Let’s move on to the fifth pronouncement of good news which Jesus made to his early followers.
We see a shift in focus from the first four of Jesus’ statements in this passage. Leon Morris in the Pillar NT Commentary explains it thus:
The first four beatitudes express in one way or another our dependence on God; the next three the outworking of that dependence.
So this is the first of three statements of Jesus which are primarily to do with how we ought to conduct ourselves towards others based on our attitude of trust and dependence upon God.
Who are the merciful?
If you are familiar with Jesus’ teaching, this fifth statement may remind you of a line from the Lord’s Prayer:
“…and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…” (Matthew 6:12)
after which Jesus went on to emphasise this point:
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15)
Was he making exactly the same point in our verse here?
In the New International Commentary, R. T. France argues that it may be more than that:
“Mercy” is closely linked with forgiveness, but is broader here than just the forgiveness of specific offences: it is a generous attitude which is willing to see things from the other’s point of view and is not quick to take offense or to gloat over others’ shortcomings (the prime characteristic of love according to 1 Cor 13:4–7).
In the NIV Application Commentary, Michael Wilkins puts it thus:
Mercy is a central biblical theme, because in God’s great mercy he does not give humans what they deserve; rather, he gives to them what they do not deserve… Likewise, the merciful are those who demonstrate forgiveness toward the guilty and kindness for the hurting and needy. The religious leadership in Jesus’ day tended toward being merciless because of their demand for rigorous observance of the law. Their motive was commendable in that it was driven by a desire for the people of Israel to be pure, but it was inexcusable because their unbending demands produced harshness and condemnation toward those who did not meet their standards.
Two vital points
Firstly, for Jesus, “mercy” is not simply forgiving those who do wrong to us, but also a willingness to show kindness to those in need.
It may not even make sense for us to look at these as two separate characteristics. Rather, forgiveness and kindness are both natural or inevitable behaviours for anyone whose attitude is a merciful one. As Morris suggests in the Pillar NT Commentary: “This beatitude is relatively straightforward: people who show mercy on others will themselves be the recipients of mercy. [It] means those whose bent is to show mercy, not those who engage in an occasional merciful impulse.”
D. A. Carson in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary puts it like this:
“Mercy embraces both forgiveness for the guilty and compassion for the suffering and needy. No particular object of the demanded mercy is specified, because mercy is to be a function of Jesus’ disciples, not of the particular situation that calls it forth.”
It isn’t enough just to be able to identify a handful of instances in our lives in which we acted in a merciful way towards other people. Mercy is an attitude we need to develop in our interactions with all people, regardless of circumstances, whether they love us or hate us, whether they are family or stranger, friend or foe, rich or poor, powerful or weak, good or evil.
Secondly, as Wilkins notes, this was not a characteristic often shown by the religious leaders in Judaea. As we’ve seen in previous weeks, Jesus’ “blessed are…” or “this is good news for..” statements were often intended to provide comfort or reassurance for those who were downtrodden or not considered to be of any great importance by the society around them.
In the Word Biblical Commentary, D. A. Hagner expands on this second point:
What the poor and oppressed have not received from the rich and powerful, they should nevertheless show others….implicit in this beatitude is the judgment upon the wicked oppressors, i.e., the ones who have not shown mercy: to them mercy will not be shown.
This characteristic of mercy is not one that always comes naturally to us as human beings, and we cannot always expect that we will be shown it by others. A lack of mercy shown to us does not, however, justify our showing a lack of it in return.
God will judge those who are unmerciful. Our responsibility to try to show them, even in our imperfections, what mercy looks like.
Saved by faith
None of this should be understood as a suggestion that we can earn the mercy of God – his kindness and forgiveness – by demonstrating mercy in our own lives. None of the amazing gifts God offers us can be earned, and if they could, all of us would fall short.
John Stott in The Message of the Sermon on the Mount explains this well:
The same truth is echoed in the next chapter: ‘If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you.’ This is not because we can merit mercy by mercy or forgiveness by forgiveness, but because we cannot receive the mercy and forgiveness of God unless we repent, and we cannot claim to have repented of our sins if we are unmerciful towards the sins of others. Nothing moves us to forgive like the wondering knowledge that we have ourselves been forgiven. Nothing proves more clearly that we have been forgiven than our own readiness to forgive.
Here, then, is the challenge for you and me. To be merciful means more than a willingness to forgive. It also includes a willingness to show kindness and generosity to anyone who is need. And that means anyone, no matter who they are or how good or bad a relationship (if any) you have with them.
Not only that, but this needs to be an attitude of mind held consistently throughout your life as a Christian, not simply a number of one-off events you might be able to point to throughout the years.
How do you develop this attitude, and perhaps even more crucially, how can you maintain it through all that life might throw at you?
We’ll examine those questions next week. God bless.
Nihilist to Christian 