Blessed Are The Merciful (Matthew 5:7)
We’ve been walking through what have been called “The Beatitudes” over the past several weeks here in Karis. These verses, found in Matthew 5:3-12, all start with the word “blessed.” It’s from the Latin word for “blessed” that we get that term. Who are those that Jesus labels as the “blessed?” So far, we’ve seen that it’s those who are “poor in Spirit,” those who “mourn,” those who are “meek,” and, as we saw last week, those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
But who would our culture say today are those who are “blessed?” Wouldn’t it sound more like this?
Blessed are the confident, those who have all they need.
Blessed are the proud, those who feel really good about themselves.
Blessed are the strong, the assertive, who take matters into their own hands.
Blessed are those who go get what they want - pursue fortune and glory.
And for this week: blessed are the tough, those who give people what they deserve. Isn’t that more what our world says? Blessed are those who stick it to people? They certainly did back in Christ’s day.
But unfortunately, back then and even today, ideas like those have been imbibed by the people of God. “Merciful?” Is that what characterizes us as Christians? Would we say that about ourselves? Is that what those around us would say?
A recent Ipsos study found that there was a significant disparity between what Christians thought of themselves as compared to what their neighbors thought. People were asked: “What are characteristics of Christians?” Christians polled associated themselves across the board with positive traits. But non-Christians asked responded with the opposite. 57% of Christians said “giving,” followed by “compassionate” with 56%, “loving” with 55%, and “respectful” at 50%.
55% of those identifying as non-religious responded with “judgmental,” followed by “hypocritical” at 54%, “self-righteous” at 50%, and arrogant at 36%. Interestingly, those who identified with other religions listed the exact same top four characteristics. Now, certainly, misunderstanding accounts for some of this. Talking about our sin and need of a Savior - that can rub people the wrong way. And that’s the gospel. But it’s not only that. It no doubt reflects negative experiences.
A world that gets thrown around in America that’s so often misunderstood is the word “saint.” It’s often thought of as a super holy Christian, one who ends up in the church hall of fame. But the Bible calls all followers of Jesus saints. Over and over again. And that word just means those who are set apart from the world. And those that are set apart for God. “Holy ones” is what the word means. And we’re all meant to be holy. We’re meant to be different. We’re supposed to go upstream, against the flow.
Sadly, too much of the time, that’s not been us. Not different. The same. Or worse. Not saints, but “aint’s.” With the flow, not against it. And especially during this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season we’ve all been through. Does the world look at us and call us “merciful”?
Do we shine like stars in a dark world? Certainly not like we should. But Jesus calls us to something better.
Who We’re Called To Be
Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Let’s first look at who this verse calls us to be. And that word be is really important. Jesus is talking about our being here. And not just our doing. Let me explain. Here’s the way we generally think about the Bible and especially about these Beatitudes. I do things - activity. Through that I build an identity. We earn it. We prove it. Through hard work. But Christianity is exactly the opposite. We’re given an identity. It comes by God’s grace. This is something supernatural. We’re made a different kind of being. And we then live out of that. Our activity flows out of our identity.
But this doesn’t happen over night. This is also about us becoming. We’re called His people. We’re given His great “mercy.” Our doing then gradually looks like our being. We become more and more “merciful.” Things that are in no way natural are produced in us by the Spirit of God. And, as I’ve said many times through this series, there is a progression here with these Beatitudes. As we see ourselves grow, becoming hungry and hungry, as we’ve seen thus far, we’ll see ourselves become more and more “merciful” to those around us.
Here’s a way you could think about it. Often, we look at this list here as a scorecard. We check things off. We know how we’re doing. But really it’s more of a snapshot. It’s a portrait of what a Christian looks like. And just like those school photos that we’ve seen in the yearbook - they change gradually over time. We grow.
But what do we mean by “mercy?” This is our calling as the saints of God. To live lives that are “merciful.” Now, as I mentioned earlier, if we’re in Christ, we’re saints. That’s all of us. But that’s not all we are, right? In this fallen world, we’re also sinners. As Luther put it, we’re both sinful and righteous at the same time. The sin isn’t just out there. It’s in here. And it comes out through my mouth and hands and feet.
But sin isn’t something that we just make happen. It’s also something that happens to us. We’re also sufferers. Right? We’re sinned against by other humans and believers. Our bodies are breaking down. God’s creation is beautiful. But it also can be terrifying. We do hard things. But also hard things happen to us. And that’s why we all so desperately need “mercy.”
But how should we define that? And how does it compare to grace? John Stott quotes Richard Lenski who explains that grace “always deals with sin and guilt itself.” Mercy deals more with the “results of sin,” with “pain, misery, and distress.” Again, you and I - and everyone around us - is both a sinner and a sufferer. And we need help ourselves. And to share that help with others. Stott defines mercy in this helpful way: “compassion for people in need.”
