Showing Mercy

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 10th of July, 2022, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.]

It seems to be a part of our nature, a not so pretty part, that we human beings need to justify our actions that may be less than honorable or righteous.  We see a crime being committed but we do nothing because we don’t want to get involved and possibly face retribution from the guilty party.  We would stop to help that motorist with a flat tire but we’re in a hurry to get somewhere or we’re afraid they might try to rob us.  We would give more to the needy but times are tight and we can barely pay the bills as it is.

I believe in Jesus and try to be a good person doing good deeds, but I just can’t do everything He says, or give up all my little pleasures.  I mean, loving everyone is hard!  How am I supposed to love someone who is trying to steal from me, or who wants nothing more than to see me dead?  How do I love someone who would persecute or kill me for no other reason than that I am a Christian?  That just defies common sense, doesn’t it?

Jesus once came across someone who wanted to justify his own actions, or inactions as is most likely the case.  This was a supposed expert in the law, but Jesus saw that he needed a little better understanding of the law, so He took the opportunity for a teaching moment.  Please listen and follow along to the exchange between the two as recorded by the Apostle Luke in chapter 10 of his Gospel account, verses 25 through 37, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

25 And behold, a certain expert in the law stood up and tested Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 

37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” 

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

--Luke 10:25-37 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for saving Your word and Jesus’ teaching moments for us to learn from.  Thank You for showing us our own faults and misunderstandings by these examples.  And thank You for gently instructing us how we should live and act as Christians.  Forgive us, please Father, when we act more like that scribe than one who claims to follow Your Son Jesus.  Forgive us when we just can’t let go of the world and all its pleasures, when we can’t turn away from our own personal favorite sin.  Please help us repent.  Help us show all the world that we are different, that we do follow our Savior’s commands.  Remind us that we should be as merciful to others as You are to us.  Show us how to love as You love.  And Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who do his bidding.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Show us those areas in our lives where we are failing You without even realizing it.  Write upon our hearts and our spirits the words, “Show mercy”.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this little story came to light:

In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets.  Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep.  Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus.   Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet -- which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to give back! -- declared it to be a loan, and then advised the young man to leave the way he had come in so as to avoid the Secret Service!  And yes, the loan was paid back.

I am pretty sure that had I found myself in President Coolidge’s position, my reaction would have been quite different.  Even if the President himself didn’t have a pistol or a knife close at hand, one shout would have immediately brought in heavily armed Secret Service agents.  The young thief would certainly have been arrested, or worse, shot and killed.

But instead, Coolidge engaged the lad in quiet conversation, eventually retaining all that the thief had intended to take, even loaning him enough to pay his hotel bill and get back to his college campus.  Coolidge chose to follow the lead of the Samaritan and showed mercy rather than demand retribution.  As Jesus pointed out, we should do likewise.

We know very little about the man who approached Jesus in our scripture reading other than he was an “expert in the law”, which would make him a scribe.  We can fairly safely surmise that he was not the most gracious or charitable individual since Luke tells us that he wanted to justify himself, perhaps among any of his peers present with him that day or maybe just to himself, to ease his own conscience.  One thing we can be sure of is that Jesus saw right through him, straight to his core.  Jesus knew what was in this man’s heart, and what he really needed to hear, whether he wanted to hear it or not.

We don’t know if the man changed his ways and became more merciful, more loving to his neighbors.  Jesus certainly knew what the outcome would be, so that was not the only reason He engaged the man in conversation.  He took this as a teaching opportunity, for the man, for the others gathered there, and for us.  We may be experts in the law, fully knowledgeable of what our Bible says.  But unless we truly love our neighbors and show them mercy, we’re missing the point.

One important aspect of the story involved the characters themselves, and this should have weighed heavily on the hearts of the Jews present.  The two who passed by the injured man, not even looking to see if he was still alive, not wanting to get involved, were both religious men.  The first was a priest, a speaker and minister in the temple and synagogues.  The second was a Levite, of the house of those historically assigned the role of priests and given authority over the temple.  Religious men, who would not stop to help.

