Matthew 5:7

Blessed Are the Merciful

by James Lincoln on April 9, 2006

 

When you think about the life and ministry of Jesus, what event or picture comes to your mind? Maybe you think about the baby Jesus in the manger, Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus healing the sick and the lepers or giving the blind their sight back. Maybe you think of His miracles like calming the storm, feeding the five thousand or turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Maybe you think about Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple turning over tables when coins, dust and terrified pigeons filled the air. One of my favorite scenes of holy week is when the soldiers come out with their clubs and swords to arrest Jesus and when they said that they had come for Jesus he said, "I am He" and by the power of that word they were all thrown down to the ground like rag dolls powerless before the Son of God. He didn't hurt them but He did let them know that His life was never taken from Him. Jesus was never the helpless victim of powerful men. No one took his life. He gave it freely. Maybe you think about Jesus on the cross saying, "Forgive them for they know not what they do."

The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the "radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of God's nature..." When we fix our gaze on Jesus, His acts and His words as preserved in Scriptures we are, in effect, looking at God. If you want to know what God is like...look at Jesus.

And when Jesus saw the crowds we're told that he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He had mercy on them. But rather than kicking the Romans out of power, rather than creating economic prosperity for Israel and making Israel the number one military and political power in the world...He leads them to the green pastures by teaching them about the realities of the kingdom of God. And those realities could not have been further from their expectations about the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for their's is the kingdom of heaven." A blessed person is one who recognizes he is poor in righteousness. They're indeed blessed because they've been on the receiving end of God's goodness of opening their minds and hearts to reality. Blessed are those who know that they need a righteousness they could never provide for themselves. Blessed are those who mourn for their own sins and the sins of others. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Not those who use their own strength, cleverness and power to dominate, technique and win...but those who reject using the instruments of power, dominance and intimidation to insist on their way. Instead they wait on God; they trust in God. To be meek is the opposite of self assertion and impatient demanding. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Many in our day are full but not satisfied. When you think of being satisfied what picture comes to your mind? What are you doing in that picture? Are you on a vacation, closing the deal, having sex, winning the game, getting a new toy, hitting the golf ball straight, watching an exciting movie? Jesus says, "OK, you want to be satisfied and content... then change your picture or change what you feed your mind and heart. Put righteousness at the center of your picture. Feed on the righteousness that comes by faith and the righteousness of choosing, willing and disciplining ourselves to do what is right. Jesus says this will bring satisfaction. But do you believe Him?

"Blessed are the merciful..."

Next, Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy." This morning I want to explore the connection between this beatitude and those that have come before. Why does mercy follow the others and especially the call to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

First, Jesus does this because a heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness must be complimented by a heart that knows and shows mercy. As a rule we both do and do not like righteous people. We're also ambivalent about being righteous ourselves. Will righteousness really make me satisfied? Will I be rewarded? Will anyone notice? If I choose righteousness am I going to miss out? Will God really take care of me if I make righteous choices?

There are two great difficulties with being righteous. On the one hand the people who work really hard at being righteous will nearly always struggle with the temptation to become self righteous. And few things are harder to bear than those who are self righteous. On the other hand, if we seek to be righteous as God is righteous (Jesus did say, "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.") in no time at all we feel this acute sense of defeat, for we don't act perfectly as our heavenly Father is perfect. Nor are we consistent at this. So we have to deal with both of these: self righteousness and falling short of real righteousness. The Pharisees reveal that the way you do righteousness will affect the way you do mercy.

Here's how the Pharisees dealt with this challenge. They convinced themselves that they were righteous before God in their own merit. They were self righteous. That's why Jesus said that your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The self righteousness of the Pharisee -before the tax collector at prayer- illustrates the chutzpah¹ and the ugliness of self righteousness. He said,

"I thank God that I'm not like this tax collector over there. I tithe, fast, give alms, help with the building program, voted conservative and avoided pork rinds. I'm certainly not like this tax collector over there who is a sinner. Aren't you glad Lord that you've got me on your team? "

To get to this place of self righteousness the Pharisee lowered the bar of God's righteousness to a list of external behaviors that ignored the motivations of the heart.² In our first church we had four delightful senior adults. Each Thursday night they would play the game Yatze together. Once, I asked if I could visit them and join them. They nervously agreed. I wasn't sure why they were nervous. As the game began I noticed that one woman was hesitant to shake up the dice in the little cup. Instead, she just let the dice slide out. Here's what was going on. They were taught in church that dice were evil and if you really shook the dice up you were somehow promoting an idolatrous practice. So, when it was my turn I shook the cup really hard and let the dice fly. Seeing their minister shake the cup with full force was quite liberating for them. I assured them that there was nothing remotely wicked about enjoying a game of Yatze. And then I mildly reproved them for trivializing the faith. But they had identified righteousness with external behavior without regard to internal or heart motivation.

