Devotional Day 5

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

I love how Jesus orders the beatitudes.  Blessed are you if you are or do this because this will happen.  You can almost reverse and say you are bless with this because you have done or are this.  

For example today's beatitude.  Blessed are you if you are merciful because you will get mercy.  OR You are blessed with mercy because you are merciful.

The blessing and the action go hand in hand.  You cannot separate the two.  With the action comes the blessing but the blessing also requires the action.  Is God good or what!?  I love discovering small (or big) things like that in His word.  It is so active and vibrant, so full of life!  I love learning new things as He opens my eyes to the wonder of it all!

But today's beatitude is simply beautiful to me.  Blessed are the merciful for they will be show mercy.  Well what does it mean to be merciful?

Mercy = not getting something we deserve.  For example: anyone ever got caught speeding only to receive a warning?  We broke the law and deserve a ticket but the policeman/woman may act mercifully and give us a warning.  {Probably hoping we learn from our mistake and not speed anymore :-)}

There is a awesome story in the Bible about mercy that portrays exactly what this verse is saying.  In Matthew 18:21-35 (story is paraphased in my words) we find a king who wanted the money owned to him paid and settled.  A man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold.

Side note: according to the footnotes in the Greek language the bags are acutally talents.  A talent was according to footnotes of two Bible versions was about 20 years wages of money!  1 talent = 20 years of wages.  10,000 talents = 200,000 years of wages.  One version said millions of dollars.  What we know for sure is that 10,000 talents was A LOT A LOT A LOT of money.

But the man could not pay and so the servant's master ordered that his wife and children be sold to pay the debt (the amount owed to him).  But the man fell to his knees and begged the king to be patient and he would pay it back.  The master felt bad for the man and CANCELED THE DEBT and let him go.  (Just like that millions of dollars in debt gone!)

So the servant left and found one of his servants who owed him a hundred silver coins aka a denarius that was equal to a day's wage for a labor.  The servant told his servant to pay back what he owed.  He demanded it so much he even grabbed his servant and began to choke him. 

His servant fell to the ground on his knees and begged for him to be patient and that he would pay him back.  (Sound familiar?)

BUT the servant refused and had the man thrown in prison until he could pay his debt.  When the other servants saw what happend they told their master everything. 

The master called in the servant who put the man in jail and said, "You wicked servant...I canceled ALL your debt because you begged me to.  Shouldn't you have shown mercy to your servant just like I did to you?"

In anger, he had the servant put in jail to be tortued until he should pay back all he owed. 

WOW!  This story was told by Jesus because the topic of forgiveness was brought up but I think it clearly shows mercy too!  If the man who owed a lot would have forgiven the man who owed him little, he would have been blessed because he showed mercy!  I mean why didn't he?  Especially after he was shown such an example of what mercy was.  

The servant's master was the prime example of what mercy can do!  It can let go a HUGE DEBT.  The servant deserved to pay it back but instead he received freedom.  WOW. 

Sounds like the ultimate mercy giver, GOD.  We owe God everything.  We have this huge debt we've piled up called sin and we have nothing to pay this debt.  We only add to it.  But instead of asking us to pay the price God, our sweet amazing God, sends His Son to pay if for us.  It had to be paid, but God provided a way to give us mercy!

We deserved death.  But through Jesus dying on the cross and being raised from the dead we no longer have to pay that price.  We are not getting something we deservd!! Instead through faith in Jesus Christ we recieve the opposite just like the servant.  We recieve freedom here and now and in Heaven.  We receive something we don't deserve.  We get grace!

So may we pass on this mercy that is so freely given to us.  May we be blessed with mercy BECAUSE we are merciful to others.  Who do you need to show mercy to?  How can we pass on this mercy from God?  What excuse do you have not to?  God gave us His Son, which makes us pretty excuseless. How can your action of mercy affect those around you and beyond them?

The Message Version "You're blessed when you care.   At the moment of being "care-full,"  you find yourselves cared for."