Blessed are the Merciful
Notes
Transcript
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we’ll be looking at this next verse in the Beatitudes, as Pastor Daniel, Pastor Al, and my Dad, Pastor Jon, have all shared already, we are looking at the first section of the sermon on the mount, the largest block of teaching that we have from Jesus in the whole bible, and over the past 4 weeks we have already looked at the first four beatitudes. Matthew 5:3-6
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
As has been shared already, the beatitudes, these blessed statements, are all describing a quality of life, or a description of what it looks like to live life to fullest as followers of Christ in the kingdom of Heaven, while we are here on earth.
One way that the beatitudes have been divided by some theologians, is to look at the first four that we have already covered as reversals, people start in one category, and when their life is changed by Jesus they do an 180 degree turn.
For example, the poor who come to Christ are now given a kingdom. Those who come to Christ in mourning are now comforted. Those who were meek, gentle, unimportant before they met Christ now inherit the whole earth. Those who come to Christ hungry, desperate, for the righteousness that He offers are completely satisfied.
In each situation, their state is given a 180 degree turn, they live in the opposite way to how they did before they met Christ.
But today we start what some theologians see as a new grouping, a series of rewards, for those who are merciful, Christ will reward them with the same thing, mercy.
That’s where we are starting this morning, looking at the idea of mercy, how it has been, and can be rewarded to us, if we show it to others.
Mercy as a Plethora of Words : Exodus 34:6
Mercy as a Plethora of Words : Exodus 34:6
So, what is mercy?
In my preparation for this sermon, I took a deep dive into the languages behind this verse in Matthew, and what I discovered was really interesting, so really briefly I’ll take you all on the journey with me.
The New Testament, where this verse and passage are found, was written in Greek. However, the authors of the New Testament did not only speak Greek, they also, more than likely spoke Aramaic, and the scriptures that they read, our Old Testament, was written in Hebrew, which means that some times when writing in Greek, they used Greek words to convey a thought process that was in Hebrew.
Some of you are bilingual, I am not, but having a number of bilingual friends, I know that there are words in most languages, that just don’t have a great translation in another language, there might be words that are similar, but they’re either really general or really narrow. That is the case of the Greek word for mercy in our key verse.
The Greek root word used here for mercy is ‘eleos’, and this word is translated most often in English as mercy, but when you read through the Septuagint, which is the Greek copy of the Hebrew scriptures, there are a number of different Hebrew words that all get translated as ‘eleos’ at different times.
The top three Hebrew words that are translated in this way, are the words are ’Hesed’, ‘Rahum’, and ‘Hen’. These root words and the different conjugations of them, make up well over half of the occurances of ‘eleos’ in the Septuagint. Now some of you have already tuned out, tune back in for a second, I promise there’s a point to this.
If we turn to Exodus 34:6, in our bibles, this verse is one of the coolest verses in the whole bible. It is the most quoted verse in the Old Testament by the Old Testament authors, and it is the first time in all of scripture that God gives someone a thorough description of his Character.
Before we read it though we need a little bit of context. Two chapters before in Exodus 32, Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt, they’ve crossed the Red sea, they’re at the base of Mount Sinaii, and God is giving them the commandments.
And as He is in the process of giving Moses the commandments, the Israelites are already in the process of breaking the first two commands by gathering together all of their gold, and making a calf out of it. Claiming that this likeness they have created is God, the one who delivered them from Egypt.
God gets so frustrated that He says to Moses that He is going to allow His wrath to burn hot against them, but Moses intercedes and asks Him not to and so God relents and does not strike them all down. Moses then returns down the mountain, but when he sees what they have done, he gets so angry that he throws the commandments down on the ground and they break, and its in this context, when Moses goes back up to get the second set of commandments, that this verse occurs.
Depending on your translation the verse goes something like this:
“And the Lord passed before Moses and said: Yahweh, Yahweh, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal-love and faithfulness.”
These words: compassionate, gracious, and loyal-love. These are those Hebrew words that we just mentioned, ‘Rahum’, ‘Hen’, ‘Hesed’.
This word ‘Rahum’ or compassion is related to the Hebrew word for womb, and this relation shows a deep parental, familial kind of love, a love that’s so deep and selfless, that shows pity to those who are weaker or who have less and invites them into loving relationship.
‘Hen’ or Grace, is the idea of unmeritted favour, of giving something to someone even when they have done nothing to deserve it.
And ‘Hesed’ is an incredibly rich and deep word in Hebrew that talks about an ever faithful, covenant based, loyal love and kindness, that is shown through selfless action. It’s the whole package of love, commitment, emotion, action, all of it.
