Sermon Tone Analysis

The Benefits of Showing Mercy

Matthew 5:7

There is a story about a politician, who decided to have publicity pictures made for his campaign.

So he hired a photographer to come into his office and get pictures of him at his desk.

On the day of the shoot, he wore his best suit, a brand new tie, and he even clipped a little American flag pin on his lapel.

He had his hair cut, (what there was of it) trimmed and styled that morning.

He wanted to look his best for the pictures because they would go on his mailings and poster.

And after different poses and angles, the photographer finished taking his photos and packed up his gear.

And the politician asked when the proofs would be ready so he could start having all of his campaign materials printed.

And the guy told him that they would be ready in just a couple of days and that he would have his assistant drop them off at his office.

And he could call and let them know which ones, he wanted.

Two days went by and as promised, the assistant showed up at the man’s office with a sealed envelope with all the proofs in it and left it with his assistant.

Now, this politician couldn’t wait to see himself, so he tore open the envelope, and his expression darkened with each photo that he viewed.

Disgusted, he stuffed the pictures back in the envelope, grabbed his coat and went to his car.

He drove way too quickly over to the photographer’s studio, went inside and asked to see the man who took his pictures.

When the man eventually came to the front desk, the politician threw the photos down onto the table and asked “What’s the meaning of this?”

Are you trying to wreck my campaign?

Are you working for the other guy who is running for office?

These photos that you took don’t do me justice.

And that poor man, looking at each of the photos that he had taken, turned to face that furious man and said, “Sir, trust me, you don’t want justice.

You want mercy.”

And that is something that I think is true in life today.

We want justice.

We want social justice.

We want legal justice.

We want political justice.

And what we are really saying when we push for those things is that we want people to get what they deserve.

We want them to get what is coming to them.

We want some wrong to be made right.

And most of the time, when we push for justice, it will benefit someone and probably be not so good for someone else.

If you push for justice in a legal case – someone is going to win and someone is going to lose.

And as much as justice is a good thing, for the most part; we need something more than that because in the end we don’t really need justice.

We need mercy.

And as we continue through this series with the beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, mercy is going to be our topic this morning.

As we look at what it means to be merciful, we come to a transition from the first four, which focus on our need –

We are bankrupt in spirit, and broken with grief, which leads to meekness and an insatiable hunger and thirst for righteousness – for Him.

We now move from our need, to what we need to do; from belief to behavior; from our situation, our condition to our responsibility.

Let’s pray before we read Matthew 5:7.

Pray!

So, the first big question is how do we define mercy?

Merriam Webster defines mercy as:

Mercy noun

mer·​cy | \ ˈmər-sē

plural mercies

1a : compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power also : lenient or compassionate treatment

The main Hebrew word for mercy speaks of an emotional response to the needs of others.

It means to feel the pain of another so deeply that we’re compelled to do something about it.

In fact, people in Bible times believed that the seat of emotions was found in your gut.

That’s why the King James Version uses the phrase, “bowels of mercy” to translate it.

William Barclay defines mercy this way: “To get inside someone’s skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings; to move in and act on behalf of those who are hurting.”

This idea of this is really captured in Matthew chapter 14.

Right before Jesus feeds the five thousand, 14:14 reads:

The word “compassion” means that Jesus was so moved that His stomach churned, or literally, “his bowels yearned” for the crowd.

And that churning in his stomach led Him to do something about it.

He saw the need and then He went into action.

Mercy as an idea or in theory is absolutely meaningless.

Mercy must move us.

In addition, the emphasis in this beatitude is on those who are inclined to show mercy as a lifestyle, not those who are merciful on an occasional basis.

I like Chuck Swindoll’s definition: “Mercy is God’s ministry to the miserable.”

Mercy is one of the most wonderful characteristics of God.

Scripture constantly reminds us that our God is a merciful God.

He is great, He is rich in mercy.

We can come to him because of his mercy.

Micah chapter 7 tells us:

And when we show mercy, when we are merciful, when we are compassionate towards others, we are never more like God.

When we show mercy, we are modeling the attitude that Jesus even commanded of us in Luke 6:36:

You need to be merciful because your father is.

But not just a little bit.

Not just some of the time or when you feel like it.

You have to be merciful just like him.

Jesus’s half-brother James wrote some very strong words in the second chapter of his letter:

Jesus demonstrated mercy throughout his ministry and he expects his followers to as well.

And one of the things that a lot of us are guilty of is being merciless to those who sin differently than we do.

We know our sins.

But we think that the sins of other people are so much worse than those around us.

Admit it.

We do.

I know that I’m a sinner.

But at least I don’t live the way that they do.

I don’t do the things that they do.

We come down so hard on some sins and we start judging the people who commit them.

And a lot of times, the people who are the guiltiest of this are the most religious.

On two different occasions in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 to show that mercy is a required and not an option.

In the first instance found in Matthew 9:13, Jesus confronts those who were judging Him for spending time with a bunch of sinners at Matthew’s house:

In Matthew 12, the Pharisees play “gotcha” with Jesus when they catch the disciples doing something wrong by picking some grain on the Sabbath.

Jesus takes these religious experts back to Hosea in order to show that they are missing the magnificence of mercy.

If the religious people back then needed to learn that God desires mercy above any sacrifice that can be made, then I suspect that you and I need to be taught how to be merciful as well.

You see, it’s our nature to criticize and withhold forgiveness.

It’s also way too natural for us to ignore real needs when we see them because we’re wrapped up in our own little world.

Jesus told two parables to help us understand the two sides of mercy.

The first one is found in Matthew 18 and emphasizes the need to extend forgiveness because in God’s mercy, He has forgiven us.

Mercy releases the debt.

The second narrative is found in Luke 10 and is known as the story of the Good Samaritan.

In this account, Jesus establishes that our feelings of compassion must come out in action.

Mercy restores the downtrodden.

We could say it this way:

Mercy is both forgiveness for the guilty and compassion for the suffering.

Releasing the debt

Before Jesus could answer, Peter responded to his own question by suggesting that seven times would be a good limit.

The rabbis back then taught that you had to forgive someone three times and then you could retaliate, you could treat them like an enemy, you could get even.