The third man, the one who did stop, was a Samaritan.  Samaria was populated by the descendants of those Jews who married outside their race.  They were mostly despised by the pureblood Jews and considered far inferior.  And yet this Samaritan stopped to render aid and assistance to an injured Jew.

Who do you suppose truly understood God’s law?  Who showed mercy?

The man in our scripture, being an expert in the law, would have been a religious man.  The “law” that Luke refers to is the Law of Moses, the backbone of the Jewish religion.  The scribes mostly worked with the Pharisees as their experts in the law, advising them on the nuances of the law, explaining some of the finer details.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that any of them fully grasped what God was saying through His law.  Sometimes we just let religion get in the way of serving God and Jesus.  The Apostle Paul admitted that before he came to know Jesus as his Lord, he was faithful in his religion as a good Pharisee, doing what God wanted him to do, or so he thought.  It took a while, but Paul finally got it.  We often focus too much on the letter of the law – human or divine law – rather than on its intent.

Hear the words of God, speaking through His prophet Hosea in chapter 6 verse 6 of the book bearing his name…

6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,

And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

--Hosea 6:6 (NKJV)

The Jews were big on making the proper sacrifices for all the varied sins man might commit.  Many of their rules centered on all the different types of offerings, burnt and otherwise.  With help from their scribes, they had the letter of the law down pat.  But they missed the intent.  They failed to grasp what God was telling them through His law.  They got parts of it very well, but completely missed the target on the rest.

When speaking to the multitudes one day, whose number included scribes and Pharisees and His disciples, Jesus had this to say, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in chapter 23 verse 23 of his Gospel account…

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

--Matthew 23:23 (NKJV)

These religious leaders of the Jewish people did a great job with tithes and sacrifices and the little things of the law, but they missed out on the weightier matters that God demands.  Their actions and words and deeds too often lacked justice and mercy and even faith.  Yes, these religious men were not very faithful in following the law themselves.  They held those under them to a higher standard than they expected of themselves, showing little or no mercy to the common man.  Their sense of justice was warped by their focus on the letter of the law while ignoring its intent.

God gave us His law so that we can know when we have sinned, both in the lighter matters and in the weightier matters of life.  So it is important that we keep sight of both the law’s letter and its intent, for it is the letter and the intent of God.

Family, we have been shown mercy for our flaws and failings.  We were blind to the law and lost in our sin.  God sent His Son to become the ultimate sacrifice to atone for our sin.  We have been shown great, undeserved mercy.  We should be slower to pass judgment and quicker to show mercy to others for their flaws and failings.

We're all human, but we Christians should behave more like Christ.  Let’s not allow our religion to keep us from serving Jesus and doing as He commands.  As the Samaritan did for a stranger whom he treated as his neighbor, let us go and do likewise.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us a clear guide to show us when we have done something displeasing in Your eyes.  And thank You for helping us better understand Your law and Your word by all the examples and clarifications You have provided in our Bible.  Father, sometimes we don’t really understand what we’ve done wrong.  Sometimes we don’t focus on the right things, letting our religion keep us from truly serving You.  Forgive us, Father, when we lose sight of what You have told us to do.  Forgive us when we hold others in lower regard than ourselves, when we don’t show mercy to others, when we can’t forgive them their wrongs.  Please, loving Father, continue to be merciful with us.  Keep reminding us that showing love and mercy are just as important as not lying or stealing or murdering.  And Father, please help us remain strong, faithful, and true through all that we face in this age.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, time and again You tried to tell us all how important it is to understand God’s intent, His will, what He truly wants and expects of us.  And just as often we choose to take the easier approach, tackling the lighter tasks while setting the weightier matters aside.  Thank You, Jesus, for having mercy on us and giving us yet another chance to get things right.  Thank You for giving us understandable lessons into the will of God and His plan for us.  Please, Lord, help us be quicker to show mercy and slower to jump to judgment.  Forgive us when we lose sight of God’s intent for mankind.  Help us remember the mission You assigned us.  Remind us that we are to love all our neighbors, even those who aren’t like us and those who hate us, and by loving, to show mercy and forgiveness.  And Lord Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on what this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.