I began this series five sermons ago, by telling you about the Wright brothers—Wilbur and Orville. At the time I reminded you that these two brothers literally changed the world—which they certainly did the day in December of 1903 when they flew that flimsy airplane.
But to make that happen—to get that first plane off the ground—these two siblings had two requirements. First, there were lots of things they needed to KNOW. They had to learn about lift, and thrust, and drag—stuff like that. They had to figure out the math of how a wing works—and they did. By using their wind tunnel invention, they learned that the wing of a plane divides the air that flows over it. When this happens the pressure beneath the wing is increased—and the pressure above is reduced. That’s why—if you can pull—or push—the wing forward fast enough you get the lift necessary for the plane to fly. Thanks to Mr. Google I found the exact formula they discovered: “lift equals coefficient times density times velocity squared divided by two multiplied by the wing area.” I’m sure Bob Michael has that memorized!
This leads me to the Wright brothers’ second “flight requirement.” You see, learning—knowing—all these aerodynamic principles was not enough. To soar—to fly—these siblings also had to DO things. They had to ACT on their knowledge. They had to build the plane using the right materials. They had to design an engine—because none of the automobile manufacturers could build one that was both powerful enough and light enough. Then they had to equip their plane with all the necessary controls—controls they had to learn to use.
I bring this up because SOARING to new heights of spiritual maturity—requires the same two things. If a Christian is to become more and more like Jesus, there is information we need to know—and things we need to do. In fact, Jesus arranged His “spiritual flight lessons” in this way. The first four beatitudes are things that GROWING Christians have to KNOW. And the next four deal with things that Christians have to do. Think of it like this. So far, we’ve looked at KNOW-ATTITUDES. From now on we are studying DO-ATTITUDES.
And speaking of being and doing like Jesus—I need to point out that spiritual growth or soaring is exactly that—it’s striving to become more like our Lord. That brings us to this morning’s DO-attitude—because our Lord is MERCIFUL. As Psalm 145:8 says, “God is kind and merciful, slow to anger and full of love.” So—part of spiritual growth is imitating our Lord in this way. Growing Christians are merciful Christians. I like how Chrysostom, an early church leader, put it. He said, “Mercy imitates God and disappoints the devil.”
By the way, the writer of Lamentations reminds us that God is always showing us mercy. Do you remember the words? “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23) Now—the English word “new” is the Hebrew word “hadas” and it means “never before experienced.” This tells us that the mercy God gives us today is different from the mercy He gave yesterday or the day before or the day before the day before. In the same, way the seasonal flu vaccine changes from year to year, God’s mercy changes from day to day. Every morning we get a new strain of mercy. Why? Because you don’t always sin in the exact same way. I might be selfish over one thing today—and selfish over an entirely different thing tomorrow. I might covet one thing tomorrow and something else next week. Try this little exercise: Figure out how old you are—not in years but in days. That calculation will give you the sum total of different kinds of mercy you’ve received in life—the mercies that are NEW every morning. Today I’m 62 years and 155 days old. If you add in leap year days this means God has blessed me with AT LEAST, 22,801 unique mercies—because of course I don’t just sin once a day. Doesn’t that make you want to be merciful? The words of Micha 6:8 come to mind. It says, “He has showed you, O man, what is good.” He has shown me 22,801 times! That knowledge compels me to want to obey the command in this verse. Do you remember it? “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Okay—let’s get going with our study. Take your Bibles and follow along. Our text is verse 7 but so we can get a feel of this moving from KNOWING to DOING—let’s get a running start in verse 1.
1 – Now when [Jesus] saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him,
2 – and He began to teach them, saying:
3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 – Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 – Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 – Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS, for they will be filled.
7 – Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.
