like the way we see ourselves, even if our own view is distorted and
rationalized. But when its obvious that
someone else does not have the same take on us as we have of ourselves, it can
lead to anger and arguments and disagreements, which in turn can lead to
inappropriate words and actions.
For the child of God, our
personal worth and identity are measured by the sacrifice and love of Jesus,
who gave His life for us. Who better
than our Creator to show us who we really are and what we’re worth. Whose eyes are superior to the eyes of our
Redeemer, through which we can look and see a realistic, optimistic, and
challenging view of ourselves.
If we are allowing our God to
be the major source of feedback in our lives, we are less interested and less
swayed, good or bad, by the appraisal of
others. We are then freed up to forgive others when
they misunderstand us or misjudge us.
And we are freed up to accept when it’s really true, that we are not
coming across to others in a way that is conducive for neighborly or
professional relations. A child of God
who has the full attention of the Master of the universe can grow from both
positive and negative feedback.
No longer interested in revenge.
The person who has been saved
by the shed blood of Jesus is not interested in revenge any more than Jesus is
interested in it. Just as Paul said, we
should consider ourselves “crucified with Christ”. Here is the actual text: “I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).
Now just what is crucified
with Christ, anyway? Well, our sins for
one; our condemnation; and we are to render our sin natures dead with Christ as
well. Yes, we still have them, but they
need not have any power over us. That’s
because Jesus has destroyed the power of sin and death by His successful life
and death in our place.
Now revenge is something that
belongs to the carnal self that is surrendered to Christ. It is not supposed to be a part of our new
life in Christ. So what does this mean? Well, when someone hurts me, it’s Jesus
they’re hurting, not me. It’s not you
they’re hurting. You are hidden,
crucified, lost, alive in Christ.
Nothing comes to you that doesn’t also come to Jesus. He’s that close to you.
This is good news, because Jesus
can best deal with the offender. Isn’t
that right? After all, He knows all
about the true disposition of the person who wronged you. He knows his background, his personal pain,
what happened to him five minutes before he wronged you, etc. He knows all about this person! So let Jesus deal with him the way He wants.
Revenge is not for us; it’s
for God. With God, even revenge can be
redemptive. Jesus will be firm, yet
merciful. We see this in the case of the
woman caught in adultery, and thrown at Jesus’ feet. They were about to
stone her to death, though
her accusers were anything but innocent themselves.
Jesus did two remarkable
things concerning this woman. He
accepted her, and He empowered and challenged her to live right. He told her to go and sin no more. That’s a great combination. Jesus is forgiving of sin, but He is by no
means soft on sin. Equally remarkable is
the fact that Jesus dealt with the woman’s accusers very effectively. He wrote their individual sins in the sand.
That’s what He will do when
we place a person in His hands who has wronged us. He will deal effectively with the person to
bring the person to conviction and repentance, and if that does not work, He
will allow the person to continue on down the road to hell as they please, only
to try again at a later date to reach the person. This “tough love” process goes on continually
in the lives of billions of people at the same time. Jesus knows how to handle those who have
wronged us.
We are freed up to trust
Jesus to deal effectively and redemptively with the person who has wronged
us. And Jesus will seek to convict, to
save, and to restore that person. Revenge
is for God, and our part is to show mercy.
There is something we need to
know about mercy:
Mercy is Not Weakness
Though it is sometimes viewed
by the world as a sign of weakness, it most definitely is not. The ability to show mercy reveals that
spiritual maturity is occurring in your life.
You have come to the place in your relationship with Christ that you can
freely forgive, and freely surrender the person into God’s care.
It takes guts to place a mean
or unfair person—a person who has no conception that he/she is wrong, and has
no intention of changing—into God’s care.
It takes a strong person to do that, because human nature leans towards
vengeance and getting even.
Mercy is a Sign of Strength
Mercy is far from being a
sign of weakness. It is actually a sign of
strength; inner strength. It is far
easier to give in to natural urges to fight back and to attack right back and
to hold grudges. It takes a personal
decision to walk away from the evil and to commit the person into the hands of
God, knowing that the words and actions of the person can in no way harm you
when God is in control.
