Beatitudes, Part 5: Blessed are the Merciful

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7, NIV)

Imagine: You’re a little kid and you’re tossing a baseball in the house– something you’ve been told many times not to do. The more you toss the ball, the more you get lost in your make-believe game. Suddenly, you’re not in the living room anymore. In your mind, you’re under the lights of a stadium, pitching in the World Series. 

You wind up for the pitch at the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, and everyone’s eyes are on you. You throw and–

Crash. 

The stadium lights come crashing down and you’re back to reality. And your game-winning pitch just broke a ceramic lamp. Shattered. No way to fix it or hide it. 

Maybe you feel panic. How are you going to explain the broken lamp? You know you weren’t supposed to be throwing a baseball inside. Maybe you start looking around for a better scenario that won’t get you into trouble. Maybe you feel fear. There’s going to be punishment for breaking something.

Your dad comes around the corner and says, “What’s going on? What did you do?”

Busted.

You show him the baseball and the broken lamp. You apologize for playing ball in the house. You promise to help get a new lamp. You wait for the lecture or the anger or the punishment.

But he does none of those things. Instead, your father helps you sweep up the shards of broken lamp and throw them out. He tells you it’s okay, that lamp can be replaced. All is forgiven, just make sure you don’t do that again.

That, friends, is a small example of mercy. Compassion or forgiveness shown when someone deserves punishment. That kind of mercy pales in comparison when we think of the mercy we have received from God the Father in light of the punishment we deserve from our sin.

Because the truth is, our sin has broken much more than just a meaningless lamp. It’s offended the Lord, it’s separated us from Him, and it affects the people around us. And that sin is enough of an excuse for us to be punished for eternity. We don’t deserve the grace we received from the Lord. Our sin is the cause for so much brokenness and heartache and we are so poor in spirit without our Heavenly Father to repair or restore it. 

He could have given us wrath for our brokenness in sin. Instead, He gives us mercy. He paid the price for our sin. He erases it and gives us a clean heart. He heals our brokenness and shows us to be made righteous before Him.

But when people interpret this beatitude, they sometimes get it wrong. People might read blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy and think, “This must mean we have to give mercy to others so that we can receive mercy.”

And sure, that might be true in the sense that we should treat our neighbor as we would want to be treated, so if we want others to be merciful to us when we offend them, then we should show mercy when we’ve been offended. (Matthew 22:39) But that should not be our chief reason for showing mercy to others. If we’re truly standing by the idea that each beatitude builds off the last one, then we have to remember the one that comes prior and what it means to us.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6, NIV)

If that beatitude is the moment that we realize it’s not just enough to be saved, but to want those things that are righteous and pleasing to the Lord, then the beatitudes that come after should be things in God’s character that show us we are becoming more like Him as our faith matures. So the point is not that we should show mercy so that we can enjoy the mercy of God or others. We have already received mercy in His salvation. The truth is that we should show mercy because it is a sign that we are becoming more like Jesus. And that should be the ultimate goal.

When I am merciful, I am being a reflection of Christ. When I am merciful, it means that I don’t have the malice or vindictiveness of the flesh. I don’t have the desire for vengeance or retaliation towards people who offend me. It means I am letting go of my former self in order to put on the new, redeemed, Christ-like self. Showing mercy like Jesus means that I have known His merciful love to a depth that I am transformed in my heart to be more like Him.

Showing Christ’s mercy to others means that I have experienced and understand His mercy to me. And in doing that, I am the recipient of a blessing above all others: the fruit of knowing Christ in my life. Becoming more like Him and throwing off the old ways of the flesh are the signs of walking ever-closer with the Lord. They are the marks that we have been with Him and are leaving behind our sinful life to grab a hold of more and more of our Savior and King.