The question I want us to deal with this morning is: How does this particular DO-attitude unfold in the life of growing Christian? Or to put it another way, what does mercy look like? A great place to find the answers to these questions is in Luke 10 verse 25-37 where Jesus told the parable of The Good Samaritan. This familiar story gives us a picture of mercy. It provides us with a great example of mercy in action. I’m sure you know it, but take your Bibles and turn to Luke 10 anyway, and follow along as we review. In verse 30 and following, Jesus said that a Jewish man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed—leaving him lying on the roadside half dead. A priest came by but crossed to the other side of the road and kept on walking. A Levite came by and did the same—so two religious leaders—two people who supposedly knew God well, ignored this man in need.
But then a very surprising thing happened. A Samaritan, a sworn enemy of the Jews, came by. And with his response—with his actions—this Samaritan shows us the four dimensions of this particular flight lesson. Do you remember Jesus’ question at the end of His parable? He said to His listeners, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” And in essence, Jesus said, “Correct! Right answer. Go and do likewise!” We can see the first dimension of mercy in verse 33 where it says, “A Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where the wounded man was and HE SAW HIM.” At this point in this familiar story Jesus teaches us that mercy begins with what I would call a “God-empowered PERCEPTION.” This is always the first step in the unfolding of this BE-attitude.
(1) Because, mercy SEES.
Remember? In this familiar parable, the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan, all three men “saw” this wounded man—but only one perceived him as a person he had the responsibility to help. Only one began the process of mercy. The priest and the Levite only saw just another of the countless poor and downtrodden.
I have driven that road going up from Jericho to Jerusalem and even today it’s not a pleasant road. There are burned out cars—and lots of bends in the road where robbers could hide. The hills are pocketed with caves—great places for murderers and thieves to hang out. So—I don’t think this poor Jewish traveler was the only victim these religious people had encountered on their journeys along that highway. I imagine they did a lot of “crossing over to the other side of the road” so as to avoid other poor travelers. To them this Jew in Jesus’ story was just another victim. All they saw was yet one more beaten and bruised traveler. But the Samaritan—he saw what they couldn’t—or wouldn’t. He saw a human being—a person in need. That SEEING prompted him to be merciful—to turn aside and help the man.
If you know my wife you know she loves to go to thrift stores and yard sales. Every Friday night she scans the Internet to see where they will be held the next morning. She makes a plan and early Saturday she heads out. Sometimes I tag along. When she gets to one of those sales she sees things I don’t. I mean, I see yet another a beat-up coffee table for $3 and walk on by—Sue sees a mid-century work of art. So she stops, buys it, and sells it on Craig’s list for $100. I see a mud-stained chair. She sees a masterpiece of furniture design—a beauty that is worth much more than its yard sale price. I see a pile of old clothes—and in the middle of it she sees the perfect good-as-new outfit for one of our grandchildren. Sue has better eyesight than I do.
Well to embrace this flight lesson we need better eyesight. We need to be able to see the masterpiece that is in every person. We need to be able to see beyond their sin—beyond the consequences to their sin—and see a person made in the image of God Himself—because that kind of vision—that caliber of sight—prompts us to turn aside and help.
Here in this busy county you and I especially need to learn this principle of spiritual maturity—because so often we are blind to the hurting people around us. And because of that—we don’t see their need for mercy. The irony is that when people are crowded together in a large urban area like ours, they get so busy that they are at the same time drawn apart from one another.
Think of it. We ride on crowded metro cars every day and never make eye-contact with the people around us. We can live next door to people and they are like strangers to us because we never involve ourselves in their lives. We have a young couple with two small children that lived two houses up the street from us. I know they are not Christians and I had always meant to get to know them—but I didn’t. I was too busy to do anything more than wave on my way to another meeting or something. They sold their house this week and moved away. Thankfully, the Christians living next to me DID get to know them. That’s how I found out they weren’t believers. We all fail in that way don’t we. We don’t make it our business to see and hear the needs of the people who crowd around us. Again and again we let ourselves get so busy that we put our own needs and lives first. We all struggle from time to time with what has been called the “disease of me.”
