Blessed are the merciful

The Beatitudes

Today we have reached the fifth of the beatitudes found here in Matthew 5. So far we have considered how

The poor in spirit

and

Those who mourn

and

The meek

and

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

are all blessed. Blessed because the poor in spirit have the kingdom of heaven, those who mourn are comforted, the meek who will inherit the earth and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled with righteousness. Blessing indeed!

And who is doing the blessing we might ask ourselves? Jesus is the one teaching us as he taught his disciples when they went up on the mountainside together v1. And who is this Jesus that he can say these amazing counter cultural things. He is as Matthew tells us the Saviour of his people. He is as John tells us the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, the one is with God and was God, the one who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 The Lord God the Holy One of Israel, the one who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, the Redeemer and Israels creator, who blots out your transgressions and remembers your sin no more, he’s the Lord Almighty Israels King, the first and last the Alpha and Omega.

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. (Is 45:22)

Who gets the kingdom of heaven? Is it the well to do people who stay in the Savoy and go to the Baftas, or perhaps its the MP’s who sit in the House of Commons or the Lords in the House of Lords. No - Jesus teaches us it’s not those who think highly of themselves, who think they’ve made it, who think they’re the best thing since sliced bread to ever grace our country. No it’s not these people but those who Jesus says are poor in spirit. People who recognise that before a holy and perfect God we don’t have a leg to stand on. We are wretched and poor sinners when we compare to Him! If we recognise that in ourselves we are what Jesus calls poor in spirit.

Andrew rightly focused on mourners as mourners over their sin - mourning for the things we get wrong, the things we do when our consciences tell us we shouldn’t, thinking things that we know are wrong - Jesus said if we look at someone else and want to sleep with them we’ve already committed adultery with them in our hearts. We need to mourn our sin. But to mourn is also when we’ve lost someone close to us. When my Mum died the church in Buckingham was meeting in a school and that particular Sunday we all filled out a piece of paper saying who we wanted to pray for. I was told afterwards they all said they wanted to pray for me as I was mourning the loss of my mother - I was comforted.

We think the Elon Musk’s of this world or the Bill Gates or George Soiros’ wil inherit the earth - afterall they seem to own most of it! But again Jesus turns conventional wisdom on its head and says no - its the meek who inheirt the earth not the rich. Remember Jesus said it was harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved Mark 10:25 said when a rich man asked Jesus what he must do to be saved - Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Don’t let wealth keep you out of God’s kingdom.

The people I’ve met in Soho Square are not necessarily those who you’d characterise as hungering and thirsting for righteousness however having said that you might well be surprised at the moral fortitude of those living on the edge of society. For whatever reason, and there are as many reasons as there are rough sleepers, they have found themselves living in a way many of us can’t imagine and yet doing so with dignity and consideration for others, sharing food with each other and helping each other with clothes and advice as to where to get help and relief from the difficulties of sleeping and living in the open particularly during the lockdown period. Whether or not they believe that by hungering and thirsting for righteousness rather than for food and drink will result in them being filled with righteousness one can only imagine. But I pray that through the relief work St Patricks and we are doing we might be able to point some in the right direction.

Blessed are the merciful

Three other scriptures I’ve brought to bear on this topic -

Micah 6:8

What does the Lord require of you O mortal (one whose days are numbered and who will face the Lord on the day of Judgement) is To act justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Do you love mercy this day?

Secondly

The parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37

which concludes with

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

The New International Version. (2011). (Lk 10:36–37). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Who was a neighbour? The one who had mercy on him. What did mercy look like in this case?

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

The New International Version. (2011). (Lk 10:33–35). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Mercy was not being afraid to become unclean by helping someone who’s bleeding and half dead. Bandaging his wounds pouring on oil and wine to soothe him. He then put him on his own donkey meaning he had to walk and took him to an inn where he took care of him presumably nursing him through his recovery. Paying the innkeeper to look after him till he should return and reimburse him for any extra expense. A friend of mine in Buckingham thinks the innkeeper is the hero of the story but Jesus was quite clear when he asked him which of the three i.e. the Priest and the Levite who’d ignored him or the Samaritan who’d shown mercy to him - not the Innkeeper who only done what he’d been paid to do.

