Be merciful towards each other
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.
The first four beatitudes concern more about our inner life. The next four shift to the outward expression of the inner qualities we possess.
Mercy is a virtue that Christians are familiar with. It can be found in most part of the Bible. It’s an admirable virtue, regardless of our religious conviction. But how much mercy do we possess and show to each other.
However, in Jesus time, mercy is not an admirable virtue:
The Roman had four cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance (self-control), and courage – but not mercy. The interpreter’s Bible says that the Romans despised pity!
The Greek had similar views – mercy similar to weakness rather than strength. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that pity was a troublesome emotion.
The Pharisees were harsh in their self-righteous judgments of others, showed little mercy.
Matthew 23:23 23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-- mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-- justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
These three facts show us the differences between God’s values and humans’ values. The Beatitudes ~ Ucapan Bahagia ~ represents the qualities of character that a true disciple of Christ should have. The qualities should radiate from a disciple’s life to tell the world that God’s blessings are resting upon them, aiding / helping them to live a joyful life; a makarios / blessed life.
The world tells us the way to achieve happiness is to possess all the material things, power, social standing. Jesus tells us true happiness come when we have these spiritual qualities – the character that shape by our relationship with God.
1. What does mercy mean?
In our daily use, all of us to some extend need some sort of mercy. When we’re sick, we are under the mercy of our doctors, nurses, care givers. Students are under the mercy of their teachers – hoping the teachers will be truthfully teaching the knowledge they need and be merciful in their grading. Likewise, teachers need the principal’s mercy that in assessing their works. Principal may need the board’s mercy no to put too high an expectation for them to achieve.
In English it is used to show compassion, pity, sympathy, forgiveness, kindness, tenderhearted, or refraining from harming or punishing offenders or enemies.
None of these words can sufficiently describe the meaning of mercy. William Barclay, a Biblical scholar suggested that we need to look to the background, to the Old Testament. The word for mercy in Hebrew is – Chesed ~ which he interpreted as, “the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings.” To get to others’ skin … empathy a popular word today.
The beatitude has a logical order. Righteousness is admirable. But we need to beware that the danger of becoming hard. We may become impatient with those who are not as hunger or diligent in seeking things of God.
Righteousness is an inward quality. We should not stop at that being righteous. Last week we learn that righteousness has three stages: legal (faith) righteousness, moral righteousness (moral outlook), social righteousness. Once we received God’s justification by faith, we are proclaimed a free person. God’s grace through the Cross has set us free. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit enables us to acquire the moral righteousness / godly character; and as we grow mature in Christ, like a grown up child, we begin to see things from the Father’s perspectives; to share his concerns and cares for the creation ~ which we call social righteousness. From here, we are just another step to achieve mercy.
Mercy is an outflow of the inner quality that we possess. It requires us to step out from our comfort zone to personify with the pains and sufferings of others. Very often, we interpret mercy as giving of alms of charity. But mercy certainly requires more than merely our material contributions. It calls us to get right into the other’s skin, to see things as they see, think things as they think, and feel as they feel.
Many times, we are not much different from the world. We prefer to insulate ourselves from the pains and cries of the world. Like the Levite and Priest in the story of the Good Samaritan, we prefer to avoid the cry of the needy, to walk at the other side of the road.
But our God does not insulate Himself from the world's misery. as John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." In Jesus Christ, God literally got inside humans’ skin.
Barclay comments: "He came as a man; he came seeing things with humans’ eyes, feeling things with humans’ feelings, thinking things with humans' minds. God knows what life is like, because God came right inside life" (Barclay p. 104). Jesus Christ is not remote, detached and disinterested, nor insulated and isolated from our lives. He can see in us a reflection of what He experienced as a man. He can thus extend mercy to us, completely understanding what we are going through.
Mercy requires a deliberate identification with the other person, until we see things as they see them, feel things they feel them. Sympathy ~ experiencing things together with the other person;
It is not easy to be merciful. It requires our emotional investment. To feel the hunger of those who have nothing to eat, to feel the pain of those dying of aids, or cancer.
2. How then can I obtain mercy?
Mercy begins and ends in God. It begins and determines by our relationship with God. Mercy is a quality given to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; a concrete result of a warm relationship with God.
It starts to grow when we begin to see ourselves in light of God’s mercy. Matthew 18:21-35 ~ tells us mercy born in our hearts when we are grateful towards God’s mercy. It is not by my own merits, but only by grace, He writes off our debts and set us free.