Erma Bombeck shares an interesting story about a time that she was waiting for a flight in an airport. She was reading a book in an effort to shut out the commotion around her and writes:
“A voice next to me belonging to an elderly woman said, ‘I’ll bet it’s cold in Chicago.’ Stone-faced I replied, ‘It’s likely.’ ‘I haven’t been to Chicago in three years.’ The elderly woman persisted. ‘My son lives there.’ ‘That’s nice,’ I said, my eyes intent on my book. After a few quiet moments, the woman said, ‘My husband’s body is on this plane. I’m taking him to be buried. We’ve been married 53 years.’”
Bombeck continues: “I don’t think I ever detested myself more than I did at that moment. Another human being was screaming to be heard, and in desperation had turned to a cold stranger who was more interested in a novel than in the real-life drama at her elbow. She talked numbly and steadily until we boarded the plane, then found her seat in another section. As I hung up my coat, I heard her plaintive voice say to her seat companion, ‘I’ll bet it’s cold in Chicago.’”
Friend, are you sensitive to God’s still small voice, a voice that alerts you about people like this woman? Do you notice the needs of people around you? Or do your hurting neighbors and co-workers watch as you, a person who claims to follow Jesus, “walk by on the other side?” Here’s a simple prayer that will help each of us, “Lord, let me see people through Your eyes.” Pray it with me. “Lord, let me see people through Your eyes!” We must mean this prayer because it is the first step in becoming the kind of Christian—who is blessed—the kind of person who has our merciful God’s approval.
(2) Here’s a second thing about mercy. Mercy FEELS.
Remember? Jesus tells us in His parable that all three men SAW the need but only the Samaritan FELT the need. Look at verse 33 where it says, “He (the Samaritan) TOOK PITY on him.” Now, this word that we translate as “pity” literally means, “to have intensity in the intestines.” This sounds odd to us but the people of Jesus’ day believed the seat of the emotions was not in the heart but in the digestive area of the body. The idea is also captured in Matthew 14:14 where it says, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.” The word “compassion” means that Jesus was so moved that His stomach churned or literally, “His bowels yearned for the crowd.” We still talk this way at times. When we are nervous we say we have, “butterflies in the stomach.” We say things like, “She hates my guts” or, “I’ve got a gut feeling about this.”
Last week, when I shared the story about the little girl and her mom who were trapped in a collapsed building—the mom who cut her finger and gave her little girl the blood to drink to satisfy her thirst—when I shared it I heard an audible gasp and several of you told me it made you feel sick to the stomach. I like to think it was more than nausea—for me the thought of that little girl being that thirsty affected me emotionally—in the gut—did you feel that way?
Well, whatever “body-part-word-picture” you use, Jesus was saying that this Samaritan was moved emotionally, internally, moved deep inside, by the needs of the wounded Jewish man. Let me put it this way. He was SHAKEN UP when he saw a man who was BEATEN DOWN. And, this is another part of embracing this beatitude—we notice needy people and then we are moved internally with compassion for them. Someone put it this way, “Mercy begins when your HURT comes into my HEART.” By the way, the Hebrew word for mercy is “chesedh” and it means much more than to just sympathize with a person. It’s not simply feeling sorry for someone in trouble. No, chesedh mercy means the ability to get “inside the other person’s skin” until we can see things with his or her eyes, think things with his or her mind—and FEEL things with his or her feelings. So, you see, the mercy we are talking about here is much more than an emotional wave of pity. It is an internal identification with the person’s pain. It’s hurting with the hurting.
Pastor Matt Chandler writes about a time he and a couple of his friends invited a young woman named Kim to a gospel concert. Matt was hopeful that Kim would come to Christ that evening; however, what occurred was a “train wreck.” In retrospect, Matt was grateful for the experience because it changed the way he saw how to proclaim holiness in light of the cross of Jesus. Here’s how he describes what happened: “The preacher took the stage, and disaster ensued. He gave a lot of statistics about STDs. There was a lot of, ‘You don’t want syphilis, do you?’ His big illustration was to take out a single red rose. He smelled the rose dramatically caressed its petals, and talked about how beautiful this rose was and how it had been fresh cut that day. [Then] he threw the rose out into the crowd, and he encouraged everyone to pass it around. As he neared the end of his message, he asked for the rose back—but by now it was broken and drooping, and the petals were falling off. He held up this now-ugly rose for all to see, and his big finish was this: ‘Now who in the world would want this?’ His word and his tone were merciless.
