Lord, Have Mercy!

It's a funny thing with us humans.  We want to mete out justice whenever we are wronged.  We want to let that person have it and feel satisfied when the person gets a comeuppance!  We decry when someone "gets away with it."  

We would cringe using the word, "revenge," but it has a sweet aroma to us and makes us contemplate how far we might go to enact it. 

If we are personally wronged, we are angered and question how and why this person could do such a thing.  Sometimes the wrongs are just having a really bad day:  Someone cuts you off on the freeway; someone is rude to you at the store; someone steals your purse you laid down on a chair for a moment or someone gets your job by creating lies that your boss believes. 

Sometimes the wrongs we suffer are truly shattering: A crime committed against us or a loved one; the destruction of our lives by someone's underhanded but effective machinations or you are betrayed beyond description by someone who you thought loved you.

There are degrees of offense and degrees of retribution.   

In fact, it was after watching a concentration camp movie in junior high, that I was thrown into the fiery furnace of doubt. I couldn't believe what these people had done and much to my utter dismay, most of the perpetrators had gotten away with their crimes. I decided then and there I was an atheist; if there was a God, how could He allow such a thing?

But eating your cosmic lunch alone, when the universe is empty, is truly depressing. I came finally to a place of faith, after much struggle and searching. I realized that if there is no God, then it is just us. If there is a God, then there is justice. 

Those people who snickered and went defiantly to their deaths, with no remorse, would face the ultimate Judge.  God would be both heart-broken at their unrepentance and wrathful at their utter lack of humanity. 

But to bring in the word, "mercy" when discussing serial killers, Nazis and child molesters seems like an affront to God and to us who long to see evil prosecuted, whether here or in eternity. 

But mercy is the other side of justice. But, it is not an excuse for injustice, that is, ignoring the seriousness of the offense and writing it off to some rationale that makes everyone feel better, except the victim. Our society sadly has so expanded what constitutes a felony, that is has lost its seriousness.

But, remember, Jesus is stating the ways of the Kingdom of God, a reversal of what the world is doing, what religion is doing and what we are personally doing. 

The Kingdom of God is not throwing away the law, the courts and justice--He is looking at how people in this Kingdom will act and how it is different from the world's expectations. 

Jesus says in Matthew 5:7: 

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

Jesus later uses a parable to illustrate this truth, after Peter asks Him a very pointed question: 

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is Jesus's Bible and His response to Peter is a rich one.  The Kingdom of God is quite the opposite of Lamech (a evil descendant of Cain's) and his boast to his wives:

Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
"I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.

If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.” (Gen. 4:23-24) 

Lamech had a reasonable claim to avenge his injuries; and we would expect him to so do. But seventy-seven times over for each offense or for both offenses? I am sure Peter stood there perplexed, for Jesus reversed the sense of the Lamech's boast:  We are not avenge wrongs but forgive them as many times as the situation calls for. 

Wow. That is a bold statement, a bold reversal.  But Jesus gives this an application in this parable: 

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’  The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.  When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matt. 18:21-35)

The king didn't give his servant an extension; knowing his servant would never be able to pay his debt, the king forgave it altogether. How did this servant get so into debt with this king?  Bad investments? Being too generous with others? Skullduggery? We don't know, but the king doesn't seem to weigh in the cause for the enormous debt when he cancels it. His largesse is breathtaking and I am sure the servant walked out of that meeting feeling a million pounds lighter. 

Instead of rejoicing and extending that mercy to his fellow servant, he would appear to be hunting him down(!)  Remember:  He doesn't need to collect any money, because he doesn't owe any money--the king cancelled his debt. He's scot-free.  But there is something more here: 

You owe me, buddy-boy!  No one gets away from paying me back!  I don't want to get a reputation of being soft on debts--you play then you pay.  Simple as that!  No one will think I am free and easy with my money. I am not a push-over. 

Instead of the focus being on the generosity of the king, the servant is now focused on himself. That is why mercy is important: It takes the focus off of you and enlarges your point of view, that includes the other person. Mercy humanizes the person, and makes us see them as one of us, not some alien creature that needs our heavy hand. I am sure when the servant originally went into the presence of the king, he wanted mercy:  

I can't even begin to pay this debt.  I could work for a thousand years and never pay it off. The king has lots of money--I am sure if truth be told, he doesn't need mine--I just hope and pray he sees me in my sorry state and has mercy on me. I can't demand mercy--I hope that he finds it in his heart to forgive me.  I will be eternally grateful and will be his best servant from this day forward. 

But no.  He went out of the king's presence and saw his fellow servant not as one equally needing mercy for his debt, but one who needed to feel the heavy hand of justice. The servant was all too happy to mete out justice and why not, that other guy owes him!  He even tries to choke him--he dehumanized the guy and saw only what was coming to him. 

But here's where the Kingdom of God is different:  Yes, you are owed.  Yes, justice is on your side.  Yes, you have a right to redress your grievance. 

But:  You do not have the right to dehumanize the other person.  You do not have the right to ignore that person's situation and act like you are the judge.  You need to forgive and have an attitude that reflects the heavenly King who not only forgives you, but does it on a daily basis.  He forgives.  He doesn't keep a record of wrongs.  You demonstrate mercy as you have seen mercy demonstrated to you. You don't ignore the plight of the other person; you don't assume that what you are owed is the most important thing in the world. 

Let me close with something I saw on the news many years ago.  The BTK serial killer was being sentenced for a heinous group of crimes.  The victims' families were allowed to talk to him before sentencing. Many of them cried, screamed and raged at this man; he just stood there, with no emotion on his face.  That made this confrontation even more awful--the anguish of his victims' families seem to have no impact on him, so they grew even more angry.  He stood there resolute.  Until an elderly man, with a long white beard, came before the court and faced the man.  He said that he wanted to hate him and every right to, but his faith taught him to forgive and that is what he would do. He told the man he forgive him.  The tears streamed down his face as he spoke these words in a calm and restrained voice. 

The camera quickly panned to the serial killer's face.  Tears were flowing down his face.

Mercy is never easy.  Every fiber in our being fights it, but our residency in the Kingdom requests that we rethink our need for justice and act with mercy as children of the King.