The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is all about Jesus' definition of the righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. According to Jesus' definition of righteousness, there's no way anyone could see himself as righteous.

"I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; ... and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go to hell." Matt 5:22

In the same sermon, Jesus taught that everyone who lust after another is guilty of adultery. It delivers a fatal blow to self righteousness! You can't read this, have it penetrate your mind and heart and remain self righteous. It leaves everyone guilty. Of course in one sense that's that point. It leaves you helpless and needy for grace. And by doing so it destroys self righteousness which is a formidable sin that will prevent you from being merciful.

Today few evangelicals are concerned about the evils of Yatze. Today, righteousness as an act of the will, choice and disciplining ourselves to do what is righteous - is viewed by many as irrelevant. Many say,

"Hey, I'm forgiven. I'm going to heaven. Why do I need to be all that consumed with living righteously? I've got more important things on my mind. There's my career, my CD collection, and so many important decisions about which cable TV service to buy, which radar detection device or which pair of designer sunglasses is the best."

Please don't misunderstand me here. I'm not advocating the ascetic life. What I'm saying is that in this culture you're on the receiving end of a multi billion dollar advertising industry that is out to persuade you that you're presently dissatisfied with your life. They need you to conclude that the grass is greener in every place but where you are standing. And that you must buy this or do that to get the satisfaction in life you really deserve. Jesus says that you'll only be satisfied if you hunger and thirst for righteousness. No wonder people are so full and yet so unsatisfied. The culture fills our minds with thousands of images that are there to make us satisfied without one reference to righteousness.

Beloved, no one believes in their heart that Jesus died so that I could have a better cable TV service, or designer pair of sun glasses or a bigger hot tub. Look, we come to church and we sing songs of the majestic wonder of God and His sovereign rule and reign over all the earth. You sing and hear about His extravagant love and the extent to which He would go to demonstrate that love. You sing about the cross and the enormous sacrifice God the Father and Jesus the Son made for the world. You hear about God's eternal purposes to fill the earth with His glory. And yet, if the pursuits of our lives are so trivial, in comparison, we won't be satisfied. The disconnect between the nobility of the faith that we sing about and hear about with the trivialization of life will never satisfy the deep yearnings of our hearts for God and His noble and great purposes in the world.

How can our righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees?

First, it must be a righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says that through the gospel God has revealed a righteousness that is not based on law but comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ. We must give up any hope that the record of our righteousness could ever qualify us for heaven. We must receive the righteousness that comes to us as a gift from God and rest in that. I wouldn't want anything I say to disturb your peace and rest in that glorious and gracious gospel. But the gospel also changes our hearts and minds and calls us to hunger and thirst for righteousness of our choosing and to discipline our lives to live righteously like Christ.

How do we do that? instead of becoming puffed up with pride about how righteous we are... instead of lowering the standard of righteousness to a set of rules that ignores the motivation of the heart or abandoning the pursuit of righteousness in favor of some kind of trivial faith without obligations, serious sacrifices, disciplines and appropriate rules, instead of all of this Jesus says, "Be merciful." So, second, it is a righteousness that must show up in acts of mercy.

What does the word mercy mean? Or let me ask it this way, "Where does this kind of mercy come from?"³ Mercy comes out of the heart of a person who has been on the receiving end of God's blessing. It's the fruit of real conversion as all the beatitudes are. So, mercy grows out of the soil of poverty of spirit and a weeping over your own sins and the sins of the world. If you don't know the mercy of God who has shown you the gravity and sinfulness of your sin and His extravagant love and forgiveness, you can't extend that to others. Mercy grows out of a spirit of meekness. It grows out of a hunger and thirst for righteousness. If you don't hunger and thirst for righteousness, first the righteousness that comes through faith as a gift and then the spread of righteousness in the world you can't be merciful. If we don't mourn or weep over the eternal destiny of those without Christ who don't have His righteousness we can't be merciful the way God shows mercy.

Here at Hope I'm humbled and so blessed by the many Holy Spirit inspired acts of mercy among you. If I were to list them we would be here until Tuesday. But let me give you another mission. My assumption is that our church on this hill has a calling from God to be the incarnation of Jesus to the Hill. Jesus entered our world with compassion and mercy. He saw the ruin and devastation of sin and its destructive outcomes. Out of mercy He invaded this world. I know the drive to Ladd Hill is inconvenient to many of us by modern standards. But beloved, these are noble callings and precious opportunities. What would happen if God placed the mercy of Jesus on our hearts for the neighborhood of Ladd Hill? What would that mercy look like? What would it look like for you? If you are drawing a blank come talk to me or read your bulletin for concrete ways that mercy can show up among us. Will we be the mercy of Jesus to our neighbors on this hill?

