Blessed are the Merciful.

We are living in a time where there is a lot of talk about sacrifice, doing for your neighbour what you wouldn’t do for yourself. We don’t see or hear anything about mercy from the secular worldview because they have rejected the teachings of Jesus for a very long time. Regardless of the times we are living in now, Jesus had something to say about mercy, which I personally think our generation should still seriously consider.

In Matthew 9:9-13 we read 9 “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus points out here that the Pharisees were the ones who thought they were righteous. They were questioning Jesus’ actions and teachings because he was showing mercy to sinners and outcasts. When Jesus was saying he desired mercy not sacrifice, he wasn’t just referring to the Judaical teachings of the Law, in which the Jews at that time believed made them right with God, (see Romans 10:1-13) he was more specifically referring to the ways in which we treat oneself and one another. Jesus knew his actions demonstrated his desire to save sinners and even said he didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners, v. 13.

Jesus knows that it is only those who will recognize their need for a Saviour that will enter eternal Life. The gospel or good news goes out to everybody, but it is only those who ultimately recognize their need for a Saviour, who will be saved. Jesus doesn’t lack compassion by asking us to show mercy, because it was through his mercy, by dying on the cross that we are forgiven, and we can live. Jesus wants to give us life, and he ask us to learn how to show mercy. He already knows that by showing mercy, we will be given mercy now and at the last Judgment, (Matthew 5:7, James 2:13) “because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment”. (James 2:13) This is Mike.

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