Part 5: Those who are merciful
(Matthew 5:1-12)
Before we move on to the fifth beatitude, let’s review the first four. We start off with a humble spirit (Those who are ‘poor in spirit’), which leads to mourning over our sinful condition and all the suffering it brings (Those who mourn).
This mourning causes us to surrender ourselves to God (Those who are meek). As we surrender ourselves to God, we develop an intense desire to be righteous like Christ (Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness). With humbled and surrendered hearts yearning to be righteous, we begin to live the life God created us to live. We begin to become the Christ-like person God created us to be. This brings us to the fifth beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”
As people yearning to be more like Jesus, we desire to become morally upright and compassionate. Our rigorous adherence to morality must be tempered with a deep compassion for immoral people. Without this compassion, we become rigid, arrogant and judgmental. Our ability to forgive is severely impaired. We arrogantly claim a moral superiority that prevents us from impacting the world for Jesus. With this compassion, we engage the world with love and forgiveness and introduce people to Jesus. In this way, we ‘love the sinner but hate the sin’. Jesus was speaking of compassion when he said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy”.
God demonstrated this type of mercy when He became a human named Jesus. As fully God and fully human, Jesus suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. God could have insisted that we pay the penalty ourselves. Instead, He showed mercy by paying the penalty Himself, paving the way for us to simply receive His forgiveness. This is Godly mercy.
Throughout our lives, we are given opportunities to demonstrate Godly mercy. I experienced one such opportunity during the sentencing of the 19 year old drunk driver who killed my first wife. God’s grace enabled me to express my forgiveness and support a plea bargain that involved a light sentence. This kid had no prior criminal record and I didn’t want to see him become a career criminal by spending over 20 years in prison. While he was in prison, I wrote and shared God’s love with him. In the letters he wrote back to me, he expressed a sincere desire to know God. God’s mercy changes people.
I also remember a time in 7th grade when I met up with my old nemesis from 6th grade. I was in the cafeteria waiting in line to get my food. As I looked across the cafeteria, I saw him. My heart began to race as I anticipated a confrontation. I was ready to continue our feud. The fight was coming… or so I thought. This old nemesis of mine had the audacity to show me Godly mercy. He walked up to me and said, “Hi. How’s it going?” This took me totally by surprise. I didn’t know how to react. So, I responded with something like, “Uhh...Ok I guess.” From that moment, we became friends. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was changed by this act of mercy.
God gives us opportunities to show mercy in small and big ways. Each time we show mercy, we’re sharing the love of Jesus. It often becomes a time for us to share our faith. As we show mercy with humbled and surrendered hearts seeking to be righteous, the Holy Spirit cleanses our hearts of sinful desires. This creates in us pure hearts. That, however, is the topic of next month’s article.
