Jesus begins his famous Sermon on the Mount with a series of verses known as the Beatitudes. The name comes from the Latin word for “blessings,” and Jesus starts each verse with the word “blessed,” which can also mean “fortunate,” “to be congratulated,” and “happy.”
We’re looking at each verse individually, but if you step back and look at the Beatitudes as a whole, you can see a pattern. They show the process a person goes through when transforming from an unsaved enemy of God into a fully devoted follower of Christ.
The first three beatitudes show the person who realizes he is spiritually bankrupt, who mourns over his sinfulness, and who surrenders to God as his only hope.
All of this flows into a hunger and thirst for righteousness, meaning both a right standing with God and growth in holiness and Christlikeness.
The next three Beatitudes show the practical outworking of that desire for holy living: mercy, purity, and peacemaking.
It’s almost as if Jesus understood human nature when he made these statements, because the first test for anyone claiming to desire righteousness is how well they treat other people. It would be so much easier if righteousness only meant not stealing, not cheating on a test, not giving someone the finger when they pull right out in front of you in traffic. Okay, so that last one may not be easier, but you get the point.
But Jesus is saying that righteousness and holiness are so much more than not doing bad things. It’s also about treating other people the way Jesus treats us. How do you measure up to that?
Jesus starts this next group of Beatitudes in verse 7:
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
Those who show mercy are blessed because they’ll receive mercy. And I want mercy. I need mercy. But showing mercy? That’s easier said than done.
What does it mean to be merciful? We could probably list hundreds of ways to be merciful, but because you don’t have time to read that many, I’ll mention three.
First, showing mercy means caring for the needs of others. How often do you go out of your way to meet someone’s physical or emotional needs? How much time or money do you give to organizations that are meeting the needs of struggling people? A lot of us get mad at how much the government is spending on social issues when the truth is the government wouldn’t have to spend much at all if the church was doing its job.
So how are you doing at using what you’ve been given to meet the needs of others? Do you even notice when people need help? Would you at least start by asking God to show you how? If you’re willing to be used by God in this way, he’ll show you who needs help.
Second, showing mercy means loving the unlovable. We all know some people are hard to love. Then there are those who oppose us, who are our enemies. Jesus said we’re to love them, too. In this very same sermon in Matthew 5, Jesus says:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45)
Loving your enemies doesn’t mean manufacturing feelings of goodwill toward them, because love is never just a feeling. Love means doing, to the point that it costs us something.
Remember, Jesus loved us to the point that it cost him his life.
…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
And we weren’t just sinners before we gave our lives to Christ. Paul tells us two verses later:
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10)
We were God’s enemies, yet he still gave his Son for us, who paid the penalty we deserved to pay for our rebellion and sinfulness. Jesus is calling us to have that kind of love for our enemies.
Third, being merciful means forgiving those who have wronged us. For many of us, it’s easier to help someone or even to love someone than it is to forgive someone who has hurt us or, worse, someone we love.
It’s only natural to want revenge when we’ve been hurt. At the very least, we want to see the person punished in some way. We want them to get hit and hit hard. That’s what they deserve.
And we may be right about what they deserve. But those feelings of hate and revenge and bitterness usually don’t do a thing to hurt the other person.
They can slowly kill us.
When we forgive someone, it’s ourselves that we set free. And forgiveness doesn’t mean that we’re saying what they did was okay. We’re not pretending that nothing ever happened. We’re not freeing them from their guilt. We’re freeing ourselves from the desire to see them punished. The freedom is not for them, it’s for us.
One day Peter came up to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” And Jesus said, “No! Seventy times seven!” And then he told a story (Matthew 18:21-35) about a man who owed the king millions of dollars. The king was going to sell the man’s family into slavery to pay off the debt, but the man begged the king to be patient and he would pay it all back. So the king released the man and forgave his debt.
But the man then went to another person who owed him money. Not the millions of dollars that he owed the king, but thousands. He demanded instant payment, and when the debtor begged for more time, the man refused to listen and had the debtor thrown in jail.
Some of the other servants saw this happen and told the king. And the king called in the man and told him, “You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?” Then the angry king sent the man to prison.
The trouble with refusing to forgive is that you aren’t innocent. If you’re a Christian, there was a time when you realized the ugliness of your sin, and you came to God and begged him for mercy. And God forgave you. He showed you mercy.
You have been forgiven much. It’s time now to forgive. Free them, and, in turn, free yourself.
Show mercy, and you’ll receive it.