Now one way I’ve heard it stated before, and I’ve probably said it myself, is this: grace refers to getting what you don’t deserve, while mercy speaks of not getting what you deserve. But I think that misleads us in at least three ways. First of all, it gives us too narrow of a definition of mercy. We make it just about wrongs we’ve done. Second, it puts all the emphasis on human responsibility. And ignores that in this fallen world, that we’ll be wronged. Third, it’s also much too passive. It makes mercy only about not giving something.
But that doesn’t fit with the picture we see in Scripture. And of course, perhaps the best picture we see is in what we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37.
An expert in the Jewish law asks Jesus how he can be saved. And Jesus says, “You tell me, you’re the lawyer.” And the man responds, “Love God, love neighbors.” To which, Jesus responds, “Good job. Go do that.” The lawyer, though, wants to hear that his scorecard looks good. So he asks Jesus, “Who’s my neighbor then?” And Jesus responds with this parable, this snapshot, of what a follower of the one true God looks like. A Samaritan man - who would have been seen as the enemy of this lawyer - is the hero of the story. Multiple “good Jews” pass by a man who’d just been robbed, who’d been left for dead.
But the Samaritan sees the person. And he helps the person. He has his ears and eyes open. Verse 33 says the man “had compassion.” And he puts his hands and feet to action. Jesus finishes, by asking the man, “Who’s your neighbor then?” And the guy responds, “The one who showed Him mercy.” Jesus says, “Go do the same.” And that’s what He also says to us. Be “merciful.” Sinclair Ferguson describes mercy this way, based on this parable: “getting down on your hands and knees and doing what you can to restore dignity to someone whose life has been broken by sin (whether his own or that of someone else).”
Apparently 82% of people who’d call themselves “born-again” Christians believe that the Bible actually says, “God helps those who help themselves.” But it’s not there. And it goes against what God says. No. God helps those who can’t help themselves. And that’s us, if we’re honest. And He wants to change us to live in that way, too. To show “mercy” to others.
That’s because, as we do, we image our heavenly Father. That’s how we were made, right? In God’s image. But in this sinful world, that image has been marred. Yet He’s not gonna leave it that way. In Christ, God’s transforming us into that image again. And He is mercy. Think about that grand passage in Exodus 34:6, how the Lord reveals Himself to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” This is who He is. And it’s also what He does.
There’s this misconception out there, that the Old Testament has this God of anger and judgment. And the New has this God of grace and mercy. But throughout the story of Israel, you see God delighting in mercy, as Micah puts it in chapter 7. He meets Israel in her suffering, in her sin. Back in Egypt. In the desert. He sees. He helps.
And, of course we see that God in the New Testament, also. We see it in Jesus. As Dane Ortlund writes, “The posture most natural to [Jesus] is not a pointed finger but open arms.” After the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 8 alone, we see Jesus cleansing a leper, healing a paralyzed man, raising a dying woman, and freeing two men of demons. Jesus talks about mercy. He lives it. And it’s what He calls us to and creates us for. For mercy. What does that look like in your life? In your office or classroom? As you go about your day?
Where are the sinners, the sufferers? How can you see them? And help them? Not just the sinner or sufferer in the mirror. But those out the window. How can you extend “compassion for people in need?”
What’s the way of the world again? That we’ve gotten caught up in ourselves? Get away. Get even. We get away. From suffering. We get even. With sin. We stay away from it. We stick it to them. But that’s not the way of the Christ-follower. Because it isn’t the way of our Christ.
A pastor friend in New Hampshire named David made national news for showing mercy to a convicted child killer who was paroled after 35 years in prison. In 2009, he welcomed Raymond Guay into his home, to live under his roof, for a couple of months, as he found a job and got back on his feet. The backlash from the public was intense. But Raymond had come to Jesus. And David saw what the Lord had done in his life. So he took the man in.
Now that may sound as strange to you as it did those neighbors - the ones who said, “Don’t dump off your trash in our town.” It may not be God’s calling for you and your family at all. But all around us are people - people made in God’s image - who are hurting - from their own sin, from others’ sin. And how are we going to respond?
Corrie Ten Boom, the famous author of The Hiding Place, once met one of the men who had put to death her sister, Betsy. Corrie was a Christian that helped Jews hide from the Germans before she was taken to a concentration camp herself. After a speaking engagement, a man walked up to her. He stuck out his hand. And he said to her, “Fraulein, isn’t it good to know that the Lord forgives all our sins?” Corrie recounts that she initially didn’t want to touch him, but she did it anyway, and feelings of great forgiveness then followed that act. The God of mercy enabled her to extend mercy.
