BLESSED ARE (PART 5)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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

Matthew 5:7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Blessed are. It’s the name I’ve given to this none devotion series because these two words are the ones Jesus uses as He reveals what is known as the Beatitudes, the opening words of His Sermon on the Mount.

So who has Jesus acknowledged as being blessed to date?

They include the poor in spirit, those who are mourning, the meek, and all who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Today, we add the merciful. Look at the seventh verse of Matthew 5 again here:

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Matthew 5:7

So what does it mean to be merciful?

Let’s look at the dictionary definition:

Someone showing or exercising mercy.

They will exhibit these qualities:

forgiving, compassionate, pitying, humane, mild, kind, softhearted, tenderhearted, gracious, sympathetic, humanitarian, and tolerant

Does this define who you are?

It certainly did Jesus and if we are going to have any hope of being counted in the number of the merciful then we need to use Him as our model. For no one else has been perfectly forgiving, perfectly compassionate, and as perfectly sympathetic than Him. We only need think about our sin affliction and the position it had mankind in before Jesus to realize this.

There was no way we could access God, none, before Jesus was born. Because of our sin, we were destined to be separated from our Father in Heaven, from our Maker and Master. But God, because of His deep love and mercy for us, did not wish to be apart from us but He needed some way to eliminate the sin barrier. A sacrifice would be needed for atonement, a sacrifice that would be flawless and unblemished. Jesus, proclaimed by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29), would be that sacrifice.

And so Jesus was born and grew up into adulthood, knowing He would be the One to pay the price for the sins of the world, understanding that He would severely suffer and then die, willingly substituting Himself for everyone else.  

Now that’s mercy, a mercy that absolves and atones, a mercy that brings salvation to anyone who places their faith and trust in Him, that person justified by the blood of Jesus who washes away their transgressions and leaves them white as snow.

None of us will ever be able to give someone salvation, only Jesus can do that, but we can forgive and pardon others when they have done us wrong. We can be humane and compassionate to those who are in need of it. We can be sympathetic and empathetic to those who are struggling in the midst of difficulty and hardship.

We can be merciful and as a result we can be blessed or happy as a result. Indeed, we don’t just bless those in need of mercy but we become blessed through being merciful. It’s a win-win proposition.

But just in case we need a little more incentive, this in the negative reinforcement category, go back and look at the tail end of today’s Beatitude again.

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

Note here that if you want to be counted among those who are shown mercy, you had better show mercy yourself. In other words, mercy begets mercy, your mercy results in mercy from the Lord.

Doesn’t that add a little urgency to the matter of us being merciful?

It certainly keeps us from thinking we’re going to receive mercy no matter how we behave, like the Father’s mercy is automatic.

Let’s all agree to not make this hard. Jesus was perfectly merciful. As Christians, we’re to be like Him in every way. And so if we do as we should do and model our lives after Jesus (the “Christ” part of being a Christian) then we should have no problem being merciful, in return receive mercy ourselves, and in the end, be blessed.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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