Blessed are the merciful

Matthew 5:1-12

When I first started thinking about this beatitude: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy, my mind went immediately to situations where I am confronted with people in need and struggle with what to do. “When I pass by a beggar in the street without giving anything,” I asked myself, “am I not being merciful?” One in every five Moroccans live below the poverty line. 40% of Moroccans are unemployed. When I do not share what I have with them, am I being unmerciful? When people in our own congregation struggle financially and I do not offer assistance, am I lacking mercy? What is my responsibility?

In searching for answers, I looked at the Scriptures which is usually a pretty good place to start when preparing a sermon. In the NIV translation, the words mercy or merciful occur 151 times. In reading these verses, it became apparent that the way in which mercy is worked out is broader than I had initially thought. I am not going to pretend that we will do an exhaustive study of mercy, but we will look at Scriptures that show us three ways in which God has shown his mercy to us and three ways in which we are called to respond with mercy to others.

Mercy begins, as do all good things we experience, with God and there are at least three ways in which God’s mercy has been revealed to us. The first way the Scriptures speak of God’s mercy being revealed is found in I Peter:
I Peter 2
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. Something stirs in me when I read this description of how the community of faith of which I am a part is described. Peter wrote that a change has occurred. Once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God.

Just a bit earlier in his letter he makes it even more explicit:
I Peter 1
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,  5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

God’s mercy is most powerfully demonstrated when he reached down and entered history, suffered and died for us, dying in our place so we could be reborn into a living hope and into an inheritance that cannot be taken away from us.

I preached from this text when I first came to Morocco in September 1999 to candidate for the position of pastor of RPF. As part of that sermon, I handed out to each person in the congregation a stone marble as a reminder of the inheritance we have received. I carry it with me always in my coin purse.

God’s mercy is so great. Not only has God revealed himself to us, but he had pity on us and came to rescue us so we could live eternally with him. We are forever in his debt. We will never be able to repay him for what he has done for us.

If you want to know what mercy is, just reread these passages. Meditate on what God has done for us, for you and you will learn about mercy.

In Luke 6 Jesus teaches us, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” As God has been merciful to us in rescuing us, dying for us so we can live, how can we be merciful to others?

We read this morning the parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

A servant owed his master an enormous amount of money. 10,000,000 dirhams. It was a sum that he would never be able to pay. When his master ordered him to be thrown into prison, he pleaded for mercy. The master took pity on him, canceled the dept and set him free.

This is a summary of what we just read in I Peter:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

God forgave us a debt that we could never in our wildest imagination ever be able to repay.

But now in the parable, the servant who had been forgiven so much came upon a man who owed him 1,000 dirhams. The man could not repay that amount and so the servant ordered that he be put in prison. The man pleaded for mercy but received none from the servant who had been forgiven so much.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’  34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
And then Jesus concluded his parable:
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

How do we show mercy to others? We forgive others when they do something against us or someone we love. As we have been forgiven, we forgive. This morning we will take communion, a time when we remember that Jesus died for us, that God forgave us and brought us to himself. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this:
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,  24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Paul in Colossians 3
2 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

I instruct you, as you come forward for communion this morning. Cleanse yourself before coming forward to offer yourself to Christ, to remember his death for you. In light of your debt that has been forgiven, there is nothing that anybody can do to you or someone you love that cannot and should not be forgiven.

If you are holding on, willingly or unwillingly to a hurt someone has given you, be set free this morning before you come forward for communion. Forgive as God has forgiven you. Show mercy as you have been shown mercy. If you find yourself unable to forgive, to show mercy, ask God for his help. He will enable you to let go of the hurt and forgive.

God’s mercy is most powerfully revealed in his dying for us but it is also found in an encounter Moses had with God after the law was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. If you remember the context for this text, you remember that Moses had been tossed up and down emotionally as though he were a chip of wood in a violent storm at sea. He had a literal and figurative mountain top experience. Moses met with God and angels gave him the law for the new nation God was carving out of the world. When Moses came down to discover Israel had made a golden calf and were worshiping it, he was incensed, destroyed the stone tablets with the law, and 3,000 Israelites were killed by the Levites in judgement for their idolatry. Then Moses went back up the mountain to receive again the stone tablets with the Law.

After all this, God told Moses to lead Israel to the Promised Land, Canaan. With all that Moses had experienced of the unfaithfulness of Israel, he was apprehensive about setting off and had this conversation with God.

Exodus 33
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.  22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.  23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

Moses was looking for reassurance as he set off to lead Israel to the Promised Land of Canaan and asked to see God’s glory. God’s mercy, in this situation, was revealed by God allowing Moses to see his glory and protecting Moses so he was not destroyed by the purity of God’s holiness.

This was truly an act of mercy. Remember what happened when Gabriel came to Zechariah and told him he and Elizabeth would bear a son in their old age? Zechariah asked for confirmation and his ability to speak was taken away from him for his lack of faith.

But Moses also questioned God. He said, “It’s not enough for you to tell me to lead Israel to Canaan. I need more from you.” It was quite presumptuous of Moses to ask God for more, wasn’t it? Wasn’t God’s word enough?

But God has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he has compassion on whom he will have compassion. And he revealed himself to Moses.

