Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matt 5:7 ESV
Understanding mercy as a blessing is readily grasped, but the blessing is only realized if our soul drinks deeply of this life-imparting gift. While mercy can be a profound experience, it is the fruit of mercy that is far reaching in implication. Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant (Matt 18:21-35) speaks directly to these points. You’ll recall a king decides to conduct an accounting and finds a number of his servants in arrears. The first to be reckoned with owes a debt so enormous that it is inconceivable that he, being a servant, could ever pay it. To put the size of the debt in perspective, the amount of money owed by the first servant, ten thousand talents, is beyond what even a king would have at his disposal. In other words, there is no credible hope for this servant and his family, to avoid being sold into slavery as a consequence of his inability to pay the debt. In desperation he pleads for mercy, and without hesitation receives unconditional forgiveness from the king of the debt. The first servant, coming fresh from this miraculous deliverance, encounters a fellow servant who owes him 100 denari (about a laborer’s daily wage). He demands immediate repayment, and when begged for mercy, denies it and has the man thrown into prison until he can pay his debt. The king’s reaction to the news of the first servant’s lack of mercy for his fellow servant is to reinstate the first servant’s debt and have him thrown into prison until he can pay his debt. Jesus concludes the parable with this statement: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matt 18:35)
Consider these two simple points with regard to mercy. The first, mercy must be received and experienced at a personal level to make a difference in one's life. All too often we grasp the concept but fail to appropriate the gift. I find the lyrics of a Kathy Mattea’s song, “Standing Knee Deep in a River and Dying of Thirst”, succinctly sums up the situation:
“... I guess we never learn. We go through life, parched and empty, standin' knee deep in a river, and dying of thirst…”
It is more common than you may realize for people to stand knee deep in the river of God's mercy and never drink deeply of His life-giving grace. Opening ourselves to God and receiving what has always been abundant and accessible changes everything. We are able to experience the freedom and the joy the king's servant must have known when his debt was magnanimously forgiven. Receiving God’s mercy and love frees us from guilt and shame and enables us to live more fully into the relationship with God in Christ. Embracing our relationship with, and living daily in Christ brings an ever growing and expanding sense of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and transforming us from glory to glory. Grace realized is life changing
The second point speaks to the implications of grace realized and lived in relationship to others: family, friends and neighbors in the broadest sense of that word. If we are to truly embrace and live into the mercy and grace extended to us, then we must be open and willing to offer the same to everyone we meet. Our willingness to share what we’ve received with others is a measure of the extent to which we have truly realized our own inadequacy and brokenness before God. But for God’s grace and mercy we would be without hope. Realizing our plight, and God’s response, moves us to compassion, mercy and forgiveness for those who are indebted to us. I am not suggesting it will always be easy or that it can happen in an instant, but it must be our ultimate response regardless if we hope to live into our freedom and calling in Christ.
My prayer for you is that you have or will experience the true meaning of mercy in your own life.
Comments