Mercy – Greek origin – eleos – compassion, the act of showing love toward another.
Today on my morning jaunt to Starbucks, Glen Beck was talking about justice and mercy. In James 2:13 it says, “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.” The NIV says, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” In Glen’s example, a man sued someone who he claimed had defamed him in a book. The man he sued passed away recently, leaving behind a wife and children. The first man won the judgment for almost $2million. He said, it never was about money and he was just going to give it away. He won in a court of law. That’s justice. Justice was served. But imagine if the man decided to show mercy. The man is dead. His widow and children have nothing anymore the judgment took it all away. The guy now has the ability to say, I’m going to be merciful and sign the check back to you. What a testimony to the family (and anyone else) that would be!
Jesus tells a story about a servant (we’ll call him Jack) who owed the king a huge amount of money — equivalent to 200,000 years wages (Matthew 18). Jack begged for mercy, and the king was moved with compassion and forgave his debt. Free and clear! Shortly after, Jack was walking down the street and saw Jeff, who owed him a bunch of money. Now it wasn’t nearly as much as he had owed, only about a third of a year’s wage. Jack actually grabbed Jeff by the throat and screamed in his face, “Pay me what you owe me!” Jeff begged Jack for patience, and Jack refused, had him arrested and thrown into prison until he paid off his debt. Now Jack’s friends were all pretty aware of what had happened with Jack, and they saw how Jeff was being treated, so they went back to the king and told him the story. The king was furious! Then the king called Jack in and said to him, “You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you? Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.” Jesus ends the story with, “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
Mercy. It’s really an amazing thing. The guy owed the money and was forgiven. Mercy. He had every opportunity to do the exact same thing to the man who owed him much less. Why didn’t he? You’d think he would have. You’d think that this amazing gift, this life changing moment would have so impacted him that it would not be something he would soon forget. But isn’t that what was done for us? We were given a great gift of life without chains, of freedom, of life eternal. This was a merciful act (1 Peter 1:3). Our debt was paid in a sacrificial act so great that it cost the life of the very son of God. How great an opportunity we have to practice mercy, to display love to those around us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says stuff like “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: Don’t hit back at all. If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. You’re familiar with the old written law, Love your friend, and its unwritten companion, Hate your enemy. I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies.”
So because we have been given such great mercy, it is expected that we will also give mercy to others. God is very clear in this matter. We will not be given mercy at the end of days if we refused to be merciful to others. In all reality though, if we truly follow after Christ, mercy will become a integral part of who we are. The more seek Christ, the more we model our behavior after his teachings, after his attributes, the more He will be seen in us. Blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, for they shall receive mercy. If you do this, then you get this. It’s another one of those if-then realities that make up the Constitution of the Kingdom.