If you’re my age or older, you may remember the old
game “Mercy.” Opponents faced each other
and grasped hands with interlaced fingers.
The object of the game was to squeeze the other person’s fingers and
wrench their wrists painfully until one or the other surrendered by shouting,
“Mercy!” Pretty simple game—and I have
to admit, it’s the first thing I think of when I read in the Beatitudes, Jesus’
famous phrase, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy
(Matthew 6:7 NIV).”
When you
think of mercy, many things might cross your mind. You might picture a convicted criminal pleading
for the court’s clemency. Or you might
imagine a defeated enemy groveling before his conqueror. Mercy is “compassion or forgiveness shown
toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.”[i] Invariably it involves one person in the
superior position showing kindness towards another in an inferior
position. Jesus frequently speaks of
mercy towards our enemies. What Jesus
starts in the Beatitudes, he picks up further on in the Sermon on the
Mount. Matthew 5:38-48 parallels Luke 6:27-31,
35-36 (NIV), in which Jesus says:
“But to you who
are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless
those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on
one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not
withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone
takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would
have them do to you… Then your reward will be great, and you will be children
of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful,
just as your Father is merciful.”
We tend to love these words of Jesus, until they
apply to us. When we start thinking of
our own enemies, those who may be threats to our jobs, our sense of security,
our prestige, our status—we generally say it applies to other people. Or we say, “Jesus’ words work in theory, but
not in the real world.” But if this is
so, then we’re just Jesus-fans, not Jesus-followers. To be a Jesus-followers means you actually do
the things he says, that you live by his example.
Jesus has real-world situations in mind when he says
all this. He is speaking to people who
were directly oppressed by Rome’s invading armies. Jesus’ hearers are harassed and threatened,
abused, over-taxed and humiliated daily by their oppressors. Yet Jesus advocates nonviolence, love, and generosity
toward their enemies. If Jesus can model
this, teach this, and expect this from his followers in such a brutal
situation, surely he can expect you to be nice to those irritating people at
work, church, or in your family. And
Christians in leadership positions within our community and nation can figure
out how to be both strong on one hand, and merciful on the other.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us that we get what
we focus on, and what goes around comes around.
You’re blessed if you’re merciful, because you’ll receive mercy. Jesus’ brother James reminds us of the
prostitute who demonstrated mercy to her enemies.[ii] James points out how the Israelite spies
entered Jericho, and how Rahab sheltered them instead of turning them in to her
city guard. In return for the mercy she
showed them, they promised her that when they conquered the city, they would
grant sanctuary to her and her household[iii]. Because she showed mercy, she lived—and not
only lived, but became an ancestor of Jesus himself. So the Lord knows from his own family tree
how this principle of mercy worked—and he passes it on to you today.
But
Jesus can’t actually mean that, can he?
To love our enemies and be good to them, to show them mercy and care for
them? Yes—this
is exactly what he means. And to
underscore it, Jesus imbeds the Golden Rule into his teaching: “Do to others as
you would have them do to you.” Notice,
he didn’t say, “Do to others before they can do to you.” Jesus isn’t talking about preemptive strikes
or defensive postures. He’s talking
about giving love and mercy, and expecting the best from people—because you
tend to get what you focus on. This
isn’t a foolproof way of always being treated well, but it is a way of living
out God’s love and changing your world.
Around 1:30 PM on April 23 of this year,
25-year-old Alek Minassian drove a rented van onto a crowded sidewalk on Yonge
Street in Toronto, Canada. He left ten
people dead and fourteen injured in a 2.2-kilometer stretch of sidewalk. The van was stopped, with “severe front-end
damage.”[iv]
With drawn pistol, Constable Ken Lam confronted Minassian. According to CBC News:
"Come on, get
down," the officer shouts after drawing his weapon.
"Kill
me," the man says in between making quick-draw motions with his arm.
"No, get
down," the officer responds.
"I have a gun
in my pocket," the man says.
"I don't
care. Get down," the officer responds. "Get down or you'll be
shot."
The man begins to
approach the officer after a few more verbal exchanges, still pointing the
black object at him.
"He kept on
taking steps forward, and it is at that point that the officer, I believe,
realized that that was not a gun in his hand," said Shahnam Ashgar,
who witnessed the scene unfold.
The officer does
not fire. He holsters his gun and takes out a baton as he strides toward the
suspect, who tosses aside the object in his hand and lies down on the sidewalk,
where the officer handcuffs him.
The whole incident
was over in 37 seconds, and police now say there is no evidence the
man was armed.[v]
Today,
Officer Lam is being praised for his quick thinking, his level head, his
compassion. He had every legal right to
use deadly force, yet he realized he didn’t need to. In addition to preserving Minassian’s life,
the suspect could be arrested and questioned, so more could be understood about
his mental condition.
Jesus
said that God is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked,” and he calls us to be
god-like in our relationships as well.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” I wonder, how can you show mercy today? Who do you have in your life, that you have
the power to harm, and maybe with good cause—but you also have the power to act
with compassion? How can you be like
Jesus, and change your world?
[ii]
James 2:25
[iii]
Joshua 2
[iv] “Toronto
van attack: What we know so far about the suspect, victims and more.” April 25, 2018. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-toronto-van-attack-what-we-know-so-far/. April 25, 2018.
[v] “Officer
praised after taking down Toronto van attack suspect without gunfire.” April 24, 2018. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/officer-praised-taking-van-attack-suspect-custody-peaceful-1.4632661. April 25, 2018.
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