When we open our hearts to receive this mercy; at the same time we accept the grace to work in us. When we response to the work of the Holy Spirit, communicating and imparting God’s love, goodness, kindness and mercy to us, the seed of mercy begins to permeate our lives and to bear fruits. The result depends on how diligent are we in our obedience to God’s teaching ~ to learn the mercy from Jesus Christ, the Master of Mercy.
Matthew 18:21-35 is a concrete example of God’s mercy and our mercy. The first step to be merciful is to recognize God’s mercy. A grateful heart of God’s mercy and kindness.
But very often, instead of contemplating on God’s mercy, we let ourselves be trapped in the evil cycle. For instance, the old education system gave too much power to teachers. When they were finishing their final paper, instead of guiding the students to finish his work, very often the tutor would just make things tough for the students. Again and again they would ask them to change their paper which would be clearly just a fault-finding game, making lives difficult for others.
Sometimes, similar thing may happen in our work place and family life; a parent with a tough upbringing tends to raise their children in the same way. A superior who had bad experience might be harsh to their subordinates.
But mercy is not merely being kind or empathetic towards others. Mercy requires intelligent and discernment. A teacher can’t just let his/her students pass their exams if they can’t pass the basic requirement for the course.
3. God’s mercy and judgment
Likewise, though God’s desire mercy, He doesn’t overlook justice. The second commandment says,
“You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)
God loves justice, but HE prefers mercy. Mercy helps to keep justice in balance. A well-known use of "mercy" is that God calls the lid of the ark of the covenant the "mercy seat." The ark of covenant is where the Israelites kept the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. This ark is kept in the holy of holies (both in the Tabernacle and alter in Solomon’s Temple), where God symbolically resided
The mercy seat symbolizes God's throne, where He judges humans' conduct, and God’s name reflects the basic nature of His judgments, which always rest on mercy. This does not mean that God is soft-headed in judgment, carelessly overlooking humans' sins. Even so, it is God's nature to be merciful rather than severe and vengeful. Unlike humans, God finds ways to change men so He can be merciful.
God's judgments always contain a perfect balance of justice and mercy. Though He mercifully forgives a repentant sinner, the sinner does not escape without some measure of painful judgment. Humans’ judgment may be harsh, but God’s judgment is always merciful and is perfect.
David understood this, as a judgment of God against him and Israel in II Samuel 24 shows. David had sinned in conducting census which means He begins to doubt God’s power and begin to count the strength of his nation. When God exposed his sin and confronted him, God gave him three choices regarding penalties:
2 Samuel 24:12-14 12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.'" 13 So Gad went to David and said to him, "Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me."
14 David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men."
So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, "It is enough; now restrain your hand." (verses 14-16)
God records David's wise choice because it is worthy of our emulation. In modern language, he "threw himself on the mercy of the court" of the great God of heaven.
4. Mercy in Church life
Mercy is some an admirable quality and Jesus requires all His followers / disciples to pursue this quality of character and to possess it. Sometimes, it seems to be easy to be merciful to others but how about be merciful to those who close to us, to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Church. Charity begins at home, mercy should begin in the church, in a community of God-fearing people.
Paul told the believers in Ephesus:
. . . with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. . . . Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.(Ephesians 4:2-3, 31-32)
Then in Colossians 3:12-14, Paul wrote
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Paul shows in Ephesians that the life we are called to live is characterized by five qualities: humility, meekness, ptience, forbearance and love.
Love, the last one, embraces the other four and is the crown of all virtues. Each of these qualities enables us to act in mercy and live at peace. God's Spirit empowers us to use these qualities to overcome the ill will and the bitterness that lead to clamorous slander and destroying reputations. Such bitterness and ill will do not lead to kindness and compassion toward each other. We are called to act in grace – to forgive one another – to bear with each other’s shortcomings. Acting in grace catches the essence of how God has acted toward us and our sin against Him. And because He has forgiven us, we are commanded to forgive each other (Col. 3:13).
Don’t wait until other comes to approach you. Let mercy begin with us, let it begin with me. God loves justice, but He prefers mercy. Let’s learn to exercise his love, to act kindly and to be merciful towards each other. Amen. (Pastor The Paw Liang, preached at Grace Methodist Church – Jakarta, 15 March 2009)
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.
