The Beatitudes {Leading By Example}: Blessed are the Merciful
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
I love the Sermon on the Mount. I especially love the Beatitudes because I am reminded every. single. time. I read it that the Kingdom of God is so different from what I think. The Beatitudes bring me back to center. They provide my soul deep comfort and a sense of unshakeable peace.
Starting back in February, a little before the beginning of Lent, God kept on reminding me of my need to revisit these important 12 verses. And while this doesn’t happen very often, I got a sense that I was supposed to camp out in this passage of Scripture during the Lenten season. So, I shook out the tent, hammered the stakes in the ground, unrolled my sleeping bag, and settled in for a 40 day camping trip.
For the past couple weeks, we’ve taken turns unpacking a single verse in this passage, sharing about how it’s been molding our hearts, our words, and our actions. Christina talked about the blessed people who mourn. MaryAnn about those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. I’m sharing about those who show mercy.
Mercy is not a popular concept in our world today. Mercy is not fair. Mercy doesn’t hold people accountable for their actions. Mercy is weak. Mercy allows for people to continue in their bad habits or behaviors. Mercy encourages laziness and no motivation for change. I’ve heard all of these things.
Even for those of us who are followers of Christ, mercy makes us nervous. More than mercy we just want people to be right and do right and think right.
This passage tells us that the merciful are blessed.
When I hear people talk about “being blessed” it’s hardly EVER regarding those things that Jesus describes as being blessed.
People are #blessed by big houses and new jobs and promotions and children and husbands and vacations and good parking spots.
Jesus says people are #blessed by showing mercy and when mourning and being ridiculed because of their pursuit of God’s justice and right living.
How does it that Jesus even turns being blessed upside down?!
The definition of mercy is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.” Mercy is a powerful thing.
If we’re the kind of people who are givers of mercy, we’ll be blessed because we will be shown mercy.
And I don’t know about you, but being shown mercy speaks to me much deeper than getting what I deserve.
When I screw something up at work, I expect my supervisor to be disappointed or to be frustrated with my lack of whatever it was that messed things up. But when my supervisor meets my mistake with grace- with compassion and forgiveness? Wowza. I feel #blessed. It speaks to my humanity, my imperfection, and also brings me hope that while I messed up, I’m forgiven and I get to unashamedly get back up and try again. And the next time she or he forgets something really important or totally misses an important meeting? My heart is much more naturally inclined towards mercy as well.
This kind of mercy extends towards our spouses and our kids as well.
And this is where parents get a bit nervous.
But if I show my kid mercy when he says something disrespectful to me, then he’s on the road to trouble!
But if I show my child mercy when they throw a huge fit over something totally selfish, then I’m not really loving them. Because LOVE would nip that right in the bud so that they can be a well-adjusted adult later in life.
Here’s what Jesus knows. Jesus knows that our hearts respond incredibly well to mercy. Mercy is so countercultural that it makes us stop and ask questions. It makes us consider our faults and mistakes and, out of a sense of being worthy of love, we’re compelled to love others because of a greater understanding of God’s love for us and for the world.
Show me a person who’s afraid or unwilling to show mercy, and I’ll show you a person who, deep down, isn’t quite convinced of God’s deep love for them.
I most want this to ooze into my parenting. I’m a stickler for the rules and doing “the right thing.” I often want my kids to just obey, even if they don’t want to. I want them to be mature and respectful and loving at all times. I’m often quick to nip bad behavior and expect my stern warning to change their hearts forever.
But, I want to allow myself to show them mercy. I want them to know God’s great, CRAZY love for them. I want to give less space in our home to my unattainable perfectionist tendencies and much more space to love and compassion and relationship. I desperately desire them to understand the upside down #blessedness of mercy.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
