9/26/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy… [Concurrently: Blessed are those who choose kindness because they shall find kindness.]” (Matthew 5.7)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Throughout the previous reflections on the “Beatitudes,” I have promoted the paradigm for understanding as being the relationship with choosing to live righteously. While Jesus indicates the benefits, or consequences, of living righteously which are evident in the second half of each character or chosen attitude (contrition-commission, confession-redemption, meekness-inheritance and spiritual desire-fulfillment, etc.), it would seem that the focus is “getting the blessing” over and against being the blessing. Some would see this as a conviction of “works righteousness versus righteous works.” What is our intention for being righteous? Is it to receive the blessing or for being the blessing. This is the burden of our humanity as believers living and serving in a broken world. Our time on earth has been from the very beginning the opportunity to serve God first and always. Doing so leads to the concurrent reality of serving others next and continually. We are introduced to this conceptual living in righteousness with what Jesus called “The Greatest Commandment.” That commandment was, is and will continue to be two-fold: love God and love your neighbor. I find this pertinent to this reflection on the next “beatitude” which says “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.” Most every available translation will choose to interpret racham as “mercy or compassion.” Interestingly, it is in Young’s Literal Translation that we find “kindness” as the appropriate translation.

Is there a difference between mercy and kindness? Can one be kind and not be merciful? Is it easier to understand being merciful as being kind? I believe that taking on the context of “righteousness” and “that which promotes the call and the answer to the call of salvation from our sins” as it would seem is the underlying theme of the beatitudes, we can certainly answer in the affirmative. Showing “mercy” is how a person, most especially God, offers a reprieve from the penalty that assigned to a particular crime. God’s mercy is demonstrated to us, as Paul wrote, “While we were yet sinners, Christ gave His life for us. In this God demonstrates His love, mercy, for us.” (Romans 5.8) We know that the penalty for sin is death. Yet, in faith that Jesus is the Christ and our decision to affirm Him as our Lord, Savior and substitutionary sacrifice as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” we are spared the “death penalty of eternal judgment against us and all who would refuse to accept God’s saving grace.” God is not simply being kind, especially as we have come to understand “kind” in our current culture and climate. What would that understanding be? “Kind” has come to mean “accepting, tolerating, enabling, allowing, encouraging by a lack of accountability, and an inauthentic understanding of freedom.” In fact, some would call such “kindness,” true justice.

As mercy lends itself to an understanding of life and death with eternal consequences in this world and/or in the next, kindness does not necessarily do so. “Kindness” may point to being empathetic, sympathetic, compassionate, generous, perhaps even “neighborly” in the generic sense and application of the word. Some may even interpret kindness with a phrase such as “don’t be mean” or “be nice.” It may even attempt to soften “don’t hate” in that any kind of judgment, even discernment of right and wrong, would be viewed as a negative. Now we are back to such common current mindsets of “tolerance, inclusion and freedom to live and let live.” Such kindness and acts of random kindness (a sense of “Evan Almighty’s” ARK lesson) are laudable and even beneficial. But, do they point in the direction of the eternal? Do they speak of salvation and redemption? Do they promote mercy and grace? Are they bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and His mission and purpose to bring in the Age of Salvation and the understanding of how best to live righteously before God and humanity? Such acts of “kindness” with the appearance or intention of seemingly random presentations as “for the sake of it,” may actually rob others of the hope for the future which is beyond this world and this earth.

It is in this that we see the dilemma of the gospel message concerning the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of God and Messiah of the Jews, Gentiles, slave, free, male, female, rich, poor and of every nation! God was not being kind with a hope that we would be kind to Him. Nor was there any hint of “You are being kind to one another, so I will let this one go.” God does not say “You get a pass.” A penalty had to be secured because God had determined the course of life and life’s consequences as the natural order. In order for God to be love, demonstrate love and inspire love, there had to be “right and wrong” as well as “blessing and penalty.” And God made a way with the efficacy of mercy and grace. Jesus introduced this train of thought when we spoke of “The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.” (Matthew 18.21-35) In it, a servant who was in debt so far past his ability to repay that death would not have even been reasonable, was actually extended mercy by his master. His debt was cancelled in whole without question. The weight of responsibility for it was lifted from him and his family. He would be able to live with the most gracious “do over” that he could have imagined. He wasn’t, mind you, set at liberate as a free person to go his way. He was still a servant to the master who showed mercy. What was his first act of thanksgiving, however? He came across someone who owed him a tremendous debt who wasn’t a servant to him. He would have been a friend, an associate, maybe even his neighbor. He may have been a servant to another master or he may have been a “free man.” Regardless, he was a debtor. He was a debtor who couldn’t repay his debts either. Now the man demanded the debt be paid without question and threatened legal action if he did not. When the master of that “man who have been blessed with mercy” heard of what happened, the weight of the debt was restored. He was cast into a prison until he could repay the full debt. Imagine, if you will, how he would have done so from prison. He could not. Only by the acts of kindness on his behalf of perhaps family and friends could his debt be repaid. In other words, not likely.

Mighty ones of God, we are that debtor. We are set at liberty to extend mercy because we have found mercy. Even more so, we are set at liberty to extend mercy to those who are looking for mercy. Such mercy does not speak of “financial, emotional, conditional, etc” freedom in this world but that which is laid up for us in Heaven where neither “moth, rust nor thief” can take away. It isn’t about just being kind so we can live for another day. It is about being merciful so that we will know life eternal in Heaven beyond.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.