Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Beatitudes, Part 33 of 50

TEXT: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

IDEA: The fifth beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy,” raises some questions that we must try to answer in order to interpret what it means.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand the questions about the fifth beatitude as well as the answers to those questions.

Do you think that the fifth beatitude is hard to understand?

Do you think that mercy has always been seen as a positive virtue?

I. Does it surprise you that mercy has sometimes been regarded as weakness?

In the ancient world, mercy was despised. To the Greeks and Romans, mercy was a sign of weakness. They admired justice, courage, and discipline, but not mercy. One of the Roman philosophers declared, “Mercy is a disease of the soul.”

John Wesley was a missionary in Georgia. A slave stole a jug of wine and drank it. The governor, James Oglethorpe, wanted the man beaten. Wesley went to the governor to plead for the slave. The governor said, “I want vengeance. I never forgive!” To which Wesley replied, “I hope to God, Sir, you never sin.”

Do you think everyone would see the story from Wesley’s perspective?

Throughout history enemies were shown no mercy. The only good enemy was a dead enemy. It was unthinkable to show mercy to an enemy. That didn’t stop in the past.

In the past and in the present there have been and are cultures in which if a mother gave birth to a girl baby or a crippled son, the father might expose the infant to the elements and allow it to die.  Suppose a couple today discovers through ultrasound that their baby is a girl: what can happen?

What do we mean by mercy?

II. What is the difference between grace and mercy? Are they the same?

In the Bible they sometimes seem almost identical (e.g. Hebrews 4:14-16).

If there is a distinction what is it? Here are two stories:

Sometime ago I was speaking in Oklahoma City and a man in the church wanted to buy me a pair of shoes. He took me to a shoe store and had the clerk show me three pair of brown shoes and three pair of black shoes. “Show him the best shoes you have, but don’t let him see the price. He can choose the pair he likes best.” Was that grace or mercy?

Many years ago, while traveling with my college roommate, Bill Rice, we saw a family in an old car broken down beside the highway. One of their tires has blown. Bill gave them our spare and some money beside.  Was that grace or mercy?

Grace is a loving response to people who don’t deserve it, while mercy is a loving response prompted by the misery and helplessness of the person to whom it is shown.

Grace answers to the undeserving; mercy answers to the miserable.

Matthew 9:27-30: The blind beggars don’t ask for grace but for “mercy.” Why?

Matthew 12:7: What does “mercy” mean in this context?

Biblical mercy is more than showing sympathy for one of our children who is sick. It’s the response we show to the kid down the street from a broken home who has shattered our garage windows three or four times.

It is more than a feeling of sympathy or empathy. It also involves thought and action.