Blessed are the Merciful

"Mercy" window at Central Christian Church, Orlando, Florida (found online)

 

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."  Matthew 5:7

Often I find myself working my way backwards through verses in the Bible.  This blessing from Jesus is no exception.  I read it an immediately began mulling over the phrase, "for they will receive mercy."

I appreciate receiving mercy, having been blessed to be the recipient of undeserved mercy many times.  Husband has granted me mercy for all kinds of offenses both minor and serious, from popping his birthday balloon when I thought it had been hanging around the house for too many months, to doing nothing for his last birthday when I've made it very clear that I wish to be treated like a celebrity on my birthday.  Sometimes I just don't deserve love and kindness.  And my family of origin has granted me mercy over many many years for offenses from being a grump, to being bossy, to expressing my thoughts so directly as to be hurtful, to pure thoughtlessness in my pell-mell rush through life.  And then there are my students, who have had to grant me mercy from time to time for giving them more work than the class merits, and for not setting up assignments clearly enough so they understood exactly what I was expecting.

So, yeah, I appreciate mercy.  I hope to receive it and am fully grateful when I do, or else I wouldn't remember the occasions on which mercy was granted to me.

So, if I want to receive mercy, I must give mercy, right?  That's what the "Blessed" says:  Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.  

Isn't it a bit mercenary to grant mercy because you want to receive mercy?  It's like one of my colleagues said last week:  "You put money in the bank with your boss so that you can draw on it later when you need it."  Something about that made me squirm a bit, maybe because she's my direct report!  Sure, it's true in the human dynamic, but it just seems mercenary to work ahead so you are more likely to be let off the hook in times when you don't deserve to.

Speaking of "mercenary," I looked it up.  "Mercy" and "mercenary" are both related to the Latin word for "wages," merces. "Mercy" is also related to merci, the French word for "thank you," and to the Latin roots for "price paid, wages, merchandise."  So in the words at the end of the dictionary entry:

Mercy implies compassion that forbears punishing even when justice demands it.

Do you realize how shocking mercy is?  How radical?  There are things that happen to all of us in our lives, things that are unfair and demand punishment of the person who treated us badly. Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."  He doesn't say that we should be merciful only after the person stops treating us badly.  Even in the midst of mistreatment Jesus calls us to be merciful.

Yikes. If I choose not to punish, not to take revenge, not to wish ill will on those who have committed or are committing injustice against me, then I am promised that I also will receive mercy.  My spirit may rebel at that, and yet I am even in this very moment experiencing God's mercy toward me.  How can I not turn gratefully and grant mercy to others?  

These are easy words to write, immeasurably hard to put into action.  

Being in the research mode after my foray into the dictionary, I went on a search through the Bible to say what else is said about mercy, and here's what I found:

• Psalms is chock full of pleas from David to God, begging God to grant him mercy.  Hmmm.
• Proverbs characterizes the rich and the wicked as showing no mercy.
• Micah 6:8, that famous verse, commands just to love mercy.  Not just to practice mercy, but to love it.  (Have you loved granting mercy lately?)
• The gospels are strewn with accounts of people asking Jesus to have mercy on them.
• Jesus told stories depicting God as having mercy, and used stories of unmerciful people to show anti-examples of godly behavior.
• Paul, in his letter to the Romans, indicated that when you're showing mercy you should do it cheerfully.  That means you can't rub it in about how great you are because you're granting mercy to someone else.  Paul talked a lot about God's mercy, perhaps because he felt so grateful to be the recipient of it.
• Jude 22 says to "be merciful to those who show doubt."  Wow.  I think there are many doubters in and out of the Christian fellowship who are not shown mercy.  People are too afraid of someone who doubts.

Being merciful is all it's cracked up to be ... but it's awfully, awfully hard to do, especially if you have to do it cheerfully and love granting it.   Nevertheless, there is a blessing that comes with it, one that we all desperately need:  If you are merciful, you will receive mercy.

"Mercy implies compassion that forbears punishing, even when justice demands it."  --Merriam Webster dictionary online.