If you’ve ever read your kids the Jesus Storybook Bible, its the ‘Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”
And it’s why this verse, or parts of it, gets quoted in over 20 different verses in the Old Testament, over and over and over again, when the Old Testament authors are talking about God’s character, they’re constantly quoting from this passage. These words are such an incredible image of who God is, especially given their first context. And over and over and over again, God is constantly acting in this incredible way, with a deep self-less, familial, loyal, unmeritted love, that goes beyond all expectations or understanding.
So when we go back to our key verse: Matt. 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
We see that this Greek word ‘eleos’ is a catch all word that stands in for this beautiful picture of God’s image. Those who are merciful, are true reflections of God’s image. They are compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, they overflow with loyal-love, they are faithful and trustworthy.
When the Israelites made the golden calf, they were shaping God into the image they wanted.
This verse in Matthew, claims that those who are living the best life imaginable, are the ones who are becoming image bearers of God. Instead of making God in their image, they are allowing themselves to be made in His. And in the parallel to this passage in Luke, Jesus makes it even more clear, by saying,
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
In this verse it is even more explicit that the call to be merciful, is synonymous with the call to reflect the full character of God. If we are His followers we will show His character, we will be merciful.
A Beautiful Melody
A Beautiful Melody
I read a book over the past year for school, the book was called Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History. Ironically the book was written by a guy named John Dickson, he spells it John Dickson, Dad is Jon Dixon, so no relation there, but I still found it kind of ironic. But the book did a terrific job of proving the point that the church has been both incredible and awful throughout our history. We have done some of the greatest things in history, developing the first hospitals, homeless shelters, schools with accessible learning for all kids. And yet we also have been behind some truly awful events, the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, sexual scandals, among many other things. There’s so much good and so much bad that the church has done, that it can become almost overwhelming, but Dickson paints it in a really elegant way:
He says: Christ wrote a beautiful tune, which the church has often performed well, and often badly. But the melody was never completely drowned out. Sometimes it became a symphony.”
It’s kind of like this, if I play this very simple chord on the piano. It sounds pretty alright.
When I play it here…
It’s still recognizable, it sounds ever so slightly different, but its still very much the same.
However, if I play it like this…
It sounds awful, it’s barely recognizable at all, it distorts the whole thing, and nobody would ever want to listen to that, or be a part of the ones who make that kind of music.
When we talk about being merciful, as the idea of the embodying the image of God, we understand that to live this out, to tangibly love people as if they were family, showing them unmeritted favour, demonstrating love that goes beyond all bounds, then we are playing the beautiful symphony that Christ wrote with the instruments of our lives, we are harmonizing with Christ. But when we aren’t merciful, when we don’t show God’s character well, we are like what Paul calls a ‘noisy gong’ or ‘clanging cymbal’ we are a trainwreck of a distorted melody.
When We Are Unmerciful….
When We Are Unmerciful….
Jesus tells a parable later in Matthew, that emphasizes so clearly what it’s like when we fail to show mercy to others.
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘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.
“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
That’s heavy, and we need, desperately, to take it seriously. How often do we fail to show mercy to those around us?! Even after Christ has forgiven us of so much!! We can be so petty sometimes.
The last time you were cutoff in traffic, was your response to forgive the driver in the other car?! Or did you get angry with them, even over something so seemingly insignificant.
What about the last time that a family member, maybe your spouse, one of your children, or your sibling, made you late, or didn’t communicate well, or left clothes on the floor, or didn’t put that one thing back where it goes, maybe one of those things has already happened this morning. Did you start by giving them the benefit of the doubt or were you initially frustrated?
Recently, I started to get really into hockey, and so I’ll often be on forums, or in comment sections on social media looking at the most recent stats or trades, and what people think of them, and hockey fans can get really aggressive, far more than is necessary.
But believe it or not, I’ve seen far worse… in the comment sections of Christian pages where two people disagree about their theology.
And this same type of fighting is also modelled for us on live television all the time, regardless of if you consider yourself conservative or liberal, one thing is clear the politicians debating back and forth on television, running to be the one that rules our country, or our neighbours to the south, none of them are showing mercy and radical love and patience to their opponent, they cut them off, they call each other names, they make fun of each other to the media.
The system that we live in has trained us to replace the merciful attitude of Christ with an individual mindset of assuming that we are right and everyone else needs to get out of the way. And far more often than we want to admit we have fallen victim to this systemic way of thinking and living, and far too often we are the ones continuing to perpetrate this lifestyle of sin, by making assumptions about one another, by accusing one another without just cause, by refusing to show an ounce of patience to someone who disagrees with us. We’ve fallen into a system of indiviualism and apathy, where the only people who we think are on our side are the ones that agree with us, and we don’t give anyone else the time of day.
