Chapter Five - “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Chapter Five

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

As Jesus continues to bring his teaching, His character becomes evident and His desire for us to become like Him is clear.      God has always presented Himself as a merciful God. Even in the times of the law, God’s intention was that by exposing mankind to the judgment that had befallen upon them by the disobedience of the law, He would have the opportunity to show us His kindness and mercy. God did not create us for destruction; it was never God’s intention to be cruel and unmerciful but to express the true essence of Him as a merciful God, a loving God. Let’s read Romans 9:14-16: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him, who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. (NKJ)
It is God’s choice to show us His mercy, not because of us, not because we deserve, the fact that we may be a good person, never harming anyone in anyway does not entitle us to be receivers of His mercy; we were born out of sin, inherited by Adam’s fall, Romans 3:23 says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..” We fell short of God’s glory, BUT by HIS mercy we have been given the opportunity to see His glory again. Why is so important to understand the Merciful side of God? Because by understanding HIS mercy towards us we get to see how important it is to not withhold mercy towards others like ourselves. We are no better than anyone else; God’s mercy is not available only to some who have “earned” HIS mercy but to all who are ready to recognize that it is not about us but about Him, becoming like Him and walking in His footsteps.
When we understand His mercy we see that we have no right not to forgive, for He has done something much greater than we could ever deserve. Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-5: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,      even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…”, He loved us before we loved Him! His mercy goes beyond the type of mercy the world preaches, His mercy is more than just simply sparing us from punishment but His mercy brings a restoration from our fallen nature; it’s God’s effort to bring us back to His original plan: Fellowship with Him!
The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is a great example of showing mercy, demonstrating a compassionate heart even if the norm discouraged us to it.
The passage mentions about three men: A priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. The first two men were very religious, passing by the wounded man, unwilling to involve themselves because they would get impure. The ritual for purification after touching such man would cost them time and effort and they apparently were not willing to go through all the “trouble of helping” someone in need.
The third man comes to the picture. A Samaritan man, who by so many Jews was regarded as an inferior race, not considered as honorable people as the Jews. But, the interesting turn of this little parable was the fact the Jesus turning the “table” around and presents an attitude different then the people would normally expect.
     Jesus wanted to show that the act of mercy would not necessarily come out of those who give the outward appearance, but from those who genuinely felt compassion regardless of the status and background of the one in need.
     He wanted us to learn that an act of mercy should be an impartial act, not to be avoided by malice and prejudice but must be done out of a servant’s heart!
Mercy is one of the facets of God’s love, just as grace is a part of love that moves His heart towards us forgiving us from our guilt, so is mercy, God’s effort to help us in our state of misery. The act of showing mercy is a demonstration of God’s character in our lives, by that, we show His love. The apostle John in his first letter chapter 4 and verse 8 describes the importance of love in the life of a Christian: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love”. (NKJ) Do we want to obtain love and mercy from God? Do we want to value His forgiveness, His love? Let us exercise Mercy, the more we show it the closer we get to the Heart of God. The world can not feel and be blessed through an act of mercy for they do not understand the concept of Grace. They need to know that only through Grace, the undeserved gift; we can feel the blessing of mercy, helping other in distress for we have also been helped without deserving to be helped!