Blessed Are the Merciful

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

January 22, 2024

Blessed Are the Merciful

“Blessed are the merciful,

    for they will be shown mercy.”

Matthew 5:7

I hope you are seeing with me, in the Beatitudes Jesus is taking us much deeper than we imagined. Jesus said God blesses the merciful, and this takes us to a deeper understanding of forgiveness. There are three levels we can understand Christian forgiveness.

Terry Anderson, the American journalist who was captured in Lebanon in 1985 and held hostage by Hezbollah militants until 1991, models the first level of forgiveness.  In an interview after his release from captivity, he was asked whether he could ever forgive his captors. He responded, “I’m a Christian, it’s required of me that I forgive, no matter how hard it may be.” (Time, December 16, 1991) Anderson’s statement seems to echo the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians: “Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others” (Colossians 3:13b NLT). Anderson believed he had to forgive because the Lord commanded it. This is the first level of forgiveness.

However, Jesus wants us to go deeper. As we mature in Christ, we will understand that it is in our best interest to forgive. We realize our Heavenly Father really does know best. We come to understand why mercy is an essential part of God’s triad of purpose for us: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). We learn that in the absence of forgiveness all that is left is bitterness, anger, and revenge.  We learn that when we practice forgiveness, when we extend mercy, our lives physically, emotionally, and spiritually are enhanced. It is in our best interest to forgive, so we think of forgiveness not as something we have to do, but as something we get to do. This is the second level of forgiveness.

An interesting dynamic of the life in Christ is that the closer we get to Christ, the more we become aware of our sin. Before we became a follower of Christ, we took no notice of even the most egregious sins. The more we are persuaded that the Father of our Lord is quite fond of us, the more we realize the furious longing of Abba for us, the more aware we are of even the slightest, unintentional sin. At the thought of Jesus’ continued love and forgiveness of us, we respond much like the beautiful woman at Simon the Pharisee’s house, “As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (Luke 7:38). Thus, we find ourselves in the third level of forgiveness. We become like God and extend mercy because we want to.

My Takeaway: In this third level of forgiveness, we are delighted with what God is doing in our life and the desire of our heart is to share it with others. The promise of God in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 becomes our reality.

“Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” (The Message)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.