The first four beatitudes concern more about our inner life. The next four shift to the outward expression of the inner qualities we possess.
Mercy is a virtue that Christians are familiar with. It can be found in most part of the Bible. It’s an admirable virtue, regardless of our religious conviction. But how much mercy do we possess and show to each other.
However, in Jesus time, mercy is not an admirable virtue:
The Roman had four cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance (self-control), and courage – but not mercy. The interpreter’s Bible says that the Romans despised pity!
The Greek had similar views – mercy similar to weakness rather than strength. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that pity was a troublesome emotion.
The Pharisees were harsh in their self-righteous judgments of others, showed little mercy.
Matthew 23:23 23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-- mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-- justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
These three facts show us the differences between God’s values and humans’ values. The Beatitudes ~ Ucapan Bahagia ~ represents the qualities of character that a true disciple of Christ should have. The qualities should radiate from a disciple’s life to tell the world that God’s blessings are resting upon them, aiding / helping them to live a joyful life; a makarios / blessed life.
The world tells us the way to achieve happiness is to possess all the material things, power, social standing. Jesus tells us true happiness come when we have these spiritual qualities – the character that shape by our relationship with God.
1. What does mercy mean?
In our daily use, all of us to some extend need some sort of mercy. When we’re sick, we are under the mercy of our doctors, nurses, care givers. Students are under the mercy of their teachers – hoping the teachers will be truthfully teaching the knowledge they need and be merciful in their grading. Likewise, teachers need the principal’s mercy that in assessing their works. Principal may need the board’s mercy no to put too high an expectation for them to achieve.
In English it is used to show compassion, pity, sympathy, forgiveness, kindness, tenderhearted, or refraining from harming or punishing offenders or enemies.
None of these words can sufficiently describe the meaning of mercy. William Barclay, a Biblical scholar suggested that we need to look to the background, to the Old Testament. The word for mercy in Hebrew is – Chesed ~ which he interpreted as, “the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings.” To get to others’ skin … empathy a popular word today.
The beatitude has a logical order. Righteousness is admirable. But we need to beware that the danger of becoming hard. We may become impatient with those who are not as hunger or diligent in seeking things of God.
Righteousness is an inward quality. We should not stop at that being righteous. Last week we learn that righteousness has three stages: legal (faith) righteousness, moral righteousness (moral outlook), social righteousness. Once we received God’s justification by faith, we are proclaimed a free person. God’s grace through the Cross has set us free. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit enables us to acquire the moral righteousness / godly character; and as we grow mature in Christ, like a grown up child, we begin to see things from the Father’s perspectives; to share his concerns and cares for the creation ~ which we call social righteousness. From here, we are just another step to achieve mercy.
Mercy is an outflow of the inner quality that we possess. It requires us to step out from our comfort zone to personify with the pains and sufferings of others. Very often, we interpret mercy as giving of alms of charity. But mercy certainly requires more than merely our material contributions. It calls us to get right into the other’s skin, to see things as they see, think things as they think, and feel as they feel.
Many times, we are not much different from the world. We prefer to insulate ourselves from the pains and cries of the world. Like the Levite and Priest in the story of the Good Samaritan, we prefer to avoid the cry of the needy, to walk at the other side of the road.
But our God does not insulate Himself from the world's misery. as John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." In Jesus Christ, God literally got inside humans’ skin.
Barclay comments: "He came as a man; he came seeing things with humans’ eyes, feeling things with humans’ feelings, thinking things with humans' minds. God knows what life is like, because God came right inside life" (Barclay p. 104). Jesus Christ is not remote, detached and disinterested, nor insulated and isolated from our lives. He can see in us a reflection of what He experienced as a man. He can thus extend mercy to us, completely understanding what we are going through.
Mercy requires a deliberate identification with the other person, until we see things as they see them, feel things they feel them. Sympathy ~ experiencing things together with the other person;
It is not easy to be merciful. It requires our emotional investment. To feel the hunger of those who have nothing to eat, to feel the pain of those dying of aids, or cancer.
2. How then can I obtain mercy?
Mercy begins and ends in God. It begins and determines by our relationship with God. Mercy is a quality given to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; a concrete result of a warm relationship with God.
It starts to grow when we begin to see ourselves in light of God’s mercy. Matthew 18:21-35 ~ tells us mercy born in our hearts when we are grateful towards God’s mercy. It is not by my own merits, but only by grace, He writes off our debts and set us free.
