“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
At face value, this beatitude seems so simple and obvious: to those who are merciful, mercy shall be given. It is a “reap what you sow” statement, a karma-style mantra, and a “what goes around comes around” mindset.
Yet, for being such an easy to understand blessing, so many supposed Christians fail to be people of mercy. Instead, they live by mottos such as “tough love” and “peace through strength” which are blatantly incompatible with Christ’s clear command. When it comes to politics, they declare the importance of national or economic security and wage war against their opponents, foreign and domestic. They love to demonstrate how strong they are and even when they have shown their might continue to pummel others when they are down and out.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasts various attributes of the merciless versus the merciful. Anger, revenge, retaliation, greed, rigidity, and judgment are aspects of those who are mean and merciless. Conversely, patience, compassion, reconciliation, generosity, flexibility, and forgiveness are marks of those who are merciful and kind. (Matthew 5:21-26, 5:38-48, 6:25-7:6, 7:12-14)
Our world is littered with the debris brought about by the mean and merciless, making it daunting to live out the call of Jesus Christ to clean up our world with kindness and mercy. Like the earlier blessing of meekness in the list of beatitudes, we can easily succumb to the viewpoint that we will be seen as small and weak if we bestow mercy carte blanche. The gospel assures us though that this is not the case.
The entire Jesus movement we are part of, and that has radically transformed our world in often wonderful and marvelous ways over the last two millennia, all began with mercy and meekness. God showed up in human flesh, in the form of our Beloved Savior and Lord Jesus, to demonstrate what a life of mercy and meekness looks like, and what it can accomplish.
When we follow in our Lord’s footsteps, exhibiting similar mercy and meekness, we too transform the world as our Savior did. The evil litter of mean spiritedness that is all around us flees when we show the light of mercy. People come together and the world slowly gets healed and restored. Our light (as also described in the Sermon on the Mount; Matthew 5:13-16) cannot shine in this world if we do not have mercy. Indeed, our lamp might not even be lit in that case! And our Lord may say to us one day “depart from me you worker of evil” (the statement of Christ at the end of this same sermon, to all who do not live out the values of this sermon; Matthew 7:21-23).
Our calling as Christ followers is to be relentlessly merciful with all, friends and foes alike. True disciples of Jesus are known by their love for all humanity, which must include boundless mercy.
Relevant Reformation 