HAPPY ARE THE MERCIFUL

Today we turn our attention to the fifth Beatitude. We have been walking slowly through the Beatitudes, wonderful teachings by Jesus. The first three beatitudes instruct us on how a person must stand in their relationship with God: We are “poor in spirit” or spiritually bankrupt, we mourn, or are sorry for our sin, and we are meekly humble. When we realize the first three then the fourth beatitude contains a promise of God’s provision of righteousness. The remaining beatitudes reveal the transformed character of the one who has been touched by Christ’s Spirit and who are being progressively remade in Christ’s image. Jesus is a great teacher! The mountaintop hillside was packed with a crowd eager to hear.

Before we open God’s Words of life, let us come to the Lord in prayer. “God of all mercy, grace, love and life, we come to you today not because we are worthy, but because You are worthy. Fill our hearts with your mercy and help us to offer mercy to others. Amen”

I would like to read the Beatitudes from NIV translation and then reflect for a few minutes on Eugene Peterson’s translation and William Barclay’s translation of verse seven.

Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes NIV

1. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.[i]

Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes The Message Bible

When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘carefull,’ you find yourselves cared for. You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family. You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble”.[ii]

“O the bliss of those who get right inside other people, until they can see with their eyes, think with their thoughts, feel with their feelings, for those who do that will find others do the same for them, and will know that that is what God in Jesus Christ has done!”[iii]

MERCY OR GRACE

Years ago, a small-town merchant had identical twin boys who were inseparable. They were so close that they even dressed alike. It was said that their extraordinary closeness was the reason they never married. When their father died, they took over the family business. Their relationship was considered “a model of creative collaboration.”

Because he was busy, one of the brothers neglected to ring up a sale and absentmindedly left a dollar bill on top of the cash register while he went to the front of the store to wait on another customer. Remembering the dollar, he returned to deposit it only to find the bill was gone. He asked his brother if he had seen it, but the brother said he had not.

An hour later he asked his brother again, but this time with an obvious note of suspicion. His brother became angry and defensive. Every time they tried to discuss the matter, the conflict grew worse, culminating in vicious charges and countercharges. The incredible outcome was the dissolution of their partnership, the installation of a partition down the middle of the store, and two competing businesses. This continued for twenty years—an open, divisive sore in the community.

One day a car with an out-of-state license pulled up in front of the stores. A well-dressed man entered one brother’s shop and asked how long the store had been there. Learning it had been twenty years, he said, “Then you are the one with whom I must settle an old score.”

Some twenty years ago I was out of work, drifting from place to place, and I happened to get off a boxcar in your town. I had absolutely no money and had not eaten for three days. As I was walking down the alley behind your store, I looked in and saw a dollar bill on the top of the cash register. Everyone else was in the front of the store. I had been raised in a Christian home and I had never before in all my life stolen anything, but that morning I was so hungry I gave in to the temptation, slipped through the door, and took that dollar bill. That act has weighed on my conscience ever since, and I finally decided that I would never be at peace until I came back and faced up to that old sin and made amends. Would you let me now replace that money and pay you whatever is appropriate for damages?

When the stranger finished his confession, he was amazed to see the old store owner shaking his head in deep sorrow and beginning to weep. Finally, the old man gained control and, taking the gentleman by the arm, asked him to go to the store next door and tell its owner the same story. The stranger complied. Only this time two old men who looked almost identical wept side by side.[iv]

From our distance we cannot say whether the two brothers professed to be believers or were even churchgoers. Given the time and the culture, they probably owned some religious inclinations. Indeed, they could have been enthusiastic churchmen—even evangelicals. But whatever their spiritual profession, their merciless, unforgiving spirits revealed hearts that had never understood the mercy of God. For if they had, they themselves would have been merciful.

The fifth Beatitude— “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”—is the perfect fit for all who are caught in bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, and resentment. Forgiveness sets us free to have mercy and compassion. Jesus taught same principle in Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In the ending of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, Jesus says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

When I think of mercy I think of two biblical stories. The Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers. What a powerful story of God’s magnificent mercy. If you have never read this story, pick up your Bible and read Genesis chapters 37-50. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. The story ends with his brothers coming to him for food. Joseph could have brought down revenge, but instead Joseph weeps and offers mercy. What a powerful line when Joseph reveals himself to his family when he says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20)

What a living example of mercy. Mercy is compassion in action. (We should probably write that down, or tattoo it on our heart!)

The New Testament story of mercy is the very familiar story called the Good Samaritan found in Luke chapter ten. A man is attacked by robbers and is left on the side of the road for dead. A Priest and a Levite go to the other side of the road when they see that man lying alongside the road left for dead. The man would make them unclean and cost them some money and time to care for. But the Samaritan comes along and bandages up the man, takes him to the nearest inn and pays for the inn keeper to care for the man. Jesus finishes telling the story and then turns to those listening, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37)

MERCY IS COMPASSION IN ACTION

Mercy is different that grace. Grace is unmerited, unearned and undeserved love. Grace is love when love is undeserved. Mercy is grace in action! Mercy is compassion to the miserable. Mercy is love reaching out to help those who are helpless. The Greek word for merciful is eleēmōn. The Hebrew word for mercy is chesedh. Mercy is very close to the word sympathy. Sympathy is derived from two Greek words, syn which means together with, and paschein which means to experience or to suffer. Sympathy means experiencing things that cause suffering together with other people, literally going through what they are going through. From the Hebrew culture, mercy would mean the ability to get right inside other people until we can see things with their eyes, think things with their minds and feel things with their feelings. (Repeat.)

