Someone once said, “We are most like beasts when we kill; we are most like men when we judge; and we are most like God when we forgive.” Christ was speaking to the Jewish people out on the hillside at a critical time in their history. The Roman Empire was at the apex of their international power. They controlled the world. The Roman Empire began amassing its power 7-8 hundred years before Christ came to the earth. So, by the time Christ was teaching the people about the secrets to the Kingdom, the Roman Empire had already crested and was just over the hill and on the way down. When a nation has been in absolute power for a period of time, leaders begin to take advantage of their positions, because absolute power corrupts. People find their way around the checks and balances. We are discovering this in our own government, and the case in point is the financial institution bailout (or debacle). No one wants to get to the bottom of the problem and deal with the real issues because too many of the primaries are in cahoots with each other. And if one person is collared with the guilt, the finger will be pointed back at the accuser for something else. So, instead of dealing with the problem, we take the easy way out and borrow ourselves into oblivion, hoping that two wrongs will somehow make a right. But one day the piper will have to be paid.

The Romans, in order to fund their tremendous empire building, were exacting usurious taxes from the Jewish people, whose backs were being broken from the heavy burden they were carrying to help float the Roman Empire. Not only that, they had no recourse. They were persona non gratis in their own country. Roman soldiers could demand anything they wanted from the Jewish people. Even more odious were the tax collectors, who demanded terrible taxes and, if they could not be paid, confiscated the property for their own gain.

This impossible taxing produced a bitterness in the Jewish people that affected the very fabric of their society. They were a proud people. They had history. They were God’s chosen people. They were the people of promise. Yet, now they were being treated like slaves! They could not bring themselves to show mercy to people who were not repentant for what they were doing. If the Romans repented and changed their evil practices, maybe; but that wasn’t going to happen. The words which Christ is speaking to them were probably not readily accepted. He said, “Blessed are those who are merciful, for people will show mercy to them in return.” But the obvious implication is that they have to take the first step in order for the equation to work.

 

Christ’s teaching is a principle that runs all through the New Testament. This is not an isolated concept for a particular situation but a rule that is applied in all situations. The Bible consistently teaches that in order to be forgiven, we must be forgiving. James said, “You will be judged on whether or not you are doing what Christ wants you to do. So, watch what you do and what you think; for there will be no mercy to those who have shown no mercy. But if you have been merciful, then God’s mercy toward you will win out over His judgment against you (James 2:12,13). Jesus finishes the story of the unforgiving debtor with the warning: “So also my heavenly Father will do to everyone of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:35). The Lord’s Prayer is followed by the two verses which explain and underline Christ’s admonition about forgiveness:  “For if you forgive others of their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Only the merciful receive mercy.

But there is even more to it than that. The Hebrew word for mercy is a word that we cannot even translate with a comparable English word. It means more than simply sympathizing with someone who is going through a difficult time or feeling sorry for someone who is in trouble. Rather, it is the ability to actually get right inside the other person’s skin until we can see things with his eyes and think with his mind and feel with his feelings. The Indians used to say, “Don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in their moccasins.”

But we are a people that have turned inward. It’s all about being Number One. We’ve talked many times about the culture shock of visiting other countries and the different value systems of societies. People in many other countries place high priorities on relationships. It is not important for them to get to the top or to accomplish great deeds. What is important is being a good friend. It is absolute culture shock to go to Tibetan China and see three or four men walking down the street with their arms around each other. That would be unheard of in Hayden Lake, but it is common over there because they are into relationships. We are more conscious of ourselves than we are of other people. It’s every person for himself. So, it is hard for us to get into someone else’s mind or to feel what he feels. Even in our conversations we are not very good listeners. When someone is talking to us, we tend to be thinking about what we are going to say as a comeback rather than really listening to what the person is saying.

 

What I am pointing out here is that when Christ asks us to show mercy, He is talking about a specific act of the will, not something that happens naturally for most people. It means that we deliberately make it part of our daily actions to identify with those people God puts in our pathway and that we ask God to let us see things the way that person sees things and to feel what that person feels. Showing mercy contains an element of sympathy. The word sympathy comes from two Greek words... “sym”, together with...and “paschein”, to experience or suffer. So, the whole meaning is “experiencing things together with the other person” or literally, “going through what they are going through”.

That is what we have a terribly difficult time doing. Most of us are so concerned with our own feelings and problems that when someone approaches us with their problems, we only connect from the outside. We do not make the deliberate effort to get inside the other person’s mind and heart until we see and feel things as he sees and feels them. If we, as Christ’s hands and feet and eyes and ears here on the earth, could make it our daily goal to identify with the other person in this way, what a difference we could make in our world.

As I was working on this message, I received an email from a friend who has been battling cancer for several years. He has done a tremendous amount of study on diseases and their causes and on both conventional and non-conventional forms of prevention and cure. One of the things that seems to explain the tremendous rise in some forms of cancer (900% increase in some forms) since World War II days is:

1. Traditional Western diet

2. Stress, especially from anger, despair, denial, and social isolation

3. Sedentary lifestyles.

I thought specifically about the second one of these...stress. If we could practice being merciful, meaning to be more interested in others than we are in ourselves and deliberately making an attempt to not just stay outside people’s problems but actually get inside their skin and minds, what a release that could be from our own stress and anger and social isolation, etc.

I love what Paul told the Philippians... “Is there any such thing as Christians cheering each other up? Do you love me enough to want to help me? Does it mean anything to you that we are brothers in the Lord, sharing the same Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic at all? Then make me truly happy by loving each other and agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, working together with one heart and mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and in what is happening in their lives” (Phillipians 2:1-4). And to the Ephesians he added, “Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love” (Ephesians 4:32).  That is exactly what Jesus is trying to teach them when He said, “Blessed are those who are merciful, for they will receive mercy in return.”

 

 Many of you know Clynton and Marjorie Crisman. They were pastors here for 22 years. Just recently, the doctors told Marjorie that she only had a couple of days to live. My daughter Heidi, who is like another daughter to Clynton and Marjorie, visited Marj in the hospital. Heidi called me that night and said, “Dad, Marjorie is dying just like she lived. She is ministering to everyone and hopes to lead her doctor to the Lord. She said, ‘It’s going to be just like the poem that talks about leaving the earth and waving good-bye and turning around and being welcomed into Heaven by everyone waiting for her there.’” Heidi was crying her eyes out, and Marjorie said, “Oh, Heidi. Let me just have a word of prayer for you and ask God to help you with all of this.”

Even on her death bed she was concerned, not about herself, but about others. (By the way, the doctors revised the prognosis to several more years of life.) But that is so like Christ. Even on the cross as He was bearing the sins of the world and going through both physical and emotional anguish, He looked down and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” Christ was showing mercy to those who deserved it the least. He was offering them forgiveness even though they were not asking for it. Jesus was seeing inside of them-- angry, tortured people who thought they were doing the right thing. There is always a reason why a person thinks and acts as he does, and if we knew that reason, it would be so much easier to forgive that person and to show him mercy.

Your own health may hinge on your ability to show mercy to those who don’t deserve it. Would you pray this week that you might be conscious of those around you who need to be loved? Will you ask God to make you the best listener in the world? Will you ask God to let you see what He sees in the people you meet? Will you lay down your life for those who desperately need someone who will care about them? And will you do it with those who may be the least desirable people to minister to? Blessed are the merciful (those who care), for they will receive mercy (from the Lord).