A Reflection on the Merciful

 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7, NRSV).


The terms “mercy” and “merciful” are among those terms which have become ubiquitous in the Christian tradition. These are terms used regularly to describe the very character of God in Scripture—indeed, in Scripture the terms are most often used of God and less often as applied to people. The Lord Jesus applied the word “merciful” to humans and of God’s interactive relating to them.

That God extends “mercy” to us or that we are “merciful” to another person encompasses the full range of human needs. On the one hand, humans are created as needy and dependent upon God for all things (whether they realize or want to acknowledge this or not) and so they are always in need of God’s mercy. On the other hand, we sin and inflict harm upon each other and can even attempt to harm God (as utterly foolish as that is).

God remains merciful to us, “for he makes his sun rise on the evil [persons] and on the good [persons], and sends rain on the righteous [persons] and on the unrighteous [persons].” (Matthew 5:45, NRSV) This is an aspect of the loving character of God that he persistently extends to all people his mercy. We are in need of God’s mercy because of our natures as creatures, and because we have chosen an array of means by which to sin against God and harm one another.

The way the Lord Jesus described our responsibility to one another appears to be something like a universal law: “the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38, NRSV) Thus to express un-mercy to other people is to set ourselves up for God to withhold mercy he would otherwise give to us. And we cannot walk in true blessedness, as Jesus promised, without obeying the truth which he spoke. Those who do obey, putting into practice, God’s command to give mercy, are becoming in this way more like God, and thus receiving from the living God true blessedness in this mortal life.
 

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