Recently, I feel that God has been teaching me about mercy. Our heavenly Father is a God who is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4). This was the reason why He saved us was because of mercy (Titus 3:5). Normally, when one thinks of mercy, they think of taking pity on somebody else. The emotion that one feels when one who is in a better place looks at somebody who is worse off, or with less than ourselves. But that is actually closer to sympathy. I would say it is akin to the emotion one feels when they see a homeless person.
If sympathy, is simply thinking that the other person must be having a hard time, mercy is the attitude and mindset of wanting to also join that person and become one with them in heart. When Jesus approached John the Baptist, he says, “I need to be baptised by You, and do You come to me?”, to which Jesus replies “Let it be so now”, and receives the baptism. That is the attitude of mercy. The decision for a sinless God to join us and be one with us despite all our sins. Mercy refers to becoming one with the other with no distance between one another. And so when you meet people with a lot of mercy, you feel that though you are so different, your walls come down and you are somehow drawn to them.
When you are filled with mercy, God becomes the bridge that links your soul with others. Essentially, the Lord is the one who brings you together with the other. It is through that link that God works through us to heal, bless, and build others up. In that sense, mercy is a way in which God’s powers flows through us. The reason why Jesus was about to heal so many people was precisely because of this mercy. And that is why miracles do not flow from top to bottom, but horizontally.
The thing that the Lord taught His followers until the last moment was mercy. When Abraham, who had walked with God for a long time prayed for Sodom and Gomora, he was filled with compassion, when Joseph after a long period of being refined and trained by God, met his brothers who had sold him off in an attempt to kill him, was also filled with mercy. Moses, when after his 40 years in Midian, was called by the Lord to save the Israelites from Egypt, at which point they began to worship a statue of a golden calf, prayed to the Lord with his own life on the line, was also filled with mercy. David was also taught mercy, as after years on the run from Saul, David lets Saul live despite having had 2 opportunities to kill him.
In order for us to be merciful, we must also break way from our egocentric selves, and be humble. That is why all the people of faith went through a period of refinement at the hands of the Lord. Since it is the one in the highest place who wants to be with us in the lowest, only when mercy grows in our own hearts can the Lord reside there, and we reside in Him. ultimately, mercy is to become one with the Lord. Let us reflect upon the words that the Lord said to the Pharisees who judged others because they thought so highly of themselves. ‘go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’.