When we open our hearts to receive this mercy; at the same time we accept the grace to work in us. When we response to the work of the Holy Spirit, communicating and imparting God’s love, goodness, kindness and mercy to us, the seed of mercy begins to permeate our lives and to bear fruits. The result depends on how diligent are we in our obedience to God’s teaching ~ to learn the mercy from Jesus Christ, the Master of Mercy.
Matthew 18:21-35 is a concrete example of God’s mercy and our mercy. The first step to be merciful is to recognize God’s mercy. A grateful heart of God’s mercy and kindness.
But very often, instead of contemplating on God’s mercy, we let ourselves be trapped in the evil cycle. For instance, the old education system gave too much power to teachers. When they were finishing their final paper, instead of guiding the students to finish his work, very often the tutor would just make things tough for the students. Again and again they would ask them to change their paper which would be clearly just a fault-finding game, making lives difficult for others.
Sometimes, similar thing may happen in our work place and family life; a parent with a tough upbringing tends to raise their children in the same way. A superior who had bad experience might be harsh to their subordinates.
But mercy is not merely being kind or empathetic towards others. Mercy requires intelligent and discernment. A teacher can’t just let his/her students pass their exams if they can’t pass the basic requirement for the course.
3. God’s mercy and judgment
Likewise, though God’s desire mercy, He doesn’t overlook justice. The second commandment says,
“You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)
God loves justice, but HE prefers mercy. Mercy helps to keep justice in balance. A well-known use of "mercy" is that God calls the lid of the ark of the covenant the "mercy seat." The ark of covenant is where the Israelites kept the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. This ark is kept in the holy of holies (both in the Tabernacle and alter in Solomon’s Temple), where God symbolically resided
The mercy seat symbolizes God's throne, where He judges humans' conduct, and God’s name reflects the basic nature of His judgments, which always rest on mercy. This does not mean that God is soft-headed in judgment, carelessly overlooking humans' sins. Even so, it is God's nature to be merciful rather than severe and vengeful. Unlike humans, God finds ways to change men so He can be merciful.
God's judgments always contain a perfect balance of justice and mercy. Though He mercifully forgives a repentant sinner, the sinner does not escape without some measure of painful judgment. Humans’ judgment may be harsh, but God’s judgment is always merciful and is perfect.
David understood this, as a judgment of God against him and Israel in II Samuel 24 shows. David had sinned in conducting census which means He begins to doubt God’s power and begin to count the strength of his nation. When God exposed his sin and confronted him, God gave him three choices regarding penalties:
2 Samuel 24:12-14 12 "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.'" 13 So Gad went to David and said to him, "Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me."
14 David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men."
So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, "It is enough; now restrain your hand." (verses 14-16)
God records David's wise choice because it is worthy of our emulation. In modern language, he "threw himself on the mercy of the court" of the great God of heaven.
4. Mercy in Church life
Mercy is some an admirable quality and Jesus requires all His followers / disciples to pursue this quality of character and to possess it. Sometimes, it seems to be easy to be merciful to others but how about be merciful to those who close to us, to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Church. Charity begins at home, mercy should begin in the church, in a community of God-fearing people.
Paul told the believers in Ephesus:
. . . with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. . . . Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.(Ephesians 4:2-3, 31-32)
Then in Colossians 3:12-14, Paul wrote
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Paul shows in Ephesians that the life we are called to live is characterized by five qualities: humility, meekness, ptience, forbearance and love.
Love, the last one, embraces the other four and is the crown of all virtues. Each of these qualities enables us to act in mercy and live at peace. God's Spirit empowers us to use these qualities to overcome the ill will and the bitterness that lead to clamorous slander and destroying reputations. Such bitterness and ill will do not lead to kindness and compassion toward each other. We are called to act in grace – to forgive one another – to bear with each other’s shortcomings. Acting in grace catches the essence of how God has acted toward us and our sin against Him. And because He has forgiven us, we are commanded to forgive each other (Col. 3:13).
Don’t wait until other comes to approach you. Let mercy begin with us, let it begin with me. God loves justice, but He prefers mercy. Let’s learn to exercise his love, to act kindly and to be merciful towards each other. Amen. (Pastor The Paw Liang, preached at Grace Methodist Church – Jakarta, 15 March 2009)
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