THE BEATITUDES VII

THE BEATITUDES VII

This is the Fifth Beatitude:

5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

What is mercy? Is it sympathy? Is it pity? Is it grace? According to one dictionary, it is:

Kindness or forgiveness shown to an offender or someone you have power over; a disposition to be forgiving or compassionate of others; a situation that provides relief or prevents something unpleasant from happening; the easing of distress or pain

Do we really know what being kind to someone means? I think we know what forgiveness means. It is 'the act of pardoning someone for mistake or wrongdoing'. What about compassion? Actually, people who are compassionate carry out acts of kindness. We sometimes hear about people promoting the idea of doing random acts of kindness. Is that compassion or just trying to do some good, which is all right in itself. There are many references in the Bible to Jesus' being filled with compassion (e.g. Matt. 9:36, 15:32, 20:34; Mark 1:41, 6:34, 8:2). Sometimes Jesus' compassion made him perform miracles of healing and feeding the people who flocked to him. At other times, we see Jesus being full of compassion, feeling sad and sorry for the poor and lost people he was trying to reach for the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, if we show mercy, we will be shown mercy. Seems fair doesn't it? But, you may ask, who said I need mercy? It doesn't take much thinking to know that sooner or later in life we will be in a situation where we need mercy. Maybe we will have gotten in trouble with the law. Maybe we will have gotten seriously ill. Maybe we will have suffered a big loss. In all of those situations, we will want mercy.

There is one situation where we all need mercy. It is our condition before our God. As it says in Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and come sort of the glory of God." In other words, we don't measure up to God's standards for us; we fail. This is because of our sinfulness. There is a consequence for that. Also, in Romans, 6:23, we read further: "For the wages of sin is death." That was the curse that Genesis ch. 3 tells us fell on the human race because of sin. However, there is good news because God is merciful and compassionate. Romans 6:23 finishes this way: "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Isn't that amazing! The same God who pronounced judgment on us offers us a gift, a way out. As Paul, the writer of Romans says in 8:31: "If God be for us who can be against us?" I encourage you to read the rest of chapter eight. It is a wonderful hymn of praise for such a wonderful God and His Son Jesus. And really, if we thankfully realize how merciful God has been to us, won't we just want to show mercy to others out of gratitude for the mercy shown us? Then we will be blessed.