Blessed are the Merciful
Apr 3, 2011 Matt 5:7
Intro: We are half-way through our Lenten journey through the Beatitudes, the opening words of Jesus’ opening sermon (“on the mount”) where Jesus describes Kingdom life. During our last Adult Education time a couple weeks ago, as we were discussing the second beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn”, the question came up: “what does it actually mean to be “blessed”?”
It is a good question. The way we often hear the word “blessed” used is to describe some good thing that makes us happy:
“my, what a beautiful baby!”;
“yes, we are very blessed.”
“you have a lovely home!”
“yes, we are very blessed.”
“how is the job search going?”
“great, I was blessed with 3 offers last week!”
This is how we most often use the word today, and so that is the thought in our minds when we hear it in Jesus’ words in Matt 5. But then it doesn’t make sense… Blessed are the poor? Blessed are those who mourn? Blessed are the meek? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst? Blessed are the merciful?”
So Jesus must have something a little different in mind for what it means to be “blessed” than beautiful babies, lovely homes, and multiple job offers. May I suggest instead, “it refers overwhelmingly to the distinctive religious joy which accrues to (people) from (their) share in the salvation of the kingdom of God… basic statements are here made about those who may regard themselves as citizens of the kingdom of God. The power of the statements lies in their reversal of all human values.” (TDNT 4:367-368).
“The reversal of all human values”… could it be that what it really means to be “blessed” is to be brought into the kingdom of God, as citizens, and then have our human values (comfort, wealth, security in possessions, no occasions to mourn, power, etc…) “reversed”? It is difficult for us to imagine Jesus’ words that way, when the way we use the term “blessed” is about having our human needs/wants fulfilled – “yes, God has really blessed us”.
A good part of our struggle comes from the fact that we are so different from Jesus’ audience. The people He spoke to were the masses – the poor, the powerless, the people who lived very simply and did their best to survive. The people who would have heard Jesus’ words about the poor, the hungry, the mourner, the powerless, and would have thought “that is me!” Jesus wasn’t speaking to the rich and powerful, who were in control of their own lives and destiny and enjoying freedom and luxury – that is us! So as we listen to Jesus’ words, and seek to hear them as words of life for us (which they are, just as much as they were to His original audience), as they describe what it means to be citizens of God’s Kingdom, we must be willing to entertain the truth that the “blessed” life is not about our physical and material comfort, but about something deeper and stronger and better – the smile of God on the life of our souls as we live as citizens of His Kingdom.
Blessed are the Merciful:
The fifth beatitude says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” How is this a “reversal of all human values”? Do we not value “mercy”? Well, that might depend on what “mercy” actually is, and whether we are thinking of receiving mercy for ourselves or giving it to another person. See, I think that most often, when we are in the wrong we desire mercy – we might even expect it thinking we have probably earned it by all of our effort to be good and “in the right” most of the time, so a little mistake here or there probably should be an opportunity to receive mercy. If we take it one step further, though, it gets a little hazier: what about others, should they receive mercy? How about the person we hear of who robbed a bank, the drunk driver who smashed into your car parked on the road, the husband who had an affair – should they receive mercy? Let’s take it even one more, even harder step: what about the person who wronged you, who hurt you deeply, who made you suffer – do they deserve mercy?
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” When I phrase it like I just did, this does start to seem like a “reversal of human values”. In many/most of those situations, we want justice, vindication, punishment. We think the perpetrators should suffer as much as those they made to suffer – that seems right to us. Something inside of us calls out for that, values that, and thinks that those “bad people” should not be offered mercy but rather should get what they’ve got coming… But is that the Kingdom of God? Not according to Jesus, who described the life of the citizens of His Kingdom as ones who are “merciful”.
What then of justice, we wonder. Is that not also a part of the Kingdom of God? Should we not be pursuing justice, fighting for justice, rejoicing that we live in a free country where there is a system, imperfect though it may be yet still vastly superior to many other parts of the world, where justice is a high goal and aim? We are going to get into that question, the relationship between justice and mercy in the Kingdom of God, further in our adult education time after the service, and so for now I am going to do the very uncomfortable thing of just leaving the question hanging, and I’m going to come back to the personal.
