The Beatitudes: Happy are the Merciful
The Beatitudes, eight short teachings found at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, lay the foundation for the rest of Jesus’ teachings and are fundamental to understanding Jesus. The Beatitudes not only give us the spiritual roadmap to true happiness, but they set out the character traits of citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Character traits of the Kingdom of Heaven are set out in the first four Beatitudes and include being poor in spirit, mourning, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and meekness. The fifth Beatitude flows naturally out of the first four. When a person recognizes their spiritual bankruptcy, mourns their sins, hunger and thirsts for God’s righteousness, and submits to the direction and control of God, then their character begins to change; it starts to reflect the nature of God. Mercy is an attribute of God’s character. The closer a person becomes to God, the more merciful towards others that person becomes. Mercy is the Greek word eleemon and means kind, compassionate, sympathetic, and merciful. Merciful people display compassion; they want to ease others’ suffering not just to appear “charitable” or to receive a benefit, but because they genuinely empathize with their plight. Like meekness, today’s world tends to view mercy as a weakness, as something undesirable. Our culture roots for the person who serves their enemies vengeance instead of serving them forgiveness. Our culture says, no mercy, you don’t deserve it, so you shouldn’t get it. Thankfully, the Lord is merciful. David said, “let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.” 2nd Samuel 24:14 God’s Mercy The Old Testament describes God as merciful. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” The faithful love of the Lord never ends! “His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 We all need God’s mercy. We are all sinners. (Romans 3:23). We all deserve punishment for our sins. But because God loves us, He gave us a way to be forgiven of our sins. He sent His son Jesus who took our punishment upon himself. (Romans 6:23) Because of what Jesus did for us, we receive God’s mercy. Paul sums God’s mercy up for us in Ephesians 2:4-10 NLT, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them”. The more we understand our sinful condition, the more we appreciate the value of God’s mercy – mercy we do not deserve but that He gave us anyway because He loves us. His love lifts us from our sinful condition and seats us with “Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Mercy of Jesus Jesus being the image of the invisible God, was also merciful. He showed mercy to the poor, the outcast, the sick, the blind, the deaf, the dead, the tax collectors, and prostitutes. Matthew 9:36 tells us that when Jesus “saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Another verse says, “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Matthew 14:14 Jesus also wants us to be merciful. Jesus twice quoted Hosea 6:6 “…show mercy, not offer sacrifices.” The first time was in response to the Pharisees questioning Jesus about him hanging out with “tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.” Jesus responded, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Matthew 9:12-13 The second time was after the Pharisees protested Jesus’ disciples “harvesting grain on the Sabbath.” Jesus said, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ Matthew 12:7 Jesus took notice of the Pharisees’ tendency to care more about looking like good Pharisees than focusing on the more important aspects of the law – justice, mercy, and faith.” Matthew 23:23 In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows us what mercy should look like in the lives of kingdom citizens. Jesus told an expert at religious law that he must “love your neighbor as yourself.” The expert asked, “and who is my neighbor?” ” Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this
Mercy and Grace: What Is The Difference?
Mercy and grace: we hear these words tossed around, but do we really understand what they mean? Mercy as defined in the dictionary is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.” After considering this definition for awhile, memories of my teenage years come to mind. As a teenager, I was a terrible driver. I was inattentive and basically exercised bad judgment. I crashed into my house, I backed over a mailbox, and to make matters worse, I got pulled over (a lot). Honestly, I don’t remember all the reasons why I got pulled over, but I do remember that I never got a ticket. Instead of receiving the punishment that I deserved, I received the police officers’ mercy in the form of a warning. It was certainly within their power to write me a ticket and to call my mom and dad. But they did neither. Because of their mercy, I did not have to endure the well-deserved wrath of my mom and dad. Those officers did not give me what I deserved, they gave me mercy. Grace is defined as “approval, special favor or a temporary exemption”. When I think of grace, one particular instance comes to mind. During the first years of my marriage, my husband and I barely made enough money to get by. We were first time homeowners and new parents. One month we did not have the money to pay our mortgage. We got a call from the mortgage company checking in on us. When finding out our situation, the company offered to allow us to skip that month’s payment without any penalty. We were thrilled. We had done nothing to deserve or earn that treatment from the mortgage company. They gave us grace – a gift we did nothing to earn. Although I am thankful for the mercy of the police officers and the grace of the mortgage company, nothing compares to the mercy and the grace God has given us through his son Jesus Christ. Without God’s mercy, I wouldn’t be writing this right now, and you wouldn’t be reading it. Every day we deserve God’s wrath, but instead we get His mercy. Not only does he withhold his wrath, but He showers us with His grace through Jesus Christ. Without God’s mercy and grace, there would be no Gospel and without the Gospel, we would have no hope. We are all born of sin: by our very nature, we are spiritually dead in sin and deserve God’s wrath, judgment and eternal punishment. We have “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). After sin entered the world, God could have easily washed his hands of us and walked away. But instead, God chose to show us mercy. He withholds judgment and gives us a way out. He gives us grace. God’s grace was displayed on the cross when God gave His only Son, who was sinless, to be sin for us. Because of His grace, we can live as God created us to live, in relationship with Him for eternity. All we have to do is look to Jesus and believe in His name. Yes, Romans 6:23 makes clear that the punishment for our sin is death, but that’s not how it ends: it goes on to say “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Because of God’s love for us, he sent Jesus, and with Jesus came God’s grace (John 1:17) There is nothing that we can do to deserve or earn God’s grace. ”For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves – it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8) So while I am thankful for the earthly type of mercy and grace in the form of warnings instead of tickets, and deferred mortgage payments instead of late fees, I am so much more thankful for a God that loves me so much that while I was still a sinner, He died for me. Although I once rejected Him, he gave it all for me. That is a grace, I cannot live without.