This way of living and thinking is dangerous, and if we as the church are not careful, we’ll ruin the reputation of Christ, because instead of harmonizing with him we’re going to distort his beautiful melody.
And the world won’t know we’re Christians by our love, from the outside they won’t know we’re Christians at all, because we look like the world, we sound like the world, we act like the world, and we live like the world.
If we keep living in this system of being unmerciful, we’re going to have an awful hard time witnessing to the world.
I know this is uncomfortable to hear, and believe me it’s uncomfortable to preach, I am 100% preaching to the choir here, I need to hear this just as much as anybody.
The reality is that if we don’t start living in the way of radical mercy, then what waits for us is the same as the unmerciful servant, the merciful are shown mercy, the unmerciful are not, and just like in the parable we will be sent to a different sort of prison, a spiritual one until we can pay our debt…
The Mercy of Christ
The Mercy of Christ
But in our story we can’t pay our debt. That’s why this is so serious, if we don’t live for Christ in the way that we live and treat people, if instead of choosing His way we choose to make our own path, to live how we want instead of His design for our relationships with one another, then what awaits us is a prison that we can never get out of.
The merciful are shown mercy, the unmerciful are destined for something awful.
And this all feels really gloom and doom, but the good news, the best news in the world, is that there is a different way.
This call to mercy is radical, because it requires us to rethink many of our gut instincts. If we choose to follow Christ, we need our entire way of thinking to be rewired.
On our own its not possible.
For us to imitate the character of God with our lives simply isn’t something we’re capable.
Unless we understand the insane amount of mercy which we have already received.
Look at our key verse,
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
But It’s not actually as linear as it may first appear, we don’t earn the mercy of God by first showing mercy. John makes this clear in 1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
Christ loved us first. Paul says in Romans,
Romans 5:8 (ESV)
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The only way we are able to be transformed into people who are capable of putting this much love on display, is when we know how great a debt we have already been forgiven, how much mercy we have already been shown!
Matt. 5:7 isn’t about works based theology. We don’t earn salvation by being merciful.
Living mercifully is all about relationship. Christ first showed us mercy, and if we accept his gift of mercy, if we decide to truly live in His love as His followers, then we can’t just benefit from His mercy, we also need to be actively showing mercy to others.
It’s not enough for us to just feel good about the mercy that He’s extended to us, for us to hear a song like the one we just learned from Drew and the team this morning, and to only ever reflect on it.
We also need action. We need to live it out.
1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”
It doesn’t say we sit there and feel good about Christ’s love because He first loved us, it says that we do something about it, we understand the love we’ve been given and we show it, we emulate it, to others.
And one of the best ways to live out this radical, familial, selfless love is by praying for those we have a difficult time showing mercy to.
Loving our ‘enemies’ isn’t an easy thing to do, but if we pray for them, not in a cocky “oh I’ll pray for you!” posture, but from a place of genuine concern and empathy, it’ll be a lot easier to show them mercy.
There will be people that you find it hard to forgive, people who you know are in the wrong, who have hurt you or your loved ones, over and over and over again, and you might find yourself saying “I can’t forgive them, I won’t ever forgive them”. But this call to be merciful, isn’t conditional on how much you’ve been hurt by them, we have hurt Christ far more than they will ever hurt us, and He was so merciful to us that He gave His live for us!
Now, that doesn’t mean that we just allow evil to persist, for innocent people to be hurt, being merciful and giving second chances doesn’t do away with justice, but our call is to have a heart posture of mercy even while we live out justice.
For us to love radically, is a call to take care of the vulnerable, but its also a call to meet the evil and darkness of those who abuse their power, with the light and mercy of Christ. We need to take action where it is needed, not from a place of hatred, but from a place of desperately wanting even the most twisted person we can think of to come to a saving knowledge of Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
And I’m wrapping it up now, if the team wants to come. To recap our key verse one more time,
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
We are blessed, we are living ‘the good life’, when we are living radically in right relationship with God and with those around us. When our character is constantly becoming more and more like God, when we are harmonizing with Christ to make a beautiful symphony, we will be rewarded with the mercy that has already been extended to us.
The only way we can live like this is because of the mercy that Christ has already shown us on the cross, and that mercy is both the source of how we live, and our utmost joy and reward as we live out this life. So let our prayer be that we would ever be rejuvinated by the mercy of Christ, and that we would live out His mercy to those around us.
Let us pray.
