Blessed Are The Merciful…
Isaiah 29:6 speaks about the potter and how he can do what he wants with the clay. In the dictionary mercy is defined as : “compassionate rather than severe behaviour towards someone in one’s power.” The POTTER IS = THE LORD + The Clay = HUMAN BEINGS.
God is the source of all mercy, His name is merciful and gracious. This is what he told Moses . He does not ask if we are worthy of His love, but pours upon us the riches of love to makes us worthy.
The disciples at the Lord’s supper when their feet were to be washed were merciless and unforgiving toward each other. Jesus was the only Human being fit to teach us mercy i.e. “compassion and forgiveness”.
Are we His disciples not the same sometimes forgetting about mercy; unforgiving and resentful toward each other? Do we not sometimes participate in the footwashing ceremony in a symbolic manner (in the letter but not in the spirit)?
The footwashing symbolizes mercy and compassion toward each other. If someone (person or group) is doing wrong to us, do we just ignore him or her? Do we endeavour to get even closer to them, as we see and experience their weakness and flaws of character? Should we not have compassion on them and show them mercy?
This is what Jesus did all His earthly life. He was constantly seeing and interacting with human beings in their weakness
and inefficiencies, it was loathsome to His holy soul for 33 years, but He did not stay away from us. So why should we stay away from our brethren because we may think they are so terrible in character?
This type of merciless attitude Christ spoke against when He said to His disciples “you do not know what spirit you are of”. He is speaking to us, he wants to pronounce on us the blessing of the merciful: that we each can obtain mercy.
In the miserable and offensive behaviour sometimes of our brethren, to the tempted, the wretched victims of want and sin, the Christian does not ask, are they worthy? But, how can I benefit them? We are to see in the most wretched, the most debased, souls for whom Christ died to save and for whom God has given to His children, the ministry of reconciliation ( i.e. to bring us back again into love and friendship).
It is true that our hearts are by nature cold, dark unloving and hard; whenever one manifests a spirit of mercy and forgiveness, we do it not of ourselves but through the influence of the Divine Spirit moving upon our hearts.
To truly be merciful we have to be “partakers of divine nature”, “In the merciful, the compassionate love of God finds expression…” It is said: “all whose hearts are in sympathy with the loving heart of Christ will seek to reclaim, not to condemn”. The merciful are those who also manifest compassion to the poor, those who give kind words, looks of sympathy that help lift many burdens from the weary shoulders of others. Let us live the spirit of the footwashing ceremony and not desire just the symbol (the letter only). Proverbs 11:25 reads: “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
It says in the Testimonies, “there is a sweet peace for the compassionate spirit and blessed satisfaction in the life of forgetful service for the good of others. The Holy Spirit that abides in the soul and is manifested in the life will soften hard hearts and awaken sympathy and tenderness…
we will reap what we sow..” When we stand and see others failing we will have compassion on them and help them. We will not leave them alone to themselves and keep away from them because they are not friendly.
We must be like our Master ( divine and human ), we must be merciful or else we will lose our salvation. We will not obtain mercy…we will not be called blessed in the end.
Blessed are the merciful in character (i.e. the forgiving and the compassionate), for they shall obtain mercy (in this life and forever).
Amen
Michael Newby,
Toronto, Canada