When I think of that definition of mercy --- seeing things with other people’s eyes, thinking what others think and feeling what others feel, I am remined that this is exactly what God did for us. God sent His one and only Son down to earth to become like us to see what we see, to think what we think and feel what we feel so that He could show us the difference between grace and mercy.

Queen Victoria was a close friend of Principal and Mrs John Tulloch of St Andrews. Prince Albert died, and Victoria was left alone. At the same time, Principal Tulloch died and Mrs Tulloch was left alone. Completely unannounced, Queen Victoria came to call on Mrs Tulloch when she was resting on a couch in her room. When the queen was announced, Mrs Tulloch struggled to rise quickly from the couch and to curtsey. The queen stepped forward, ‘My dear,’ she said, ‘don’t rise. I am not coming to you today as the queen to a subject, but as one woman who has lost her husband to another.’[v]

This is exactly what God has done for us; he came to us, not as a remote, detached, isolated, majestic God, but as a man. The supreme example of mercy, chesedh, is the coming of God in Jesus Christ. Emmanuel. GOD WITH US.

So What?

The so what questions today are really tuff questions. Who do we need to forgive? Who do we need to show mercy to? Who do we need to see the way they see? Who do we need to feel the way they feel? Who do we need to think the way they think? Who do we need to climb into the shoes of see life they way they see life? How can we be forgiving like Joseph? How can we be merciful like the Good Samaritan? When are we called to take off our royal positions and enter another person’s life like Queen Victoria.

The late Corrie ten Boom recalled in her book, The Hiding Place, a postwar meeting with a guard from the Ravensbruck concentration camp, where her sister had died and she herself had been subjected to horrible indignities.

It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.[vi]

Seven years ago, a family member came to live with for the summer. He was a teenager, and we wanted to care for him and give his parents a “time out”. It was a trying season for us. He was a normal teenager who wanted to eat, sleep, and play video games! Jac (my wife) wanted to show him the beauty of Southern California. He could have cared less. After six weeks of torture for all three of us, we sent him back to his family. Jac was broken-hearted and felt like she had failed. I want to tell you that that very night, she had a dream. Jac is a dreamer. Her dreams should be full-length feature films. She dreams in vivid color. Her favorite dream is when the Holy Spirit whisks her away and “jet packs” her into another dimension of space and time. In this particular dream, the Holy Spirit brought her to what she interprets as heaven. “It was a million miles of Disneyland!” Once inside a huge, white marble cathedral, the Holy Spirit spoke from his heart to hers, “This will only hurt if you resist.” With that said, He reached into her body and took her heart into his hands. Jac stood still against that cool marble wall. Then the Holy Spirit flew up to a tall column—one of 12—and placed her heart on top of a hibachi grill. (I told you these dreams are movie worthy.) He started kneading her heart. When a hard rock was found, the Holy Spirit would ask, “Do you know what this is?” And Jac would know. “That was from fifth grade.” “That was from my mom.” “That was from my friend.” For every rock, she knew the source. Finally, the Holy Spirit had drawn out all of the rocks from her heart. “Listen, you are one of the best grudge holders I know. You need to learn how to truly forgive—and not to hold on to your pain and sorrow.” Next, Jac says, the Holy Spirit dipped her heart into this black, gooey substance. Jac thought to herself, “Wow, that is really ugly.” The Holy Spirit looked at her and said, “It’s Teflon.” What the holy Spirit did next surprised Jac. He decorated her heart with every jewel and gem of the universe. “Oh, Dave, it is beautiful! Emeralds, diamonds, rubies, saphires, garnets, tanzanites—everything you can imagine and some you can’t.” And then, as Jac says, “He put that heart back into my body and closed me back up. He looked at me and said, “Now you have a heart like Him.” Jac knew he meant Jesus. She woke up from her dream and said, “Dave! I just had heart surgery!” She got out of bed and she danced around! She laughed, she cried and she danced. Friends, it was 6 am. Jac has never done this in her life. She kept saying, “Thank you for my new heart!”

So What? God wishes for each of us to have that same experience. These days when someone hurts her, Jac simply flicks the offense off of her Teflon heart. Just like this.

And…I can tell that it’s gone. She isn’t the world’s best grudge holder any longer. Jac now understands mercy. She understood grace before her dream…but after her dream…she truly gets mercy. That’s my prayer for each of us. That we, too, will allow the Holy Spirit to remove the grudges that weigh us down with regret, remorse, anger, and hate and that we will be given a new heart. “Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a new spirit within me.”

Let us pray …

The Seed Christian Fellowship

Rancho Cucamonga, California 91701

www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

August 26, 2018

Pastor Dave Peters

[i] The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 5:1-12). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[ii] [ii]Peterson, E. H. 2003. The Message : The Bible in contemporary language . NavPress: Colorado Springs, Colo.

[iii] Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 121). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

[iv] John R. Claypool, The Preaching Event (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1980), p. 39.

[v] Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 121). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

[vi] Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Chosen Books, 1971), p. 215.

[vii] Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 121). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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