Mercy

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7 (NIV)

A Command to Love

When the Pharisees, who were experts in the religious laws of the day, asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these commandments. (Matthew 22:36-40, NIV).”

A couple of months ago, when I meditated and prayed on these words, I felt an intense love for God, which led to a feeling of peace. I also felt a strong love for humanity and the desire to help others to understand what it is to feel this peace.

An Example from Job

The book of Job provides both a positive and a negative example of some ways in which we can show love and mercy to others. After Job lost his children and his goods and he was sitting in pain, his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came to him (Job 2). For seven days, his friends showed Job mercy. They wept for him, tore their clothes, sprinkled dust on their heads, and sat with him without saying a word.

After those seven days, Job’s friends ceased being merciful to Job. Not knowing the mind of God nor the true reason behind Job’s sufferings, they assumed that God was punishing Job because he had done something wrong. They accused Job and instructed him to repent of his sins. Eventually, God stepped in and reprimanded Job’s friends for speaking without knowledge.

The book of Job teaches us that, when we see others suffering, we should meet their needs as we understand them without judgment. We do not understand the reasons for their suffering, nor do we understand the state of their heart, so we should not speak as though we understand these things.

My neighbor

When I look at or even think about my daughters, I am filled with love and thoughts of mercy. Not only do I love them, but I want them to understand the love that I have for them. I understand that I am to extend these same thoughts to my neighbor. But who is my neighbor?

My neighbor includes the person in my community who struggles every day to find the money to pay their bills and buy enough food for their children.

My neighbor is the person who has lost all hope and thinks they will never know joy.

My neighbor is the person that I believe to be overly self-righteous.

My neighbor is the person who has the material things of this world that I want.

My neighbor includes the person whom I may fear because I think their way of living or religion will make our society “Unchristian.”

My neighbor is the starving person in a faraway land who has never known, nor will ever know, the comforts I take for granted every day.

Mercy requires that I love this person with the same tender love that I love my children. It requires that I desire and pray that their material, emotional, and spiritual needs are met. But it does not stop there. I must extend mercy to that person. I must show love to all I encounter with my words and attitude.

But does mercy stop at inwardly loving, praying for the person, and being kind to them? It does not. Am I truly merciful if I have more than I need, enough to spend on pleasures, enough to save for the future and possibly retire early; but I do not share any of these things with others nor sacrifice my time to assist them? The answer is “No.” To act in such a manner shows that I value my own wants, needs, and false security over the needs of others. Though I may be kind to them, there is no love there.

If I see my child or my wife in pain or in hunger, do I just say, “I love you,” and then go and pray for them? I may, but I will not leave it there. I will also go out of my way to comfort them emotionally and provide for them. To show mercy is to extend that same love to others in my community and the world.

May we all extend this love to others in our daily lives.