It’s one thing to be merciful to someone that’s hurt others. But what about when they’ve directly harmed us? Will we be like Jesus? Will we be “merciful?” When people see our photo, is that what they’ll say about us
What Is Promised For Us
Now, as we’ve done each week, second, let’s look at what is promised for us. Check out the sentence again. Jesus calls the “merciful” “blessed.” Why’s that? Because “they shall receive mercy.” That’s us, if we’re followers of Christ. Well, what does that mean?
Well, first, it means mercy is promised to us - on the last day and forever. When Jesus returns, no, we won’t get what we deserve. For our sin, we all deserve God’s judgment. We deserve hell. But if we trust Jesus, His death on the cross paid for our sins. His compassion sent Him to the cross for us. And then sends us into our Father’s arms - full of compassion - at our death, or on the judgment day. And that, church, will be our home forever and ever. We’ll dwell in His mercy. We’ll praise Him for His mercy. All our sins will be absorbed. All our sufferings removed.
But second, it means mercy is promised to us - right now and every day. We, too, are sinners and sufferers. We need God’s compassion - not just down the road, but right here, right now, on this path. Because it’s hard. I love the words we find in Lamentations chapter 3:
Lam. 3:22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
Lam. 3:23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
New mercies every day are promised. And we need them so much. I love the way Reuben describes it in Leif Enger’s beautiful novel, Peace Like a River: “The weak must bank on mercy - without which, after all, I wouldn’t have lasted fifteen minutes.” That’s what each of us needs, if we’re really honest. As we utter that difficult apology to a friend. As we tip-toe into that medical appointment. As we gaze into the distracted, defiant eyes of our child. As we slip by the cubicle of a difficult co-worker. We need His mercy. Every second of every day. As John Donne once wrote:
"We are all prodigal sons, and not disinherited; we have received our portion, and misspent it, not been denied it. We are God's tenants here, and yet here, he, our landlord, pays us rents; not yearly, nor quarterly, but hourly and quarterly; every minute he renews his mercy.” (John Donne)
That’s what God promises us. And you know, He will deliver. It may not look exactly as we’d like. That person may not receive our apology well. Terrifying words may come out of that doctor’s lips. Your kid may scream, “I hate you,” and slam the door. That co-worker may say the same thing to others behind your back.
But Jesus will meet you even there. And comfort you with His love. And sustain you in those trials. He will never leave you nor forsake you. And His arms are full of mercy.
Now, it’s us not understanding that reality that keeps us from living it out. D.A. Carson writes:
“The one who is not merciful is inevitably so unaware of his own state that he thinks he needs no mercy. He cannot picture himself as miserable and wretched; so how shall God be merciful toward him?” (D.A. Carson)
We see this illustrated, of course, in another parable that Jesus tells. It’s one we’ll see later in Matthew - the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. Check out Matthew 18:21-35 with me.
Catch Peter’s question. He asks, “Jesus, how many times do I need to forgive?” And Jesus responds, “Not seven times. More like 70 times seven.” And then He tells the story. A master calls in his servants to settle all their debts. One servant is forgiven, by his master, a massive debt - like millions, even billions, in today’s dollars. And then, what does he do? He leaves and tries to choke a debt out of someone - a much smaller debt, more like maybe $10,000.
The master hears, and calls that servant back in, and throws him in jail. And Christ’s message is, “If you don’t forgive, that’s going to happen to you.” But His bigger point, however, is different and deeper than that. Isn’t it? Have we realized our massive debt? How much we’ve been forgiven? How great His mercy has been toward us? Jesus says, “Peter, disciples, all of us, keep forgiving, keep showing mercy, and don’t stop, until you stop needing mercy yourself, which is, of course, never.” As we show mercy, we image our Father in heaven, and we point to His great gospel work in our lives.
Paul Tripp put it this way: “Mercy means I am so deeply grateful for the forgiveness I have received that I cannot help offering you the same.” Church, we will receive - we do receive - so much mercy. That’s who we are. How can we not extend that to others? That’s how we’re to act. Because His mercy has worked its way down into our hearts so deeply.
Why This Matters So Much
I want to turn now to third, what’s at stake? What difference does it make if we go with the flow of this world and don’t point the way upstream?
First, our salvation is at stake. Again, we don’t show mercy in order to be saved. But if we don’t, we show we haven’t been ourselves. I once heard Russ Moore share a story from his early years when he was pastoring. He was preaching, I’m pretty sure about this verse, and a really large, very intimidating, Vietnam vet approached him after the sermon. And the man began to go off on how much he hated the Vietnamese, after his experience in that war, and said there was no way that he could ever forgive or extend mercy to those people. And Russ, who’s not a big man, looked up, right into that man’s eyes, and boldly responded, “Well, I guess there’s hell.” If we are not the type of person who at least struggles to share mercy, we in no way will receive it for ourselves.
