“Blessed Are the Merciful” -- Matthew 5:7

You stand before the judge. He sits at his seat with his robe, the stern look of one who has seen so many in his court, the look of one who has seen and heard every excuse, every alibi and has been stern in his declaration of sentences.

You stand before him not seeking trial, but sentencing. You admit your guilt, without excuse, without extenuating circumstances. You know what you did, you know it was wrong, and you are prepared to face the consequences of your action. There is no deal in place. It’s entirely up to the judge to determine your fate.

He looks down from his bench. He looks hard at you, as if he’s looking deep into your soul. You want to meet his gaze, but you can’t. Your eyes look down, you bow your head and you wait. Oh, how you wait. It seems to take forever, the silence in the room growing until it seems to take all the oxygen out of the room. And still you wait.

Finally, the judge speaks. He looks at you still, and now he demands you look at him. You look up, but his face doesn’t reveal any emotion. And the judge says, “You have committed a crime. You readily admit to its commission. You make no excuse, no alibi. You have not come before this court with a deal in place. You stand before me guilty by your own admission.

“It is therefore the ruling of this court that you are to be found not guilty, that your record is to be expunged of the arrest and any subsequent consequences as a result of your crime. You are free to go.”

The gavel bangs, the bailiff demands that all rise, and the judge walks away to his chamber. You’re left there, standing alone in the courtroom. Yes, there are others in the room, but you are very much alone.

What just happened? You were expecting a lengthy sentence, jail time and a fine. And yet, the judge has ignored your plea and declared you not guilty. He has removed any record of your crime.

As you stand there, you realize that you are the recipient of the judge’s mercy. How will you respond? What will you do? Can you ever see the world with the same eyes again?

That gift of mercy is what God has done for us. He extends His mercy out of His great love for us, the love that was expressed in the sending of His Son to die for our sins. He has taken those sins and He has removed them as far as the east is removed from the west. In the eyes of God, our sins are no more. We have received mercy.

Today’s passage continues the Beatitudes. We have considered spiritual bankruptcy, sorrow, over our sinfulness, meekness and the hungering and thirsting after God. Now we look at the concept of being merciful with the blessing that we too shall receive mercy.

Central Truth: The blessing of mercy is as much a result of mercy as it is the act of mercy.

The act of mercy:

Defined

Jesus tells a parable of a man who owed a great debt. The debt was owed to the king, and the king demanded payment. The man owed hundreds of millions to the king, a debt that he could never hope to repay. He begged the king to give him time to pay the debt. The king instead forgave the entire debt and let the man walk free.

As the man left the king’s court, he ran across a man who owed him a small debt of perhaps $5 or so. The first man demanded payment of the debt immediately. When the second man asked for time to repay the debt, the first one refused, called the law enforcement and had the second man thrown into debtor’s prison.

The king inevitably heard about the unforgiving nature of the first man. The first man, the forgiven man, was brought before the king. The king confronted the forgiven man with the realization that the debts owed the king were far greater than the small debt owed the first man. As a result of the first man’s unforgiving heart, the king reinstated the debt owed him and, in turn, had the first man cast into debtor’s prison until his debt was paid in full.

The point of the parable is to speak to the issue of forgiveness, that how we who have been forgiven much by God must also forgive those who wrong us. But just as the issue of forgiveness is found in this parable, so, too, is the issue of mercy.

It is mercy that enables us to extend forgiveness to those who need it. Mercy is the receiving of that which we do not deserve, such as forgiveness of sins or fellowship with God. Mercy is being extended a second chance, a fresh start when we don’t deserve one.

And mercy is always a gift. It cannot be mercy if it is demanded or earned. Mercy is given when someone has no reason to expect mercy. There are those who can ask for mercy. I’ve done that many a time when I’ve been pulled over by a police officer, usually for an offense I really didn’t think I’d done. I remember one time, years ago, Kim and I were driving back from south of San Antonio back to our home in Tyler. It was early in the morning—about 2:30. Kim was asleep in van, and I was driving through Malakoff. We had driven through the city and I saw a speed limit sign indicating the speed was to go from 50 to 60. I had my cruise control set, so I pushed the button and my car began to accelerate, hitting 60 about the time we reached the speed limit sign. There was car coming toward me on the four lane road with a left turn only lane in between. It turns out the car approaching me was a police officer, who felt it necessary to turn around and pull me over for speeding. Just him and me on the road, late at night, and he pulled me over. I asked him to give me a warning. I asked for mercy. He gave me the warning.

So we can ask for mercy, but we never have the right to demand it. The person who seeks mercy is one who mourns his or her action, who meekly stands before the one who can extend that mercy and who hungers and thirsts for that mercy. The haughty would never seek nor demand mercy. But the poor in spirit will.

Mercy is a gift, and as a gift it teaches us who to extend mercy as well.

Demonstrated

Mercy has to be put into practice before it really means anything. One of the things God tells us is that we are to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him (cf. Micah 6:8). Justice recognizes that actions have consequences, and that those consequences apply to all people regardless of class or ethnic origin. But while we practice justice, it must always be tempered with mercy. And both those issues come through walking humbly with God.