Jesus said it was the one who had mercy on the man who was his neighbor not those who ostensibly are your actual neighbor. When a rough sleeper called Michael started using the covered entry to our neighbour hairdressers as someone dry to sleep I tried to show mercy to him by providing cups of tea and telling him about the St Patricks breakfast which he subsequently came to. My actual neighbour who lives above where Michael was sleeping came and in no uncertain terms told me to stop giving him cups of tea. To stop showing mercy to him. Who was my neighbour - Michael I think.

They will be shown mercy

The third passage of scripture we read is the parable of the unmerciful servant in

Matthew 18 21-35.

Jesus tells us a story of how a servant begs for time to pay back his debt as the king was going to sell him, his wife and his children and all he had to repay the debt. The master took pity on him cancelled the debt and let him go. Notice how the Samaritan took pity on the man who was half dead. Here the master took pity on the man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold equivalent to 200,000 years of a days wages! In other words unrepayable in this life! This is much like our own sin - so heinous, so horrible, so filthy, so disgusting, so much more than we could ever repay in 100,000 lifetimes - that’s how bad our sin is in case you think you’re a good person. Whatever good deeds you’ve done God compares them to filthy rags. The Hebrew word ‘iddim’ here translated in Isaiah 64v6 as filthy is actual the word for sanitary towel - for menstruation. All our righteous acts are like filthy rags - they’re like used sanitary towels, they’re like a used tampon. Do you get it or do I need to be even more graphic! You are a sinner - you are dead in your transgressions and sins following the ways of this world and being Satan’s minion gratifying the cravings of your flesh following its desires and thoughts. You deserve God’s wrath. (Ephe 2 1-3) That’s how much you’ve been forgiven if you someone here today who has repented of their sin and is trusting the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins because as Paul goes on to say in

Ephesians 2

Because of his great love for us God, who is rich in MERCY, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved! (v4-5) Through faith and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Andrew and I were discussing our approach to helping those in need whether homeless or in danger of being made homeless and three things we need to remember from these scriptures - take pity on people in need, secondly remember we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to DO GOOD WORKS and thirdly remember God has prepared them in advance for us to do!

What does the man who has been forgiven 200,000 years of wages do? Finds a guy who owes him 3 months wages and grabs him by the neck and begins to choke him! Through a crushed windpipe the guy begs him to give him time and he will pay it back. Remember that’s exactly what he said to his master the King and what did the king do - he had pity on him and forgave his debt. What dis this man do. He refused to give him more time and had him thrown into prison until he could pay off the debt. How you’re supposed to earn money to pay of a debt whilst in prison is beyond me though. What did the master do when he heard from the other servants what had happened?

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 18:32–34). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Remember he had an unpayable debt much like ours so in other words he’d never pay it off. That’s our debt - we can never pay it off so we will spend an eternity in prison also known as hell or the lake of fire suffering for our debt unless we rely on the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all unrightoeusness.

How does Jesus conclude the parable:

The New International Version Chapter 18

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

The unmerciful servant didn’t show mercy to his debtors and no mercy was subsequently shown to him - he had squandered his opportunity for mercy.

Unlike the unmercifu servant we need to show pity to those who owe us, cancel their debts and set them free. We mustn’t be those whose own debts have been cancelled by the blood of Jesus Christ but who demand retribution from those who have sinned against them.

How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation - we are sinners whose righteous acts are like mentrual clothes and yet Jesus Christ has bought us near to God by his own blood - Ephesians 2:13

When I was 12 years old I was invited to go waterskiing as an introduction to Finchley Crusaders now know as Urban Saints. I was subsequently invited to go again this time for the weekend and so with two slightly older girls and the Crusader leader off we travelled to the waterskiing location. The girls shared a bedroom and me and the Crusader leader were in the other bedroom. I awoke in the middle of the night to find the Crusader leader fondling my private parts. I arose and took myself into the bathroom then slept in the lounge away from him. Years later when paedophilia was big news I reported the incident to the police who interviewed the Crusader leader who denied it ever happened. When news of Ben Thomas broke recently I discovered a law firm working in the area who I contacted but who told me as it was greater than three years since the police report there was nothing they coud do. I now find myself in the position of the unmerciful servant - wanting to put my hands metaphorically round the Crusader leaders neck and demanding that he pay me back what he’s taken from me. But my heinous, my horrible, my filthy, my disgusting sins have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. This is how my heavenly Father will treat me and you unless we forgive our brother or sister from our hearts. That Crusader leader is my brother and I need to forgive him from my heart. Who do you need to forgive?

The writer to the Hebrews tells us We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? Hebrews 2 1-3

The New International Version Chapter 5

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.