Hope for the Helpers: What Jesus Meant by “Blessed Are the Merciful”

The King’s Speech: Beatitude 5

It’s the day after resurrection Sunday. We celebrate the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the God-Man, Jesus, who rescued us from the death-grip of sin. At the cross, He took on our sins and in exchange, He gave us His divine righteousness. He saved us from eternal separation from God, invited us into a relationship with Himself, and offered us a way to live eternally with the Father. He is our Lord and Savior. This is an accurate view and understanding of Jesus Christ, but it is not a complete understanding. 

We are in a time charged with anxious energy over the direction of our government, currently characterized by the inhumane, loveless, and immoral actions of those in the highest offices in our nation. As a result, we are fresh on the heels of a world-wide protest of this nation's leadership, called “No Kings Day.” We recognize the danger and vulnerability of lending ourselves to the control of a single, sinful human…but how does the idea of giving yourself to a perfect and divine King sound? Jesus is not just our Savior, He is our King!

Jesus declared himself as the Messiah (King) in Luke 4:18-19, when he quoted Isiaiah 61:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners    and recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free,

19  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus’ goal was not to fix it so that when we die, we could go to heaven. His goal was to bring heaven to earth. He said that he was bringing good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, heaven on earth. Heaven will not be a place in the sky, but will be right here, on solid ground. Jesus’ return and reign will make it heaven. So, it’s not enough to rest in salvation and to only value Jesus as our Savior. If we are to be true flowers of the “Christ”, which means “king”, we must be about the work of bringing heaven to earth as well. 

Our salvation is how we are “naturalized” into the Kingdom. We have “birthright citizenship” for when we are born again in Christ, we become citizens of heaven. Every believer belongs to the Kingdom of God and Jesus intends for the citizens of the Kingdom to be the presence of heaven on earth until He comes back. So, He gave a speech, a talk, a teaching, a sermon, to leave a blueprint for us to make the future Kingdom a present reality.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke as a King to an audience of people who were feeling a lot like some of us are feeling, living in the United States today. Many of Jesus’ listeners felt oppressed under the rule of an authoritarian government that undermined their culture and identity. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives a speech that was meant to reveal, and to remind, his followers that they were subjects of an even greater government. 

Jesus began by showing His subjects that the Kingdom offers them hope, no matter their circumstances in life. He does this with 8 seemingly contradictory statements, the Beatitudes. These statements hook the listeners to hear the promises of hope and encouragement He offers. He begins these 8 statements with “Blessed are…”. We interpret this as “The Good Life belongs to…”. The Beatitudes offered hope–-hope for those who felt powerless, those who were hurting, those who were afflicted and oppressed. These qualities don’t seem reflective of someone who has the Good Life, but they don’t have the Good Life because they find themselves in these circumstances, they have the Good Life despite and through these circumstances. They have the Good Life because of what is offered in the second part, the promise, of each Beatitude. 

In the first 3 Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-5), Jesus tells us that the Good Life of the Kingdom belongs to those who might be in the most difficult of circumstances, but in the next 4 Beatitudes (Matthew 5:6-9) Jesus transitions and tells us that the Good Life of the Kingdom also belongs to those who defend, care for, and love their neighbors, especially those in need. So in Matthew 5:6, Jesus said that “The Good Life belongs to those who crave justice for they will be satisfied.” or “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  This brings us to the 5th beatitude, Matthew 5:7.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (NIV)

Who Are The Merciful?

For those of us who have attended church for a while, when we hear the word “mercy” or “merciful”, we tend to hear it through the filter of its modern secular use, or through that of “Christianese”, the language of church.

Webster’s defines mercy as “compassion for forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.” For example, one might throw themselves in the “mercy” of the court. Or, when someone is about to inflict harm on us or a loved one, we might beg for “mercy”. In our Christian terms and definitions, we often define “mercy” as, “not getting what we deserve.” For most of us, this is the essence and totality of what mercy means, but while forgiveness, and withholding punishment are indeed acts of mercy, these definitions don’t quite capture the meaning and the application of this word as expressed by Jesus and those of his culture and day. 