His essential message, which was supposed to represent Jesus’ message to a world of sinners, was this: ‘Hey, don’t be a dirty rose.’”
Matt didn’t hear from Kim for a few weeks, until one day her mother called Matt to inform him that Kim had been in an accident. Matt immediately went to visit her in the hospital. He continues: “In the middle of our conversation, seemingly out of nowhere, she asked me, ‘Do you think I’m a dirty rose?’ My heart sank inside of me, and I began to explain to her the whole weight of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus wants the rose. It’s Jesus’ desire to save, redeem, and restore the dirty rose. I told her we all sin—we are all ‘dirty roses’ but God loves us anyway.”
Did you see Matt’s mercy in action? He hurt in his gut—he said his heart sank—as he realized how that preacher had made this girl feel. It hurt HIM that she would have been hurt—it hurt him that she was made to feel like a “dirty rose.”
Well, let me ask you. How are you doing when it comes to this second aspect of mercy?
Does your heart break for heartbroken people as Matt Chandler’s did? As I asked you a few weeks back, do you weep with the weeping? Do you feel the pain of others? Do you grieve for people who make sinful choices?
We can’t say we embrace this beatitude—we can’t claim to be MERCIFUL—unless we do.
(3) But, we’re not done yet. Mercy doesn’t stop there. It sees….it feels…and then it does this. Mercy ACTS.
This is where we see the division in the beatitudes—because a merciful person does more than feel: they act practically in an effort to relieve the distress. In verse 34 Jesus said that the Samaritan, “…went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” So, Biblical mercy is more than an attitude. It is an attitude that prompts us to do something. John MacArthur writes, “Mercy is not the silent, passive pity that never seems to help in a tangible way. It is genuine compassion with a pure, unselfish attitude that reaches out to help.”
When I was in High School we did a portion of the Broadway play, My Fair Lady and I remember the part of that play when Eliza Dolittle is courted by a man named Freddy. Freddy writes her love letters every day. Eliza’s response to all of his love letters was to cry out in frustration, “Words! Words! I’m so sick of words! Don’t talk to me of stars burning above! If you’re in love, show me! Don’t talk of love lasting through time! Make no undying vow. If you love me show me now!”
Well, genuine mercy is like true love in that it’s more than words or vows. It is grace-filled love in action. As 1st John 3:17-18 says, “If someone who is supposed to be a Christian has enough money to live on and sees a brother in need but won’t help him, how can God’s love be in him? Let’s stop just saying we love people. Let’s show it by our actions.” Mercy is a visible thing. Genuine mercy involves interrupting our schedule, expending our time and money.
Mercy is seeing a man without food and giving him food. Mercy is seeing a person begging for love and giving him love. Mercy is seeing someone lonely and giving him company. Mercy is meeting the need, not just feeling it. Let’s put it this way: mercy is not a spectator sport. According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, mercy is, “…the outward manifestation of pity; it assumes need on the part of him who receives it and resources adequate to meet the need on the part of him who shows it.”
Well, let me ask you, do you embrace this beatitude? Do you act mercifully to people in need? Remember mercy is more than noticing and feeling: it’s doing.
(4) And then a fourth aspect of this beatitude we see in this parable is this. Mercy EMBRACES.
I use the word “embrace” to say that mercy does not exclude. No matter who it is who needs mercy—no matter what their sin—we show them mercy. Remember, in Jesus’ parable, the man helping was a Samaritan. The man needing the help was his sworn enemy, a Jew. Jews hated their half-breed neighbors the Samaritans, and history shows that the feeling was mutual. Most Samaritans would have excluded this Jewish enemy. They wouldn’t have FELT for his pain much less ACTED to help him. Most would have mimicked the Priest and the Levite by passing by on the other side.
