“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Matthew 5:7
Have you ever had a moment when you wish you could just crawl in a hole and disappear? I have. Several of them. Take the night of my wedding rehearsal. By the time it was over I knew when to come in, where to stand, and what to say. All that was left for me to do was to go to my soon-to-be in-laws house for an hour or so before heading back to my apartment for the night, and then show up on time for the big day. No sweat. I wasn’t uptight at all. Or at least I thought I wasn’t.
For as I got in my car to leave that night, I promptly backed into my fiancé’s dad’s car which was sadly right behind me in full view. Do you know what it’s like to have to go tell your future father-in-law that the guy who’s about to marry his daughter just put a dent in his car? Awful.
The first thought that ran through my mind was what an idiot I was to have not seen his car. The second thought was how in the world I was going to pay for it. I didn’t have enough money to get his car washed much less pay for body work to be done on it. But my worries were needless. For when I went back inside and announced what I had done, everyone had a big laugh, and he told me not to worry about it. That was the last I ever heard of the incident. It was a moment of mercy.
According to Jesus, people who live in the middle of God’s blessing know a lot about that. “Blessed are the merciful,” he said “for they shall receive mercy.” That’s straight forward and not difficult to understand. It’s the putting of it into practice that’s a challenge. However, people who live extraordinary lives have met that challenge and learned how to walk this pathway of extravagant mercy. Here’s what we need to learn from them.
People who live extraordinary lives recognize their own need for mercy. There’s a good reason for this. Because they’ve been willing to claim their poverty of spirit, have mourned over it, and are humbly longing for the righteousness that only God can give, they’re able to clearly see their own spiritual neediness. They realize that their only hope is the mercy of God.
How different our culture is from that. We do just about everything we can to avoid owning our own weaknesses and failures. For instance, you can actually go on the internet and purchase an item called Dial-An-Excuse. For $7.95 you can get a tool that provides 180 excuses for 36 typical scenarios where having a good excuse might come in handy. The excuses are even categorized ranging from classic excuses to sob stories. Amazing isn’t it?
We may laugh at that, but isn’t that a window into the soul of so many in our world? People don’t want to face up to the reality of their own spiritual need. Not so with those who live in the middle of God’s blessing. They’re acutely aware of their own spiritual need. In fact they’re so aware of it, they’ve long ago quit pretending that they have any righteousness of their own. They know their weaknesses and the areas where they fall short. But rather than trying to make excuses for it, they just tell the truth. In the process they turn to God who alone can give them what they desperately need: mercy.
It’s liberating for them. They no longer have to hide from themselves, pretend they’re better than they are, or blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. They have been freed by the unmerited favor of God. But they’ve also been freed to do something else.
People who live extraordinary lives express mercy to others. It makes perfect sense. Those who recognize that they’ve been on the receiving end of extravagant mercy are the ones who are willing to give extravagant mercy to others. They give it not because it’s deserved nor because they feel especially benevolent. They give it because that’s what’s on their heart.
The merciful are able to look past the surface behaviors of those who do wrong and are able to see the heart of a human being that’s spiritually impoverished. They mourn that such a heart is not as God intended for it to be, and in humility they realize that but for the mercy of God they would be in just the same needy condition.
So instead of returning evil for evil or seeking retribution, they give mercy. It’s undeserved. At times it may appear to even be foolish, but they choose to walk the pathway of extravagant mercy anyhow. For they understand more than anyone just how much in need everyone is for it, because they themselves share the same desperate need.
Mercy is for the undeserving, and all of us are undeserving. Even if those who wounded us don’t come clean and everything is made right again, we can be clean, and we can be free. For we will be on the receiving end of the promise Jesus made to those who walk this pathway.
People who live extraordinary lives receive mercy from God. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Jesus couldn’t have been more clear. He said the same thing in Matthew 6, when he taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Clearly there’s a connection between our willingness to be merciful to others and our ability to receive mercy from God. Yet many of us tend to stumble all over ourselves trying to find some loop hole around it. In the process we miss out on the mercy that only comes to the merciful.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we earn the right to receive mercy if we’re merciful. Rather it means that we’re in a position to be able to receive mercy, because we were willing to give mercy to those who needed it. For an unmerciful hand clinched toward others can never be open enough to grasp God’s mercy when he extends it to us. That’s why the merciful live in the middle of God’s blessing. They simply become a channel through which God’s mercy flows to them and through them to others in need. By taking the pathway of extravagant mercy, they’re able to live extraordinary lives.
One of the most remarkable examples of this came about in 2006 during the aftermath of the shooting rampage in an Amish school by a man named Charles Roberts. According to police reports, Roberts entered the school, ordered all the boys and adults to leave the room, and then bound the remaining 10 girls with plastic ties. Within hours Roberts shot each of the children, killing 5 five of them and seriously wounding the rest. The story, of course, caught the attention of thousands as the tragic story was broadcasted across the nation.
But it was the response of the Amish community that left many people speechless. The pastor of the gunman’s family described being in the family’s home when there came a knock on the door. It was an Amish neighbor coming on behalf of their community. He put his arms around the gunman’s father, and said “We will forgive you.” The pastor said it was one of the most powerful moments of his 25 year ministry.
A large number of Amish also showed up at the killer’s funeral. The grandfather of one of the murdered girls was quoted as insisting, “We must not think evil of this man.”A father of one of the slain girls said to the press: “We don’t know or understand why this happened but …we will try to work together to support and help the families directly involved… including the man responsible for this tragedy.” At the request of Amish leaders, a fund was set up for the killer’s widow and his three children.
Finally, an Amish woman told Ann Curry of NBC’s Dateline news program what they felt called to do in response to this great tragedy, “We can tell people about Christ,” she said “and actually show you in our walk that we forgive, not just say it, but in our walk of life.”
It’s astounding, isn’t it? – that anybody in that circumstance could express that much mercy. But the Amish were only doing what they had learned from Jesus – those who show mercy to others are the ones in a position to receive mercy from God.
Few of us have ever been called upon to express mercy in a situation that tragic. But we’ve all been wounded in one way or another by the words or actions of others. We can’t do anything about what they did. But we can do something about what we do next. We can extend mercy.
This doesn’t mean that we pretend nothing ever happened or that we suppress the hurt we feel. Rather it means that we let go of the need to get even and to keep holding onto the offense.
Is that something you’re needing to do today? Do you need to walk the pathway of extravagant mercy? If so, take a moment to talk with the Lord about it. Tell him of the hurt you feel inside and of your inner battle. Ask him to give you the strength to offer mercy to whoever hurt you. Then prepare yourself to receive a fresh outpouring of mercy for your own life.