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M IS FOR MERCY

Matthew 5:1-12.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7).

What is mercy? The Scriptural meaning of mercy is tolerance and compassion.

An old fable tells of a very righteous man named Farris. He was so upright that he seemed to spray righteousness over everyone; so most people preferred to stay away. His wife didn’t keep people at bay with righteousness. Instead individuals came close to her in order to share the warmth of her open heart.

She respected her righteous husband and loved him, as much as he allowed her, but her heart ached for something more. One morning, having worked since dawn, Farris came home and found a stranger in his bedroom. Adultery soon became the talk of the town and the scandal of the congregation. Everyone assumed that Farris would cast his wife out of his house, so righteous was he. But he surprised everyone by keeping her. In his heart, however he could not forgive his wife for bringing shame to his name. Whenever he thought about her, his feelings toward her were angry and hard. He despised her. He hated her for betraying him. He only pretended to forgive her, so that he could punish her with his righteous mercy.

But Farris’ self-righteousness did not sit well in heaven. Each time he felt his secret hate toward his wife, an angel came to him and dropped a small stone into his heart. Each time a stone dropped, Farris would feel a stab of pain like the pain he felt the moment he discovered his wife’s adultery.

Thus, he hated her the more. His hate brought him pain and his pain made him hate. The stones multiplied and Farris’ heart grew very heavy with the weight of them, so heavy that the top half of his body bent forward. Weary with hurt, Farris began to wish he were dead.

The angel who dropped the stones into his heart came to Farris one night and told him how he could be healed of his hurt. “There is one remedy,” he said, “only one—for the hurt of a wounded heart. Farris would need the miracle of the magic eyes. He would need eyes that could look back to the beginning of his hurt and see his wife, not as one who betrayed him, but as a weak woman who needed him. Only a new way of looking at things through the magic eyes could heal the hurt flowing from the wounds of yesterday.”

Farris protested, “Nothing can change the past. My wife is guilty, a fact that not even an angel can change.” “Yes, you are right,” the angel said. “You can not change the past, you can only heal the hurt that comes to you from the past. And you can heal it only with the vision of the magic eyes.” “And how can I get magic eyes?” pouted Farris.
“Only ask, desiring as you ask, and they will be given you. And each time you see your wife through your new eyes, one stone will be lifted from your aching heart.

Farris could not ask at once, for he had grown to love his hatred. But the pain of his heart finally drove him to ask for the magic eyes. Soon his wife began to change, wonderfully and mysteriously. He began to see her as a needy woman who loved him instead of a wicked woman who betrayed him. And the angel kept his promise. He lifted the stones from Farris’ heart, one by one. Gradually Farris felt his heart grow lighter and he invited his wife to come into his heart again, and she came, and together they began again their journey into life.

Now, this legend may not be factual, but it is truthful. Forgiveness is God’s solution to one of this world’s worst problems. He knew that in spite of their best intentions, people are going to hurt each other. So, He began by forgiving us, and asks us to forgive each other.

Forgiving seems unnatural. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But forgiving is love’s power to break hatred and misery.

Do you have trouble forgiving? Does showing mercy seem weak? Do you feel resentments and bitterness? These are natural reactions but they are also deadly. Jesus dealt with this subject more than almost any other. He said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy . . . Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:1-9).

An anonymous author wrote, “We are most like beasts when we kill. We are most like men when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive.” Mercy is loving people more than they deserve.

One Bible character who did this is Stephen. After his sermon the people turned hostile. The Scripture says, “They began gnashing their teeth at him . . . and they rushed upon him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" And having said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:54-60).

Stephen’s response to evil was Christlike. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7).

How can we do this?

I. FIRST WE CAN UNDERSTAND.
Solomon said, “Apply thine heart to understanding” (Prov. 2:2, kjv);
St. Thomas a Kempis said, “Know all, and you will pardon all!”
How seldom do we weigh our neighbor with the same scales we weigh ourselves? In fact, the things in our own lives that we are most guilty or defensive about are the very things we are least tolerant of in others. But, full understanding of ourselves and our associates will lead to full forgiveness.
In a famous play, when people condemn a boy for squandering the family fortune, the mother cries out, “You do not love people only when they do good. You need to love them most when they fail!” That’s mercy!

