Blessed Are The Merciful

Mercy is more than feeling someone's pain.
It removes the source of pain.

That's what Jesus does.
Because Jesus is mercy.
When we abide in Him, we share His empathy,
His compassion,
His mercy.
We don't seek mercy as an action.
We seek Jesus-
and in Him we find mercy.

But let's go deeper into the growth of mercy:
It begins with empathy-entering another's experience,
Empathy creates compassion-feeling another's pain.
And mercy acts on what compassion feels.

This is why the incarnation matters.
The Son of God took on human flesh
to feel what people feel.
He entered human suffering.
He saw it with human eyes,
and what He saw stirred compassion,
which moved Him to show mercy.

And this is why the parable
of the unforgiving servant cuts so deep. (Mt. 18:21-35)

The king felt empathy
For the man begging for mercy.
Compassion followed,
and it moved him to forgive an unpayable debt.

But the forgiven man never entered the pain
of the one who owed him so little.
He received mercy,
but it didn't produce empathy or compassion.
Without them, mercy never entered him.
He was relieved but not transformed.

We judge harshly because we forget
our own forgiven debt.
We condemn because we lose sight
of the compassion God showed us.
We withhold mercy because we
haven't let mercy sink into our souls.

But Jesus says the merciful are blessed.
They know the joy of guilt and shame
lifted.
They know the freedom of a burden
removed.
And they gladly lift the burdens of others
as God has lifted theirs.

The promise of mercy to the merciful is found in Jesus-
for He is both mercy and the giver of mercy,
and only in Him does mercy take root in us.

Where is God inviting me to enter someone's experience
so compassion can rise and mercy flow.

What This Means to Me
The burden lifted from me is the burden
I now lift from others.

Father, as I abide in Jesus,
let His empathy, compassion, and mercy
flow through me.
In Jesus' name. Amen.