Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?day=14&id=devotion&month=12
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Mt 5:7
Mercy is one of the qualities apparent in those whom God is filling with his righteousness. Jesus himself showed us what it meant to be merciful. He relieved suffering and dealt with the results of sin. He spent time with the social outcasts, healed the sick, and comforted those in distress. He told the parable of the Good Samaritan as an illustration of mercy in action. The injured man had no claim on the Samaritan, who yet saw his need, pitied him and took spontaneous and costly action to bring relief.
Mercy is not a natural human quality, nor is a forgiving spirit. Our natural reaction is often to be vindictive, retaliatory and intolerant toward others, leaving them to suffer the results of their own stupidity or obstinacy. But that was not the way of Jesus. It was not that he was easy-going, ignoring or condoning sin. In fact it was just because he could not overlook it that he paid its penalty for us, and he asks us to show the same mercy, even to those to whom we have no contractual obligation. We should be prepared to spend time with the difficult patient or the terminally ill. We should be ready to see where there is a need and how best we can meet it, even beyond the call of duty.
In this beatitude at first it appears as if God's mercy towards us is a reward for our mercy toward others. That is not so. Rather the motive for our mercy is that we have seen our need and have found God's mercy for ourselves. The more we know his mercy in experience, the more our lives will show this characteristic of our heavenly Father.
If I am not merciful there is only one explanation;
I have never understood the grace and the mercy of God.
D Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Further reading: Lk 10:30-37. Titus 3:4-8. 1 Jn 4:19-21.
JABA
