Matthew 5:7

Today we are going to look at the fifth Beatitude, found at Matthew 5:7. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Only the merciful will receive mercy from God.

The idea behind the Biblical concept of mercy is that genuine pity for someone moves us to act compassionately. The word that Jesus used here –just as His language in the other Beatitudes, is the strongest of all the words –the strongest possible word choice. The word Jesus used goes beyond just feeling pity. This word has to do with identifying so completely with someone that their problems become our problems, their feelings become our feelings. This word for mercy speaks of the strongest possible type of empathy. This particular word is only used in one other place in the entire Bible.

It is used in the book of Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17, where the writer of Hebrews is explaining that the reason Jesus is such a merciful High Priest is because He took on the flesh and blood of humanity and lived among us and was subject to all of the same temptations and feelings and emotions and struggles that we are; since Jesus lived as a human, He fully understands the human condition and is therefore compassionate, merciful, toward the human dilemma. Jesus knows what we are going through. He identifies with us. That is what this word for mercy implies: indentifying with someone so completely that we fully understand what they are going through –their feelings become our feelings.

So, in our Beatitude today Jesus was not saying, “Blessed are those who feel sorry for others because God will feel sorry for them.” What Jesus is saying is more like, “Blessed are we when we identify with other people so completely that their struggle becomes our struggle, their pain becomes our pain, because when we see things through the other person’s eyes and feel things through the other person’s skin -when we understand absolutely and completely why the other person is like he is, doing the things he does, thinking the things he thinks, it becomes very difficult for us to be judgmental and condemning, and it becomes much easier for us to be forgiving -and forgiveness is what the kingdom of God is really all about.”
In order to get the full impact of what Jesus was implying here, I think we need to understand is that when Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful,” He was not talking about any given action that we do, He was talking about a character quality that He desires His children to have. Anybody, even the coldest, hardest-hearted person alive might in some circumstance be moved to pity and respond with some act of compassion. Ossama Bin Laden might feel sorry for a beggar on any given street corner in America and give him money for a meal. I think you understand that occasionally feeling sorry for a beggar on the street corner, and giving a little pocket change does not make Bin Laden a merciful person. And that same action would not make us merciful people. Getting upset by things like child abuse does not make us merciful people. Taking in stray cats and dogs does not make us merciful people. Feeling sorry for the less fortunate does not make us merciful people. Occasionally helping the homeless or feeding the hungry does not make us merciful people. Giving money to the people in Haiti does not make us merciful people. Biblical mercy is not so much about what we do or feel; the mercy Jesus is talking about goes way beyond simply feeling pity and acting compassionately, it has to do with who we are. It is not a matter of sometimes acting compassionately; it is matter of being compassionate people. It is not a matter of sometimes extending grace to others; it is a matter of being gracious people. It is not a matter of sometimes forgiving someone else; it is a matter of being forgiving people. Jesus did not say blessed are those who act with mercy, He said blessed are the merciful; blessed are those for whom this is a genuine character quality –a lifestyle.

And, while the quality of mercy as it plays out in the life of a Believer will certainly lead us to acts of kindness and compassion in a physical sense –we will want to help others when they are hurting and needy, the place I believe this quality of mercy shows up most is in our attitudes towards those who are unsaved. This quality of mercy is what enables us to look at the drug addict and the pornographer and the homosexual and the alcoholic and murderer and the thief, and sinful people that are all around us, and instead of simply condemning them in our minds, understand that the reason they are like they are is because they desperately need to know the love of Jesus.

The realization that only the merciful will receive mercy should bring us right away to the desire to have this quality because none of us have to think back into our past too far to stumble on a memory that would put us in the position of needing God’s mercy –would we?

Here’s how we can know whether or not we merciful people. Do our hearts truly break over the plight and dilemma of the lost? Can we identify with lost and lonely and desperate people that surround us every day to such a degree that we have no desire to judge them, we just want to see them saved and turned around and set free from their spiritual bondage? Do we feel so strongly about this that we will do whatever it takes to rescue them from perishing? If, in our hearts the answer is “not really,” we are not merciful in the sense that Jesus is talking about in this Beatitude. And I want us to be really honest about this. This is where most of us are, isn’t it? Truthfully, this is where the vast majority of all churchgoers are. Sadly, this is where most of the Body of Christ is. We look at the lost, we look at our friends and neighbors and co-workers, the people all around us, knowing that without Jesus they are condemned, and instead of feeling heartbroken sorrow over their lost condition we simply feel gratitude that we are no longer among them. “Thanks God for saving me, too bad about those other people.”

It is a good thing to be grateful for our own personal salvation, but Jesus says if we are not merciful, God will not show us mercy. This is serious business.

God help me be a forgiving, gracious, compassionate, merciful person.

“Blessed are we when we identify with other people so completely that their struggle becomes our struggle and their pain becomes our pain; because when we see things through the other person’s eyes and feel things through the other person’s skin, -when we understand absolutely and completely why the other person is like he is, doing the things he does, thinking the things he thinks, it is very difficult for us to be judgmental and condemning, and much easier for us to be forgiving, and, people, forgiveness is what the kingdom of God is really all about.”