This is the fifth of the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5. Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. We’ve already seen that the ‘poor in spirit’ are those who are humble and seek God’s way. Those who mourn, as we saw in the second Beatitude are those who God invites to come near so God can be with us in our sorrow. The ‘meek’ and those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ are inheritors of the good things of God’s bounty. This is not the grasping more, more, more attitude of Western culture but a bounty found in the fullness of all creation.
This week we consider the ‘merciful’. I think we’d all like
to believe we are merciful. The Lord’s Prayer and Matthew 6:14-15 remind us
that forgiveness is part of mercy. Jesus says, For if you forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
Pulpit Commentary notes, “the mercy referred to here is not
so…not dealing harshly, not inflicting punishment when due, sparing an animal
or a fellow-man some unnecessary labor, as active kindness to the destitute and
to any who are in trouble.”
Have you ever considered ‘mercy’ as being active kindness? The
second chapter of the Letter of James warns that we can miss the mercy mark too
easily with snap judgements. My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts
of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person
with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor
person in dirty clothes also comes in…have you not made distinctions among
yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?...You do well if you really
fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by
the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become accountable for all of it…So speak and so act as those who are
to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgement will be without mercy to
anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement. (James
2:1-13)
In many church services we pray the Kyrie: “Lord have mercy,
Christ have mercy”. The mercy we are asking for is the chesed of God,
the infinite loving-kindness from the One who creates all things. That is the
mercy we experience when we fall short, and that is the mercy we are called to
extend to one another. God has no favorites, and as the Epistle of James notes,
we should not show partiality just because we like someone or because they
agree with us.
The life, teaching and work of Jesus clearly calls us to step outside our personal comfort zones and sustain the hungry or thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner. Matthew 25:35-40 is a call to putting mercy into action. Offering mercy is not easy. Offering mercy is God’s way. Offering mercy is the way of hope, healing, reconciliation.
Is there someone to whom you might offer mercy?
