Upside Down Kingdom - wk4

"Blessed are the Merciful"

Bryan Jones

Mercy is a word that is often used in different settings.  For example, in the area of medicine Mercy Hospital Group is one of the top five large U.S. health systems.  In the legal system, we often hear of people throwing themselves “on the mercy of the court.”  And who hasn’t heard their grandmother exclaim, “Well, mercy me!”
 
As we continue our study of the Beatitudes called “Upside Down Kingdom,” this Sunday we come to Beatitude #5 – “Blessed are the merciful.”  But what exactly does it mean to be merciful?  Many people associate mercy with compassion or forgiveness or grace.  And all of those things relate to one another.  But mercy actually means not getting what you deserve.  We deserve hell, but through Jesus we receive mercy and don’t get what we deserve.
 
In a culture where the need for justice … the need to “give ‘em what they deserve” … seems to be hardwired into most of us, Jesus turns everything upside down and calls on us to be merciful.
 
I hope you will join me Sunday as we take a look at the radical idea of mercy.  When we are merciful it changes us from the inside out.  Do you want to obtain mercy?  Start by showing mercy to others.