Here’s the notes/ script from a meditation I gave at our monthly celebration of the Lord’s Supper, part of a series working through the beatitudes.

Matt. 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

We aren’t used to thinking that there are conditions in play when it comes to God’s mercy and grace. Surely, by definition, when God treats us with mercy it is exactly because we don’t deserve the compassion and pity he is giving us. Or more accurately, we do deserve the condemnation and punishment that he’s not giving us.

And that’s exactly right. When Jesus says ‘the merciful will receive mercy’ he isn’t talking about a way of earning God’s mercy. Other religions do work that way. Think of the concept of ‘karma.’ Under karma the merciful person receives mercy in a sort of mechanistic way. Keep doing enough merciful things and some mercy’s gonna come your way too. Or think of the common idea in british ‘folk religion’ that ‘one good deed deserves another,’ so the person who wants to be treated with mercy had better show some mercy to others first, get them in their good books, and then get help when it’s their time of need.

But that’s not the way it works with God. Mercy is mercy is mercy. And that means it’s something you can’t really earn or deserve, by definition. At least the bible’s definition.

And yet this is a condition. ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’ If you want to be treated mercifully by God, you need to be a merciful person. Think about the person that is unmerciful. The person who
- ignores the poor,
- tramples on the weak,
- is quick to pour condemnation on the sinful,
- impatient with other people’s mistakes.

That sort of person mustn’t think that they themselves are
- poor,
- weak,
- sinful,
- mistaken.
They say that the alcoholic who won’t admit he’s an alcoholic will hate and despise all other alcoholics.  The same is true of sinners. It’s only the sinner who doesn’t, who won’t realise that she herself needs God’s mercy and forgiveness that refuses to show mercy to others.

The degree to which you and I are merciful is a marker of how much you and I have understood that mercy is what we need from God.

In other words, it’s a measure of how much we’ve understood the cross. If we realise that we’ve been forgiven by God for so much, that he’s been so patient and merciful and kind to us,  then how can we fail to show that to others?

That’s what Jesus means. Being merciful is a sign that we’ve grasped the cross. And people who have grasped the cross and their deep need of it will be shown God’s mercy on judgment day. So, the merciful are blessed, because they will receive mercy.

So, are you merciful?

- How patient are you with those who make mistakes at work?

- How compassionate and considerate are you towards those with less than you, in your gamma team?

- How ready to forgive are you, in the home?

- Is mercy what people who have crossed you in some way experience?

- Are your finances marked by mercy for the poor (spiritual and material)?

- Are your prayers marked by mercy for lost sinners?

Because, the degree to which you and I are merciful is a marker of how much you and I have understood that mercy is what we need from God.

In a few minutes we are going to be taking the Lord’s supper. Visible, tangible, edible mercy. That’s what it is. As we remember Christ’s death we are remembering that you and I are always in a position of needing and receiving God’s mercy. And as we do that we are being fed spiritually, by putting our trust in Christ’s mercy once again, fed spiritually to give us the strength and the energy to live lives of mercy towards others.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”