Many times, we are just as bad. I mean, we tend to limit the people to whom we want to show mercy. When we are hurt or wronged, being merciful and forgiving isn’t the first thing that comes into our minds. No, instead our first response is to try and get back at those who hurt us or those we disagree with.
I always fear getting political in a sermon—because church unity is so important—and I know we are a diverse church—we have different political views—which is good. But I have to say—we need more MERCY in the political spectrum these days. I feel like both the left and the right literally LIVE to hurt each other. The republicans and the democrats are kind of the Jews and the Samaritans of the 21st century. I was happy to see that when Kathy Griffin posted that grisly video of her holding up the bloody severed head of the president she got backlash from both sides of the aisle. Maybe this situation will prompt them to knock it off.
Behavior like hers—and similar actions by both democratic and republican CHRISTIANS does not please God. We are called to feel and act mercifully even toward ALL people—including people we vehemently disagree with. Do you remember Jesus’ words in In Luke 6? Our Lord said, “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that! But love your enemies. Do good to them. Then your reward will be great. Be merciful just as your Father is!”
Speaking of enemies of the Christians faith—Patrick Greene of San Antonio, Texas, has had a long history of disliking and combating believers. An outspoken atheist he filed complaints and lawsuits for 30-plus years accusing government officials of unconstitutionally endorsing Christianity. At one point Greene threatened to sue Henderson County about the yearly manger display at the courthouse. In an interview for a local newspaper, Greene said, “My wife and I had never had a Christian do anything nice for us.” But all of that changed in March of 2012 when the 63-year-old Greene learned that he needed surgery for a detached retina. Greene didn’t have money to pay for the surgery, and he had to give up his cab driving job in order to have the procedure. Well, when Jessica Crye, a member of Sand Springs Baptist Church, heard about Greene’s situation, she told her pastor, Eric Graham, who then called Greene. Greene said,
“If you really want to contribute something, we need groceries.” Greene thought that if anything, he’d see $50, or at most $100. But a few days later, the church sent him a check for $400. More checks soon followed. The total grew to over $3000. The flabbergasted Greene said, “I thought I was in the Twilight Zone. These people are acting like what the Bible says a Christian should. I will be forever grateful because we were in a hole and needed help.” After that happened, rather than try to remove the manger display, Greene said he would like to add his contribution—a star for the top of the Nativity scene. However, Greene added, “You people can figure out how to plug it in.”
I love this story! Most of the time we want to FIGHT BACK against the atheists of the world—the people who are our “enemies” in this morality war. But these Texas believers embraced their enemy. They literally SHOWED him mercy. That’s the way it is with mercy. The more you give—the more you get. The more you understand how merciful God has been to you, the more merciful you are to others and then the more opportunities God gives you to share His mercy with others. It’s a cycle of sorts. Jesus refers to it in our text when He declares that those who are merciful “will receive mercy.” The fact is—mercy comes from mercy. Our mercy for others comes from our experience of God’s mercy to us. Do you remember the words from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, where Portia, says, “The quality of mercy is not strained. It drops as the gentle rain from Heaven upon the Earth below, and is twice blessed. It blesses him that gives and him that takes.” Sounds like Shakespeare had been reading the beatitudes!
Let me ask you. Who in your little world needs mercy this morning? Your spouse? A rebellious child? A co-worker? Someone in this church? I want to challenge you to ask God to help you answer that question right now, and then pray asking Him to help you extend mercy. And if you have trouble, remember what God has done for you, because the parable of the Good Samaritan is more than a picture of mercy. It’s a picture of what God did on our behalf. God saw us. He noticed us in our miserable, lost condition. He saw us wounded and dying from sin. And He took pity on us. He was moved with compassion for us. He knew that sin had rendered us spiritually dead and utterly hopeless. He knew that He was the only One that had the power to bring about a remedy. So, He “got inside our skin” so to speak. He became like us and participated in our sufferings to the point that He died on the cross for our sins. The apostle Paul put it this way, “Because of His great love for us, God Who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ, even when we were dead in transgression.” (Ephesians 2:4)