Let me leave you with this
practical way to deal with the hurtful words and actions of others:
Whenever potentially harmful
or hurtful actions or words come at us, from whomever, there is a basic process
that happens in our brains. This process
happens many times a day, and it happens so quickly that we do not even notice
that it is happening. But it is.
The behavior or words of the
person are a “stimulus” that comes to us, and it results usually in a reaction
of some sort from us; an emotion or a resulting behavior of some kind. Let me give you an example.
Susan gets mad at James and
tells him that he is a worthless, no good, poor excuse for a man, and that he
stinks.
In equation form, this would
look like this:
stimulus (worthless, no good, etc.) ...... emotion (sadness, anger) ...... behavior (“I
am worthless”, depression, kicking the door, punching the wall)
In this particular case,
James immediately feels sad, and then angry at Susan, and this anger is
released by kicking the door and punching the wall, both of which actions
greatly disappoint his landlord. James
ends up having to pay out of pocket for repairs, and now his landlord sees him
as prone to destroy property. He is this
close now to getting evicted.
Now, what you need to know is
that there is something almost imperceptible that occurred between the angry
words of Susan and the emotional and behavioral reaction of James. It’s something called thoughts.
Right after Susan was done
with her verbal assault, James instantly had a thought process that went
something like this: “she’s mean, she
said mean things to me, I’m supposed to feel sad when that happens, it’s
natural to feel sad, I’m sad, how dare she call me worthless, ouch”.
Ok, I think you get the
idea. Let’s look at the actual process of what takes place very
quickly:
stimulus ...... thoughts/self-talk ...... emotion ...... behavior
The stimulus can be certain behaviors of
people or words. We can end up feeling
horrible and doing horrible and destructive things as a result of the behaviors
of others. That is, unless we are
mindful of whose child we are.
What I am recommending that
you do, whenever negative actions or words are thrown at you, is to STOP, AND
CHALLENGE. Stop and challenge.
We don’t have to react. That’s what the animal kingdom does. But human beings are made in the image of
God. We have been given higher reasoning
capabilities. We can ask ourselves if
what is being said is true or not. How
do we do that?
We simply find evidence to the contrary. For instance,
working with the above angry words of Susan, we stop and ask ourselves if there
is anything about us that is worthwhile and positive or decent or
successful. We start writing down (or
compiling a mental list) of things such as the royal blood of Jesus that was
shed for us, and which means that we are definitely valuable. We write down the fact that last week we
helped an older lady pick up the groceries that she had dropped in the parking
lot. We write down the fact that we are
continuing to go to work or school on a regular basis. We think of as many things as we can to write
down that indicate that we are a worthwhile person. And if we can’t think of anything, then we
ask a fellow believer who knows us to help us write down some things.
What we are doing is
CHALLENGING a negative stimulus, instead of merely giving in to it, which
results in reactionary emotions and behaviors.
As a child of God, I’m telling you that you need to do some
CHALLENGING and ask yourself
if it’s true, and try to find to find evidence to the contrary. That way you will be able to hang on to the
small KERNEL of truth and GROW by it, and DISCARD the garbage that is false and
therefore unhealthy.
What we should be after in a
negative encounter is a growth experience for ourselves, and redemption for the
person who is attacking, or being unfair.
If some little part of what they are saying is somewhat true, EMBRACE
IT, INCORPORATE IT, ADJUST AND CHANGE ACCORDINGLY. Then discard the rest of the stuff that doesn’t
even apply.
Embrace and assimilate the truth, and
make adjustments
Reject and discard the garbage
Forgive and commit into God’s hands
That is how we grow. We simply must take a closer look at our
thought world, and the things we tell ourselves. We still might feel sad or abandoned, or
whatever, because we are real human beings.
But we don’t have to be crushed.
And we don’t have to react in a negative way, and make matters worse.
The way of mercy is the way
of truth. Accepting the truth that is
hiding in the insult or hiding in the rebuke or even in the attack. The way of mercy is being able to throw away
the bulk material that is false and useless.
The way of mercy is being able to commit the person into the Father’s
care, so that an all-wise God can deal effectively, thoroughly, and
redemptively with the person.
And as we do so, we are given
the assurance that we also will be shown mercy from God. Praise God for His abundant mercy that He so
freely bestows on us.