I think especially of the last two: love and grace. These are part of our regular Christianese. They are words that show up in nearly every Christian's description of what God and the Christian life are all about. Yet, they're not in the Beatitudes.
Interesting, isn't it? Especially if the Beatitudes give us the fundamental outlooks that characterize the life of following Jesus.
Today we focus on mercy. I think mercy is a seriously underestimated element of the life of Jesus' kingdom. This seems especially true in our world today. One cannot help but think of recent cases of capital punishment and other crimes around the world where mercy is not really on the table.
Now we can't expect mercy to be a defining part of non-Christian culture--ours included. But to me this only illuminates the stark difference between the life of Jesus' kingdom and the life of the ways of the nations in world in which we live. As Christians, we cannot think for a moment that Jesus' words should not influence every area of our lives. For Jesus there are no categories of "spiritual," "social," "economic," and "political." The message of Jesus demands allegiance from every fiber of life.
So, where does mercy fit into our lives--both public and private? Where should it fit? What does it look like?
Jesus does not give any clear definition of mercy, if we're looking for something like what one might find in a dictionary. So often we want simple and easy; clear--black and white. The reality is that the gospel and the message of the kingdom are not. This is no different when we're talking about mercy.
In the gospels, Jesus defines mercy in action and in story, which means we must s l o w d o w n and read, contemplate, and even discuss what it means and what it looks like with other believers. We must take time to listen to Jesus and learn from him as we live in Christian community that is supposed to be "a city on a hill."
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Throughout the gospels many people call on Jesus for mercy. Guess who they are? Most commonly, they are those in need--those who have real physical need for healing, restoration, the return of dignity: the two blind men in Matthew 9; the Canaanite woman's daughter in Matthew 15; two blind men in Matthew 20. All of the other people Jesus reached out to throughout Matthew's gospel, framed by these encounters, are also acts of mercy.
This makes sense. In Jesus' time mercy was regularly associated with reaching out to the unfortunate and helpless: the blind, the poor, those without future, without hope; to the poor in spirit, the ones who mourn, and the meek. I find it interesting, and probably not a coincidence, that the ones mentioned already in the Beatitudes (the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek) would be natural recipients of mercy.
When we're called and shaped into people who are poor in spirit, mourning, and meek, being merciful seems to follow quite naturally. There might be something to this, as a recent article suggests that it is a lot easier to show mercy or compassion to others when you're not on top.
How does your position in life affect your ability to both receive and give mercy as Jesus did?
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Jesus also told a parable that focuses on mercy. It's the Parable of the Two Debtors in Matthew 18:23-35. This parable is about two servants. One owed a large debt to his master. The servant plead for the master to have patience until the debt could be paid. The master went a step further and forgive the debt. This same servant had a debt that was owed him by another servant. The debt was much, much smaller than the debt he owed his master. The other servant plead for patience, just as he had done with the master, and for time to pay the debt. But the servant refused threw his peer in jail. The master was not pleased. His response to the servant: "Should you not have had mercy on our fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?" (Matt. 18:33)
The master showed mercy by forgiving. Maybe that's why forgiveness is not part of the Beatitudes. Forgiveness is an act of mercy.
The master expected the same mercy to be shown. Both the master and servant had every right to demand repayment of the debt--even while being patient until the debt could be paid. But the master set a new direction when he simply forgave the debt. It's one thing to forgive an offense or a transgression against you; it's another to forgive a debt of money. For many people forgiving a sin might just be easier. In Jesus' context it would have been shameful to not follow through and have the debt paid back. It would show weakness. The master would likely lose all kinds of respect, and with that business. Not the best social or business move to be merciful like this. But this is the story Jesus tells to set the bar.
Jesus used this parable to make a point not about forgiveness only, but about mercy. Both servants in the parable were in need. They had no way to pay; they were desperate. Mercy brings relief. Mercy brings restoration.
This also means that forgiveness, as an act of mercy, is not something we can just do in our hearts. It's not just a "spiritual" thing. Mercy plays out in real issues and results in a change in circumstance, every time. The servants went from debtors to restored in relationship. And this played out in how they spoke to one another the next day, I am sure.
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I think of Jean Valjean in the movie Les Miserables. When the bishop lets Jean go when he's caught red-handed stealing, it's an act of mercy (many people confuse what the priest did with "grace" but that's another topic). It restrains from punishment, from making sure the offender gets his due. What the bishop does is not normal. And you can see it on the face of everyone in the room--in the faces of the arresting officers and even of Jean. Something's not "right" from the standpoint of typical justice thinking. Mercy is foolish--from one perspective. For the bishop who knew the mercy of God, there was nothing not right about it. From the perspective of the way of Jesus, mercy is the wisdom of God. So also Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
Jesus says that those who are merciful will be granted mercy. That's the reason given--"the because"--as to why the merciful are blessed. The merciful are blessed because mercy gives birth to mercy--both from God and from others. The merciful are those for whom mercy is the future--the sustainable future. One might say that human life as God intended it is not sustainable if it is not characterized by mercy. Imagine how the world would be a different place if mercy was the norm. Look at how it is because mercy is not. Lack of mercy begets human disaster and relational brokenness.