I think one of the best ways to consider what that means—act justly while loving mercy—is to look at how Jesus interpreted God’s will. Repeatedly, Jesus reminded the Pharisees—those great keepers of the Law—that the law was there to serve us, not the other way around. While the Pharisees focused on the letter of the law, Jesus stressed the intent of the law. The woman caught in adultery is the classic example. The law dictated she be stoned to death for her crime. That was justice, the consequences of an adulterous act. But Jesus forgave the sin. He recognized that the woman who was before Him was a real person, not an example. She was a person who felt emotions and had concerns and cares. He knew as she stood there that she was frightened and humiliated. And so He gave her mercy. “Neither do I condemn you; now go and sin no more.” There was no denial of her sin—there would be consequences—but there was also the mercy that was extended to her. I have no doubt she left that day a different woman than when she first woke up that day.

The extension of mercy arises from the compassion that we learn as we experience the mercy of God in our lives. We know what compassion is as we watch the life of Jesus. He would see the people coming to Him and He had compassion on them. I know how I am when I get tired or sick. I find myself not really liking people at those times. I just want to be left alone, and people who come upon me, asking for my attention annoy me. And for this I need forgiveness. I need to remember how Jesus dealt with people when He was tired and in need of rest. Matthew 14:13-14, we read that Jesus had heard of John the Baptist’s death. He wanted and needed to be alone, so He withdrew by boat to a solitary place. The crowed heard and followed. Verse 14 says, “When Jesus landed and saw the large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.” That’s compassion, and compassion extends itself in giving mercy to those who need it.

Do you remember those tales of gladiators fighting in the Roman Coliseum? The gladiators would fight to the death. Once a gladiator got the upper hand and had reached a point where his opponent was completely at his mercy, the winner would turn to Caesar and seek a final ruling. The story is that Caesar would listen to the crowd’s response, and, if the emperor felt the vanquished warranted mercy, he would signal with a thumb’s up; a thumb’s down would mean the beaten gladiator would die at the hands of his conqueror. I’m told this story is apocryphal; that there never was the “thumbs up” signal nor the “thumbs down.” Still, it makes a good story and reminds us that someone can receive mercy because mercy is an action of forgiveness and patience and compassion. It is an extension of God’s love in action, because we who receive mercy understand what it means and we are willing to give it to others.

Received

A gross misinterpretation of today’s verse is that we receive mercy because we are merciful. That to receive mercy, we must first be merciful. Such an idea is contradictory to the entire concept of God’s grace and the extension of mercy. To stand before God and demand He extend mercy because I extended it elsewhere is preposterous on its face.

The purpose of the blessing in this verse is to remind us that, like forgiveness, we discover the greater depth of God’s mercy as we extend it to others. It’s not a question of earning mercy, but rather a growing awareness of what mercy means and how mercy affects us.

The one who is merciful in this verse is not someone who is actively seeking mercy, but is one who discovers that his or her life of mercy is one that has, in turn, been a life that has been blessed by the mercy shown him or her.

Years ago, the Supreme Court was asked to make a decision regarding pornography. One of the justices, I believe it was Justice Stevens, made the statement, “I may not be able to define pornography, but I know it when I see it.”

That idea is present in the concept of mercy extended and received. The one who has received mercy understands what it is to be merciful, and as one is merciful, that person comes to be more aware of the mercy extended to him or her.

Recall David’s confrontation with Nathan, his priest. Nathan told David of a story about a man who owned a little lamb. The man cared for the lamb, it was a dearly loved pet for the family. The man lived next door to a wealthy man who had many sheep, too many to really care about them. One day, a visitor comes to the wealthy man’s house. Not wanting to use one of his own sheep to feed his guest, the wealthy man has the poor man’s sheep taken and slaughtered.

David heard this and his anger rose within him. He demanded to know who the person was who could do such a horrible thing. Nathan looked squarely into David’s eyes, and said, “You are the man.” The story was to confront David about his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah. Confronted with the realization of his sin, David immediately repented and confessed his sin. Immediately, God’s mercy was extended and forgiveness was given, though there would be consequences.

I doubt that a day went by when David didn’t think about God’s mercy in this matter, and I can’t help but think it affected the way he ruled as king. The Bible says David was favored by God. David was a man of mercy, as we see in the way he tended for Mephibosheth, the son of his dear friend, Jonathan. David knew mercy, and he was able to extend it as well.

Mercy is received not because we show mercy but we show mercy because it is received and becomes a part of us.

Conclusion

I’m glad that God is merciful. I think back on my life and see the mercy that He has given me, and I am in awe. I am alive today because God is merciful. He shows it to me every day as I fall short of His expectations every day.

And I know I’m not alone. Each of us here has been a recipient of God’s great mercy. The forgiveness of our sins, the patience that allows us to continue in life under His guidance is the extension of God’s mercy.

And since God extends His mercy to us, how can we do anything else but also extend mercy to those around us in need of mercy and compassion and Christ-like love?