Matthew wrote in Greek so we look at the word he used.The word we find in the scriptures ἐλεήμων (eleēmōn), which means “Compassionate, benevolently merciful involving thought and action.”(Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers) Jesus spoke in Aramaic and Hebrew, so as we look to the Hebrew, He was likely to have used חֶסֶד (hesed), which “denotes an attitude arising out of mutual relationship, e.g., between relatives, hosts and guests, masters and servants, those in covenant relation. It is an act rather than a disposition, with trust as the basis and loyalty as the appropriate attitude. An element of obligation is thus intrinsic.” (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 222). W.B. Eerdmans.)

In other words, “the merciful” treat others like family members or close friends. They believe they have a duty to go above and beyond to show favor, grace, kindness, and love based on loyalty. This is the relationship that God has with His people. He has hesed, or lovingkindness, for others, not based on how they behave or deserve it, but because He has a covenant with them, and an agreement to be loyal and loving toward them. This is much like marriage vows or a social contract. There is an understanding of the obligation to care for the other. This was part of Israelite culture. Those who were in need should have been able to call upon mercy to have their needs met. And others were expected to be merciful and meet those needs. We see this with the story of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), a blind beggar who heard Jesus passing by. He cried out for him to have mercy. He was invoking the cultural and social contract that was a duty for the Jews. Jesus was moved and stopped, but He didn’t heal him right away. He asked Bartimeaus what he wanted Him to do. Jesus understood and demonstrated that mercy called for an action, and that action was not to check something off a list of duties, but to relieve the need, loving the other well. 

So mercy is…

• A duty

• Active

• At times costly

• Unconditional and unearned

• Not weakness

Mercy is “active compassion”. It’s not just feeling bad about someone’s situation, or forgiving them. It is what you do about a situation to offer someone assistance or relief. The “Good Life” belongs to those who have active compassion for others in their time of need.

Mercy Will Be Demonstrated To You

The Good Life belongs to those who through their merciful, actively compassionate, acts will receive the help they need. Here are 5 ways we will receive what we need, allowing us to me more and more merciful:

1. Jesus will fill us with his presence and joy.

2. He will give us enablement to overcome our own challenging circumstances.

3. We receive the satisfaction of being part of someone else’s story of redemption.

4. The more help we give, the greater we stretch our capacity to receive help.

5. Anxiety, fear, and bitterness are replaced by peace, through being a solution to a problem.

Faith in Action

So how do we walk out our Kingdom citizenship? How do we contribute to heaven being brought to earth? One way is to show our citizenry by being merciful. We reap the Kingdom benefits by being those willing to sacrifice, and aid, to meet our covenant obligations to our brothers, sisters and neighbors. Here are some practical steps. 

Pay attention to:

• The news

• The state of the people around you, neighbors, people in your community, co-workers, family members

• The things that make you shake your head

• The things that scare you

• The things that break your heart

• What others are doing that makes you want to help

Do a Resource Assessment

• What material things do you have to give in order to help?

• What set of skills do you have that may assist others?

• Who do you know who can help when you cannot?

• What information do you have to share with others to point them to help?

• How much time can you dedicate to show up for others?

Pray, but let prayer lead to action. Remember, we have a social contract, a covenant to help others. There is always something we can do. Ask God to train you to move beyond feelings to being the solution to someone’s problem.

The Kingdom in Action

Jesus’ intent was not just for us to be blessed and have a good life. He is offering us the good, abundant life, so that in his physical absence, we can make sure others can have a good, or at least better life. Last month, we at Cross Community Inc, took notice of people suffering through abnormally long TSA lines in the airports. TSA workers hadn’t been paid in over a month and some were still in arrears from the previous shut-down. Many were calling out and quitting, often due to the need to find alternate income. We saw a need, and then asked ourselves, and God, what could be done. We found that there were food pantries and drop-off locations at the airports for food, grocery and gas gift cards, to help alleviate suffering TSA workers. So for our Sunday Brunch, last week, we put out a call for people to donate gift cards for the TSA workers. We were overwhelmed by the $800 we collected and donated to the workers at Philadelphia International. It may not sound like much, but given the short turnaround time of our request, our community demonstrated Kingdom thinking and Kingdom behavior in their donations. The day a TSA worker could fill their tank or stock their pantry, God’s merciful people became heaven on earth to someone. May God bless you all as you share the gospel of the Kingdom through your acts of mercy.