What is mercy? Mercy is an act of concrete kindness.

Two Biblical Illustrations of Mercy

"While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matt 9:10-13 NIV

Jesus was eating with those who were noted for their sinful ways and tax collectors -traitors to Israel's cause. The Pharisees asked why Jesus would do such a thing. He said, "Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick...[then He added]I desire mercy not sacrifice.

This is a strange answer to me because sacrifice is a good thing. And certainly God desires us to live sacrificially. But here Jesus contrasts mercy and sacrifice. He quotes Hosea 6:6 where God says that Israel's love for Him was like the morning dew on the grass. Her love evaporated in the morning sun. All that was left of their sacrifices were empty burnt offerings. Sacrifice here means the religious ritual that remains only a religious ritual. The point is that God wants them to love Him from the heart and show mercy toward others, not by a religious ritual that only last as long as you're doing the ritual. The Pharisees were enslaved to the trivial issues of ceremonial cleanness when eternal sickness was about to be healed. The opposite of mercy is to be in bondage to religious trivia.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness." Matt 23:23-24

When your religious impulses are exhausted after you've done your ritual and they don't move you to acts of mercy beyond your ritual to touch those outside your religious cluster with things like justice, mercy and faith then our faith has been trivialized by ignoring weightier things. Hosea pointed Israel to this by saying that your sacrifices were like the morning dew. They only lasted as long as we are doing the ritual.⁴

The Good Samaritan (Lk.10)

A scribe testing Jesus, said, "Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.' And Jesus said, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." Jesus answered the man by saying that the person who will receive the mercy of eternal life is the one who has loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. In other words, "Blessed are those who love God and are merciful now to their neighbor, for they shall receive mercy in the future." So, the lawyer asked, "Who is my neighbor?"

"Jesus replied and said, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. 31 "And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 "And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him on the other side. 33 "But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, 34 and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 "And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.' 36 "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" 37 And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same." Luke 10:30-37

What does mercy look like?

First, mercy pays attention to those in trouble (33). The Samaritan saw the man in need. Second, it responds with a heart of compassion (33): he had compassion on him. Compassion means co= with, passion=to suffer, or to suffer with. Third, mercy responds with a concrete effort to relieve trouble (33): He went to him He moved toward him. He didn't walk past him. Instead, he bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine; then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Fourth, mercy happens when the care is given to a person who is by religion, social standing and race is an adversary (33) Samaritans were the religious and social adversaries of the Jews.

What is mercy? It's having an eye for distress, a heart of compassion, a concrete effort to help in spite of the social or religious hostility or difference. That's mercy.⁵ What is mercy? It is one of the three weightiest matters of life.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good;
 And what does the LORD require of you
 But to do justly,
 To love mercy,
 And to walk humbly with your God? " Micah 6:8

We can easily neglect mercy because of our preoccupation with trivia, hobbies, recreation, business, television, indifference and even religious trivia. Religious trivia is religious activity that does not cultivate a heart that is taken up with the weightier matters of life like justice, mercy or faith. The proof of salvation and real faith is in the power to see distress, feel compassion, and perform relief and all of that even toward an adversary.

Thursday at noon we asked this question. Can a Christian be a prosecuting attorney or a soldier? Can a Christian be a parole officer who carries a fire arm? Does mercy preclude these occupations or a parent or church that exercises discipline?

Until Jesus returns we will live with the tension of justice and mercy. They will be mingled. At times God calls us to give to people what they deserve. That may be punishment or reward. That's justice. And at times we give people better than what they deserve. That's called mercy. When we do justice we bear witness to the truth that God is a God of justice. And when we show mercy we bear witness to the truth that God is a God of mercy.

So, it's hard to know at any given moment if justice is to be required or mercy. I'm not claiming to know that calculus. Of course I have ideas. I struggle just like you do with those who are victims and offenders at the same time. I struggle to know if a hand out is a good thing, a merciful thing or enabling. We may have to rely on the wisdom of the moment. But I do know this: Like you I want my life to be marked by the life of Jesus who upheld justice and mercy. And I know this: it was the kindness and the mercy of the Lord Jesus and one of His servants that led me to repentance and great joy. I'm certain that is just as true for you. How will the people around us and this church ever know the kindness of God? Who will be the instruments of His mercy here on this hill? Jesus gives a promise. If you do mercy like this, mercy that grows out of grace, meekness, mourning and a hunger for righteousness you will receive the same. Amen.