This was an act of mercy on God’s part and continues to be an act of mercy in our lives. God has given us the Scriptures. He has given us the Holy Spirit. God speaks to us through the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit to give us guidance and direction in our lives. But we still doubt and waver in doing what God has called us to do and so God, in his mercy, gives us further revelation of himself. He leads us to passages of Scripture that will encourage us. He works in the lives of those around us in a way that answers our doubts. In his mercy, God is continually allowing us to see more of him, to know more of who he is.

In his mercy he reveals himself to us and when we have an experience with God, we should never, ever take that for granted. In God’s mercy, he offers us reassurance and encouragement to continue to follow him and to seek his will for our lives.

Jesus teaches us, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” As God has been merciful to us in revealing himself to us, how can we be merciful to others?

Do you remember the story of the Gerasene demoniac? Jesus crossed over the sea of Galilee and was confronted by a man who was possessed by an evil spirit. This man was the terror of all those around. They would chain him and put his legs in irons, but he would tear the chains apart and break the leg irons. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Jesus cast out the demons possessing him and when the people from the town came, they found him sitting with Jesus, “dressed and in his right mind.” When Jesus prepared to leave, the man begged to go with Jesus and his disciples and Jesus’ response teaches us how we are to respond to God’s mercy:

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.  19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

When we have experienced mercy, we are to have mercy on others. When we share our experience with God, that is one way of showing mercy. Sharing our faith is not a duty, something we have to do to be good Christians. Sharing our faith is not an act of intolerance. Sharing our faith is an act of mercy.

Just as God reaches out to share himself with us in an act of mercy, so we are to reach out to others to share with them our experience of God as an act of mercy toward them.

Our third look at God’s mercy takes us to the Gospels and the life of Jesus. In what ways did Jesus express mercy?

Over and over again in the Gospels, people cried out to Jesus for mercy and he responded by healing them and casting out demons who were possessing them. When Jesus saw people blind, crippled, diseased, possessed by demons, his heart went out to them. He had pity for them. And in his mercy, he healed and delivered them.

Matthew 9
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Matthew 15
22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

Matthew 20
30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Mark 10
46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.  47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Luke 17
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.  12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance  13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Matthew 17
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.  15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.  16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

Time after time people in need called out for mercy and Jesus responded by showing mercy. He restored sight to the blind, healed the lame, cured the lepers and cast out demons.

We looked a couple weeks ago at the beatitude that says, “Blessed are they who mourn.” Those who mourn, who are able to grieve for those around them who suffer, will be ones who show mercy. The heart of Jesus went out to those in need and in his mercy, he healed them.
Jesus teaches us, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Jesus demonstrated his mercy by caring for the physical needs of those around him. How can we be merciful to others?

In Luke 10 Jesus told a parable we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Do you remember the story? A man was robbed and beaten and left lying by the side of the road. Two religious, respectable men came by and ignored him. Then a Samaritan, a people looked down at by the Jews of Israel, came by and he picked up the man, tended to his wounds, put him on his donkey to take him to the nearest inn, and paid the innkeeper to take care of him. Then Jesus asked the expert in the law:
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Jesus demonstrated God’s concern for the physical needs of people by healing and casting out demons. God has mercy on us and provides us with what we need. We are also to have mercy on those around us and help with their physical needs.

So this gets us back to the questions I asked at the beginning of the sermon. Are we to help every beggar we see? Are we to help every person we see in need?

Twice in Matthew, Jesus quotes Hosea 6:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

The first time is in Matthew 9
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.  11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
12 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.”

And again in Matthew 12
It is the Sabbath and Jesus’ disciples are hungry. So as they went through a grainfield, they took some heads of grain and ate them. The Pharisees saw this and were disturbed because they were working on the Sabbath, in violation of their interpretation of the law. Jesus responded to them and as part of his response said:
7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

What does this mean?
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’
and
If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

What I think Jesus was saying is that mercy is not a matter of having a set of rules that you follow. It is not as easy as saying, “ A beggar with ragged clothes should be helped and more should be given if there is a baby.” “Give to two people in need a week. That fulfills your responsibility and then trust others to take care of the rest.” “Give your tithe to the church and then add an additional ½% of your income and use that to help with the needs of others. That will fulfill your responsibility.”

It would be nice to have a set of rules to follow but having mercy will never be that easy. Having mercy does not mean we help every person we meet and it does not mean we can not spend money on ourselves. When perfume that cost a year’s wages was poured on the head of Jesus, the disciples were critical because that money could have been used for the poor. And how did Jesus respond?
“Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.  11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.

Jesus did not use every bit of money he had for the needs of those around him and we will not accuse him of lacking mercy.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

Following a set of rules is sacrifice. What God wants from us is our heart. He wants us to experience his mercy in all its fullness. God wants us to know more of who he is, more of what it is like to experience his love in our lives. God wants us to grow in our appreciation of his love for us, of how great his love is that allows us to hope for eternal life with him.

God wants our hearts and then we will respond with mercy for those around him. A list of who to help and who not to help and how much to help will never do. We will never not have to struggle with how to use the resources God has given us. It will never be easy for us.
But to focus on the rules is to miss the point. God wants our heart. He desires mercy, not sacrifice.

God has shown us mercy by offering us eternal life. God continues to show us mercy by revealing himself to us. God will show us mercy by providing us with what we need.

In response, be merciful as God has been merciful to you. Forgive from the heart. Share your experience of God with others. Let your heart of mercy lead you as you care for the needs of those around you.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

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I Timothy 1
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.  16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.  17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.