Second, our community is at stake. We have to ask: what type of family do we want to be? What will we become? A place where people are proud and they pound on one another? Or where we relate to one another with grace and mercy?
We’re meant to be a community of saints. Different. Set apart from the world. Who wants to live in a place where people are mean? Where they run over the weak? Where people get judged? There’s enough of that out there. God’s creating an oasis of mercy in here. A city on a hill. A counterculture filled with God’s light. A place that understands that we’re sinners and sufferers all - and longs to give each other help.
J.I. Packer once wrote, “The church… is a hospital in which nobody is completely well, and anyone can relapse at any time.” This is who we are. Don’t we want to help each other heal up? Don’t we all need that help ourselves?
Third, our mission is at stake. Imagine you’re evaluating preschools. You walk into the building, you shake the hand of the director, and she begins to take you on a tour. You look into one room and there’s a massive brawl going on. You look through another window, and kids are running with knives. And the soundtrack for your whole walkthrough is screaming and crying. Are you going to go back? Are you going to leave your kids there? Of course not!
The greatest pitch we can give for the gospel of Jesus to our neighbors and friends is a family that truly loves one another, that shows one another mercy. And as we care for one another, and patch one another up, we give people a picture of the gospel - of what Jesus has done for us. Back to how I started. If the world around us doesn’t think Christians are kind, why would they take us seriously? Why would they listen? To us? To our Dad?
And that leads to my last point - about what’s at stake. Fourth, God’s reputation. Now don’t mishear me. God will be glorified. There’s only so much we can mess up! But we’re meant to bear His image. And too much of the time, we don’t look like him at all. We’ve all watched movies or TV shows that portray Christians. And man, those caricatures make me mad. But imagine what our Father must think. As we aren’t the best ambassadors. And make our God look bad. He’s got a right to be really angry with us. But He shows us so much mercy.
It’s common, of course, that people look at one of my boys, and say, “You look so much like your dad.” A snapshot of us should look something like His. We’re supposed to resemble our Father - in who we are, along with how we live. As people of mercy who share that mercy.
Justice and Mercy
But here’s one thing you might be asking: what about justice, Kevin? We’re just talking about mercy. But justice? You mention the guy taking in the murderer. But what about justice for his crimes? Last week, Aaron did a fantastic job of explaining how we as Christians should hunger and thirst for righteousness - or justice. And that’s in our personal lives, but also in the world. We should want to see His kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven, and that will mean more and more justice will be seen.
But all around us is also so much injustice. I know many of you have seen the movie Just Mercy or read the book. An attorney, Bryan Stevenson, saw all the injustice in the justice system and tried to do his part, to see more and more true justice come.
And that also meant mercy - for the weak, the poor, the voiceless, the powerless. In the new heavens and new earth, injustice will be no more. We’ll be enveloped in the mercy of our great God. And His mercy will expand as far as the eyes can see.
But now? All of us are sufferers. All of us are sinners. We again need mercy every moment. And we should long to see and labor to see His mercy around us in increasing measure - today, tomorrow, until that judgment day comes.
As John Piper puts it, "God loves to show mercy... His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger.” That, friends, should be our default posture, as well. Because, we’ve so richly received His mercy.
Today, the church around the world celebrates Palm Sunday. Jesus comes through Jerusalem and the crowds cheer. They lay their cloaks on the ground. They wave the branches before Him. They cry out, “Hosanna! God save us,” desperately wanting Christ to kick the tails of their enemies. But there comes Jesus, on a donkey, meek and merciful, gentle and lowly.
His Mercy Is More
I love these words from Dane Ortlund from Gentle and Lowly:
“Whether we have been sinned against or have sinned ourselves into misery, the Bible says God is not tightfisted with mercy but openhanded, not frugal, but lavish, not poor but rich.
That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides.
It means the things about you that make you cringe most, make him hug hardest.
It means his mercy is not calculating and cautious, like ours. It is unrestrained, flood-like, sweeping, magnanimous.
It means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very thing he loves most to work with.
It means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit. Our sins cause his love to surge forward all the more.
It means on that day when we stand before him, quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of his mercy-rich heart we had.” (Dane Ortlund)
The Blessed Life
Now Jesus says this is the blessed life. Receiving the mercy of God, experiencing it in our lives, and spreading it, sharing it with those around us. With sinners, sufferers like us. As the saints of God should.
Here’s my main point: those who overflow with compassion for the needy experience the fullness of His favor, because His kindness will meet their every need. Let’s pray.