Mercy is needed in a world where offense will happen. We can say, just don't do things that will put you in a place that needs mercy. Not gonna happen in this life. The alternative is not to punish or say "I told you so" to those who offend or find themselves in need of mercy. The Jesusy response is to grant mercy.
This also means that those for whom mercy is part of the everyday patterns and habits are promised mercy from God. This is not because they have earned it but because they have been swept up in the river of God leading right into the kingdom life. Those who are merciful are those who do it because the mercy of God flows in their lives. As they give it, so they receive it--the circle of mercy (this is the real "circle of life").
The Parable of the Two Debtors gives us also the counterpart to this point. Our intentional and willful refusal to be merciful as God has been with us will not end well. We can try and get around this as much as we want, but God will have no part of any willful lack of mercy. Lack of mercy is probably a sign that our lives may not be the Beatitude life after all, or that we're actively resisting a very significant element of what it means to be of Jesus' kingdom.
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This gets at a very important point that none of the Beatitudes have yet brought out. There is a very important relationship between God's action toward and for us and our actions toward and for others. Mercy is, in Matthew's gospel, a (if not the) concrete action that shows one's devotion to God. In a great book, Dismissing Jesus: How We Evade the Way of the Cross, author Douglas Jones suggests that mercy is the theme of Scripture.
Whether it's the theme of Scripture, mercy plays a huge role in defining life as God's people, because it defines God.
How should we make our love, worship, and devotion to God known? More Bible reading? Singing songs of praise? Being more faithful in prayer? All of these are good and helpful, but it's not how God measures our love and worship of him.
What God wants from us is mercy that works to uplift and bring new life to others--even (maybe most importantly) to our enemies. Micah 6:8 says as much. That this is how God gauges our devotion to him. Mercy is the evidence of the life transformed by the Spirit of Jesus and of living in the kingdom. It shows itself in risky forgiveness, reaching out to uplift those in need, even if that need is our forgiveness.
There's a passage Jesus quotes two times in Matthew's gospel while he is in the midst of dialogue (argument) with the Pharisees. That he does it twice suggests that this is important to Jesus and that the Pharisees don't catch on too quickly. Neither do we, sometimes.
The passage is Hosea 6:6. It says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." For Hosea and for Jesus the problem was religious, ritualistic devotion to God versus mercy toward others. The Israelites in Hosea's time were good at worship and doing the devotion to God thing. They were horrible at caring for the poor and outcast. God wanted the latter. And their failure to do the latter discredited the former.
The Pharisees were good at teaching and enforcing the law and doctrine of God; they were not so good at reaching out to the "unrighteous" and showing them mercy. To such a way of doing things, Jesus says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." In other words, stop your worship, your sacrifices, your singing songs of praise, raising hands, your teaching of God's law--stop all of that stuff and show your devotion to me through your life of mercy to others.
This may be a bit sobering (it is for me daily). Mercy is one of the things we all know God grants us in spades, but for some reason we're regularly slow on granting to others. There's too much at stake for us. We're still holding on to our pride and our position. For many of us, being merciful means losing or looking like the fool.
Just what Jesus wants.
Mercy, defined by Jesus, strikes at the heart of our human ego and self preservation. That's because our conceptions of "justice" or "righteousness" usually are too human and self-centered. If mercy wins, "justice" does not, and we lose, or so we typically think. But according to Jesus, his mercy is justice, it is righteousness. It is the way of God. Mercy is one of the elements that set disciples of Jesus apart from the rest of the world the most. It's not better morality, it's not being more conservative or liberal, it's not family values. It's mercy.
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Think, Talk, Apply
As we think about how we build our lives around the way of Jesus, it seems that mercy must be central. Here are a few things I think about, and might be worth thinking about and talking about with those in your life and in your home.
When have you experienced mercy? How did it change you or your relationship with someone?
Where is our culture short on mercy--in the political realm, in the economic realm, in sports culture? How does our culture's lack of mercy shape our lives away from mercy?
Where does mercy fit in your daily life? How might it find its way into your daily encounters with others? What keeps you from showing mercy like Jesus calls us to do?
Very interesting article in the Scientific American. An ah-ha moment.
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