God’s Constitution, Pt 6: Mercy
Matthew 5:7 7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Matthew 6:14-15 14For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
John 15:4-6 4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
As so often encountered as we consider the impact of these verses on our lives, we have to ask just what mercy is. It is one of those nice sounding words which are hard to define at their core. But I’ll give a good run-of-the-mill definition of mercy. Mercy is that feeling you have in your heart when you look into the eyes of the animals in a television ad for one of the animal rescue agencies.
Something else to consider is to wonder what kind of mercy is expressed here. Is it from God to man, or man to man? Since God is holy and we are to be holy like him (Leviticus 19:2), it seems likely mercy between man and man is in view here. And beyond that, since we all understand what we are like inside, to understand the mercy God has already showered upon us should help us realize our mercy and compassion for others is of high value to Him.
I have a little bit of trouble with mercy because I really don’t completely understand what merciful living looks like. Certainly, it can’t be true that one can be merciful just for the purpose of obtaining mercy because that attitude is a sort of contradiction in terms that negates mercy before one even begins. Further, if there were a national law that required all persons to be merciful, would someone obedient to that law actually be merciful?
No, mercy seems to be solely an interior quality that wells from within. Since all mankind is created in the image of God, all of us have mercy within us that is independent of the spiritual. I would suppose that there might be millions of people who are bereft of intimate relationship with God who still have compassion and mercy towards downtrodden people and animals. The presence of animal rescue groups is proof enough of that. And we probably all know people who are not merciful in their nature; they are often power-hungry dictatorial people. So I assume such people have submerged their own mercy so deep as to be unaware it is even there.
But I don’t think this sort of dispassionate mercy is in view here. If we are to be holy as God is holy then the real time, active sort of mercy is what God desires. On a secular level, mercy is sorrow at the recognition of suffering in a fellow creature and the attempt to do something about it to the best of one’s ability. This is what is in view for animal rescue or helping those faced with natural catastrophe. But spiritual mercy rises to an entirely different level. God’s mercy to our own selves must be our guide here. The Cross and the Resurrection point to the deepness of the love God has for His children. He is so holy and we are so sinful that we deserve death, yet we have eternal life because of the deep love and mercy that is in God. That we have been forgiven so much should lead us to actively forgive others much and this same thinking should apply to mercy. Do we see someone who is suffering in some way? Our secular mercy might cause us to help him in his need, but our spiritual mercy would add that he is also a sinner in need of forgiveness and healing. Think for a moment about the difference between the mercy of God and the mercy of man. God’s is timeless, unchanging, and unconditional, while man’s is none of that.
How do we show mercy? It is not in the rescue of someone in the midst of struggle, but more generally in the way we treat ones in the mundaneness of life. Do we judge others based only on their actions, or do we consider their heart condition? What is our speech like? Is it sharp and critical or soft and tender? In our spheres of influence how do we lead others? Are we demanding and unforgiving, or do we demonstrate love and acceptance? The application of mercy is an everyday thing reflected in our public and private interaction with people.
So mercy is not something one puts on; rather it is something one is. A person who is merciful has certain soft, tender, and gracious nature which is expressed in the entirety of being. And since we do not live in isolation this softness and graciousness is reflected back to us. There is a sense of course that God, in His love of His children, rewards us in eternity based on the lives we have led. In such a case a merciful person will certainly receive mercy in eternity. But rewards come in the here and now too. Mercy is self-fulfilling: those who have it show it; those who show it receive it back. People like being around merciful people. When I am near to such a person, I find I am accepted more for who I can be rather than who I am. I am affirmed. There is a sweetness in that place that is second only to the presence of Jesus in my heart.