II. NEXT, WE CAN FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE.
Paul said, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil: 4:8, nas).
If we did that, what a difference it would make! Marianne Williamson says, “We decide what we want to see before we see it . . . We can notice our brother’s guilt or innocence; our friends’ liabilities or assets; our associates’ vices or virtues . . . Whether we choose to focus on their weaknesses and mistakes or on their goodness is up to us.”

III. FINALLY, WE CAN LET GO OF THE NEGATIVE.
Jesus says, “Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37, niv).
James said, “Don’t criticize and speak evil about each other” (James 4:11, lb).

Paul says, “Love keeps no score of wrongs” (I Cor. 13:4).

What a wonderful way to put it! Isn’t that just opposite of what we usually do? A writer tells us that in Polynesia, where the natives spend much of their time fighting, it is customary for each man to keep some reminders of his hatred. They suspend articles from the roofs of their huts to keep alive memory of wrongs done to them. Perhaps we are more subtle about it, but we still keep suspended in our minds the memories of how people have offended us. Christian love, keeps no such score.

Instead Christians are merciful. Albert Schweitzer gave a startling discourse on mercy. He said, “Suppose you hardly leave your hut in the morning, when somebody, who’s known to be a bad man comes and insults you. Because the Lord says that one ought to forgive, you keep silent instead of beginning a quarrel.

Later on your neighbor’s goat eats the bananas you were relying on for your dinner. Instead of starting a fight . . . you merely tell him that it was his goat, and that it would be the right thing if he would make it up to you in bananas. When he contradicts you and maintains that the goat was not his, you quietly reflect that God causes so many bananas to grow in your plantation that there is no need for you to quarrel on this account.

Later, the man to whom you gave ten coconuts to sell for you at the market . . . brings the money for only nine. You say, “That’s too little.” But he retorts, “You made a mistake in counting, and only gave me nine.” You are about to shout in his face that he is a liar, but then you think about the many lies of your own for which God must forgive you. So, you go quietly into your hut.

When you want to light your fire, you discover that somebody has carried off the wood that you gathered yesterday. Again you refrain from searching to see who could possibly have taken your wood so that you may bring an accusation against him.

In the afternoon, when you are about to go and work in your garden, you discover that somebody has taken away your good bush-knife and left in it’s place an old one. You know who it is, but then you consider that you must forgive.

In the evening you want to go fishing. You reach to take the torch which ought to be standing in the corner of your hut. But it isn’t there. You are overcome by anger and beginning to think that you have forgiven enough for one day. But, instead, you borrow a torch from a neighbor.

Then you discover that your boat is missing. Another man has gone fishing in it. Angrily you hide behind a tree in order to wait for him. When he comes back you mean to take all his fish and accuse him before the District Officer. But while you are waiting, your heart begins to speak. It says, “God cannot forgive us our sins if we do not forgive each other.” So, instead of going for the other fellow with your fists, when he returns, you let him go in peace.
Now, you go home, very proud of yourself for forgiving seven times. But if Jesus came into your village on that day, and you expected him to praise you for your tolerance, you would be wrong. Instead, he would say to you, as to Peter, that seven times is not enough. You must forgive seventy times seven.”

That’s the tough teaching of the gospel. Even so, it’s for us! We get mercy and peace and fulfillment when we let go of hostility. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7).

He said this because he knew that anger which is too frequent, or too intense, or too prolonged destroys our health and our relationships. Carrying grudges hurts us! We can’t feel free and happy if we are stewing over past injustices. So try to understand why others behave as they do. Don’t take everything personally. Focus instead on people’s positive traits and productive qualities, and let go of resentment.

M is for Mercy.

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(WC1930)

This issue of NEW PERSPECTIVES is from an unpublished manuscript © copyrighted 2008 by Miles and Maralene Wesner, Idabel, OK. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THEM IN ANY WAY YOU THINK IS APPROPRIATE. The only thing we ask is that you give credit for original material in PUBLISHED works.

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