Remember the context:
What does it mean for you and I to be “merciful”? Let’s return to the audience to whom Jesus is speaking – the masses, mostly poor. And let’s try and hear it as they would – not likely in broad societal terms about who should face justice and who should receive mercy, but rather in terms of their day by day life.
Now here it helps for us to try to define the term “mercy” a little more. It does have ideas of pardon as I have used it earlier in relation to justice. It also has ideas of compassion – we might describe someone who cares for those who are hurting as having a gift of mercy. It also has ideas of sympathy, in the muck of life with someone else sharing their pain and struggle. Overall, mercy is about action towards those in need – those who are worse off than us. So when Jesus, speaking to the common people of His day, says “Blessed are the merciful”, He is asking the poor to have sympathy and compassion and put that into action for those who are worse off than them. Especially present, in this context, is the idea of giving.
The word Jesus uses here, “merciful”, is only used twice in the New Testament, but the verb form of the same word is quite common and is used by Jesus four times in four verses in the next chapter, just a little later in this same sermon (Matt 6):
“1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The phrases I’ve italicized are all the same Greek word, the verb form of the word in our beatitude which we translate “merciful”. So, if we are reading this passage in context and trying to hear it as the people of Jesus’ day would have heard it, I suggest it means this: “Blessed are those who give to those who have need, even though you barely have enough to live on yourselves, and even though they have not earned it or do not deserve it, for then God will treat you the same way.”
Giving:
Understood that way, this fifth beatitude becomes about demonstrating mercy (being “merciful”) through tangibly giving to those in need. Now this does mean giving money, but not to the exclusion of other things like time, companionship, wise counsel, opportunity, etc… And so now we see how this really does start to be a “reversal of human values”, especially in our culture today.
First, this beatitude requires a re-orientation of our perspective so that we see the need. I think this is a critical first step – so many of us go through life focused on ourselves and our needs that we don’t recognize the needs of others around us. And when it comes to thinking about money, our focus is almost never on those who have less than us, our focus is on how we might get more so we could be like those we see on TV or in magazines who are rich enough to have all the toys we want. Very few people I know, when they think about money, are striving to find better ways to give it to people who have less, or who are driven to make more money so they can give more money away. That is a foreign thought in our culture, and even in much of the Christian church. But our citizenship in the Kingdom of God is about this reorientation of our perspective so we are seeing the needs of those worse off than ourselves, and then responding.
That responding is the second critical part. It is not enough to see a need and turn away. We must act, we must “show mercy”, we must give. This opens up a whole, huge topic about how to give wisely and how to ensure our giving makes a positive difference and doesn’t perpetuate poverty and all the rest, far too big of a topic for this sermon, and not really Jesus’ point. Jesus simply says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”. In other words, we shouldn’t get so caught up in the details that we don’t give. This is another topic we can explore further together in adult education and in the reflection questions I’ve prepared.
Greed:
If you’ve been along for the journey thus far, you’ll know that we’ve been looking at Jesus’ description of Kingdom Life in contrast to some of the sin that ancient Christians identify as particularly toxic to our souls, and particularly good at combatting the life of God within us. As I’ve defined mercy as giving in response to the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves, the obvious sin that keeps us from giving is greed.
Greed is a nasty thing, built on a particularly insidious lie. The lie is two-fold: we don’t have “enough”, and we have to have enough because no one else will take care of us. And when we start to buy into that lie, giving is the very first thing that goes.
Writer Jeff Cook puts it this way:
Though it may be the most socially accepted – even praised – of the deadly sins, the damage greed inflicts on our world is catastrophic. Jesus’ brother James called greed the primary obstacle to peace in our world. Paul wrote that monetary greed is “a root of all kinds of evil.” All four gospel writers suggest that Judas betrayed Jesus partially because of greed. At its core, greed prefers wealth to the growth of our soul, to the God who made us, and to peace among people. Thus the greedy trade their humanity for mere bubbles – each destined to pop. Greed is a condition of the heart. Greed adores goods that are temporary and rejects those that are everlasting. Greed does not care about living well in the present, because greed focuses on the future, and the future is a place of fear – fear that I will not have enough for tomorrow, fear that somehow the God who gives me each breath will stop providing if I do not squirrel away all I can. (from Seven: The deadly sins and the beatitudes.)
