Happy are the Merciful

Happy are the Merciful

the Roman world did not know the meaning of mercy, no matter what good was done.

A Roman philosopher said mercy was “the disease of the soul,” a sign of weakness. The Romans glorified justice and courage and discipline and power; they looked down on mercy. When a child was born into the Roman world, the father had the right of patria potestas. If he wanted the newborn to live, he held his thumb up. If he wanted the child to die, he held it down and the child was immediately drowned.

If a Roman citizen didn’t want his slave anymore, he could kill and bury him, and there would be no legal recourse against the citizen. He could also kill his wife if he chose.

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It’s wishful thinking in our selfish, grabbing, competitive society, too. In our day, we would more likely say, “Be merciful to someone and he’ll step on your neck!”

Two merciless systems, Roman and Judaic, united to kill Himy

The best illustration that this is no valid human platitude is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He was the most merciful human being who ever lived. He reached out to the sick and healed them. He reached out to the crippled and gave them legs to walk. He healed the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, and the mouths of the dumb. He found prostitutes and tax collectors and those that were debauched and drunken, and He drew them into the circle of His love and redeemed them and set them on their feet.

He took the lonely and made them feel loved. He took little children and gathered them into His arms and loved them. Never was there a person on the face of the earth with the mercy of this One. Once a funeral procession came by and He saw a mother weeping because her son was dead. She was already a widow, and now she had no child to care for her. Who would care? Jesus stopped the funeral procession, put His hand on the casket, and raised the child from the dead. He cared.

In John 8 he forgave a woman taken in adultery. What mercy! When the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eat with the tax collectors and the sinners in Mark 2:16, they asked His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” He ran around with the riffraff!

He was the most merciful human being who ever lived, and they screamed for His blood. If mercy carried its own reward, they would not have nailed Him to a cross and spit in His face and cursed Him. From the people to whom He gave mercy He received no mercy at all.

Example= the woman that was taken in adultery

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Then what does the Lord mean? Simply this: You be merciful to others, and God will be merciful to you.

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Anything you do that is of benefit to someone in need is mercy.

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“The people in my kingdom aren’t takers; they’re givers. The people in my kingdom aren’t the ones who set themselves above everybody—they’re the people who stoop to help.”

Mercy is seeing a man without food and giving him food. Mercy is seeing a person begging for love and giving him love. Mercy is seeing someone lonely and giving him company. Mercy is meeting the need, not just feeling it.y

The story of the good samaritan...

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So mercy is behind forgiveness. Mercy and forgiveness belong together.

Mercy is infinitely bigger than just forgiveness. Consider these five verses (all from the King James version): “The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy” (Psalm 119:64); “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies” (Genesis 32:10); “for his mercies are great” (2 Samuel 24:14); “thy manifold mercies.” (Nehemiah 9:19); “the multitude of thy mercy” (Psalm 69:13). Forgiveness is an act of mercy, yes, but there are many other ways I can be merciful.

In Lamentations, maybe the most beautiful of all the mercy passages, it says this: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (3:22–23 kjv)

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In the story of the Good Samaritan, mercy relieves the suffering. Grace rents him a room. Mercy deals with the negative, and grace puts it in the positive. Mercy takes away the pain; grace gives a better condition. Mercy says, “No hell.” Grace says, “Heaven.” Mercy says, “I pity you.” Grace says, “I pardon you.” So mercy and grace are two sides of the same marvelous coin. God offers both.

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It was mercy in Abraham after he had been wronged by his nephew Lot that caused him to go and secure Lot’s deliverance.

It was mercy in Joseph after being treated so badly by his brothers that caused him to accept them and meet their needs.

It was mercy in Moses, after Miriam had rebelled against him and the Lord had given her leprosy, that made him cry, “Oh God, heal her, I pray!”

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It was mercy in David that twice caused him to spare the life of Saul. (See 1 Samuel 24 and 26.)

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Solomon wrote, “The merciful man does himself good, but the cruel man does himself harm” (Proverbs 11:17). Do you want to be really miserable? Be merciless. Do you want to be happy? Be merciful. In Proverbs 12:10 (kjv) we read, “The righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” Righteous people are merciful even to animals. The wicked are cruel to everything.

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Do you want to read the characteristics of a godless society? Romans 1:29–31 says, “Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.”

Does this mean the climax of our society is being unmerciful? It appears so.

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God is the source of mercy, but only for the people moving through the four preceding Beatitudes. Mercy is not a normal human attribute. Now and then someone might return a kindness, but that is not the norm. The only way to be merciful persons is to have within us the God–given mercy. And the only way to have that is to have the righteousness of God that comes through Christ. That’s what Jesus was saying. If we come by this Beatitude path to the place of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, to be filled by God, we will know mercy.

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Do you see the cycle? God gives us mercy, we are merciful, and God gives us more mercy. Second Samuel 22:26 says the same thing, that it is the merciful who receive mercy. James 2:13 says it negatively, “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy.” It’s there in Psalm 18 and Proverbs 14.

The one who has received mercy will be merciful. The one who has received forgiveness will be forgiving. If you are a merciful person, you give evidence of being God’s child; so every time you sin, God forgives. Every time you have a need, He meets it. He takes care of you. He just pours mercy upon mercy upon mercy to those who show mercy, because they have received it from the merciful God.

Are you merciful?

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The difference between mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve.

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