Jesus has a solution for the sin of greed – it is to give. Giving is powerful not merely for the good it does in others, but for how it frees us from the grasp of greed in us. And that is why Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy”.
Conclusion
There is the promise attached to the beatitude – we will receive. Maybe sometimes from others, though we all know that it is not some simple “I give to others and they give back to me and it all ends up equal…”. At the heart of Jesus’ promise is the response to the second part of the insidious lie of greed, that we have to make sure we have enough for all our present and future needs because no one else will take care of us – the response is that someone will take care of us – the God of the universe. That is who shows us “mercy” – and mercy in all the senses of the word: as an alternative to the just punishment we deserve for our sin, as compassion and sympathy in whatever pain we experience in our lives, and in terms of provision for our needs.
The way of the Kingdom of Jesus is one of trust in God, which frees us to be “merciful” and give to others, knowing that God is a God of justice and compassion, full of mercy and love. There is much more to explore in regards to mercy, justice, giving, and greed, and we’ll go another couple steps in Adult Education and through the reflection questions this week. But let’s go another step together now around the Lord’s table.
Here we recall our Lord’s deep generosity. Here we recall a deep expression of mercy. Here we stand, with the warning of greed’s lie that we don’t have enough and that we have to take care of ourselves because no one else will take care of us. And we see how rich we are in Christ, and how pale the empty promises of accumulating stuff are, and maybe we need to repent of the time spent madly chasing material possessions rather than wholeheartedly living as citizens of heaven. As we prepare to celebrate together, take some time in quiet, with the Holy Spirit to guide, and then I’ll invite you to the table.
Adult Education Discussion:
1. Prayer
2. Any opening thoughts?
3. Going deeper with mercy…
4. Is repentance a pre-requisite for mercy?
5. Why do we have such a double-standard, quick to want mercy for ourselves but hesitant to extend it to others?
6. Giving as an expression of mercy
a. do you see the connection?
b. is it ok for it to be “hands-off”?
c. do we make it to complicated; or does our desire to make sure that our gifts are used wisely become an excuse to not give?
d. should we only give from our abundance?
e. how much should we give?
7. on to greed… Harper’s Magazine 1989, a great example of what our society has done to rationalize and minimize the death that comes to our spirits through these particular sins. The ad for “greed” features none other than good ol Santa…
8. More in the personal reflection questions; end with Annie Leonard interview with Stephen Colbert http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-colbert- report/#clip275886
Personal Reflection Questions:
1. Re-read Matt 5:1-12. Review the things you’ve felt God speaking to you thus far in our Lenten journey. Are there things you need to continue to put into practice from the first 3 beatitudes? Which things specifically do you need to continue to focus on?
2. Spend a few moments meditating on the 5th beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful”. When in your life have you seen examples of mercy (either to you, by you, or regarding people you know). What impact have those had?
3. What has it meant for you to receive the mercy of God? Spend some moments in thankful prayer.
4. Read the Jeff Cook chapter. What things stand out for you? How does the “bubble” idea apply to your life?
5. How does greed destroy the life of God in you?
6. Rebecca DeYoung writes, “Another exercise in self-examination would be to calculate how many hours a week we spend thinking about buying or acquiring things – either by going to the mall, browsing through catalogues, working longer hours or overtime, or watching home improvement shows on TV. Are our feelings of frustration or depression temporarily alleviated by buying something for ourselves? Does earning more money or acquiring more things create a renewed sense of power over our lives?” You might want to consider taking a day to be attentive to all the advertising messages you see in a day, and choose to notice them carefully. Ask yourself these questions: what is the ad promising? What will it actually provide? What might our Christian faith have to say in response?
7. Watch the video, “The Story of Stuff”.
