Sermon 97 "How To Be Merciful"

Jesus proclaimed, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy".

 

What does that mean? We think of God's mercy as being His being kind to us and providing a way to escape hell. Is that all there is to mercy? 

 

We think of a warrior pleading "Have mercy" to the enemy with a knife to his throat.

Mercy is from the Latin "merces" meaning "price paid, wages". It's related to clemency, being pardoned for a crime whose punishment is the death penalty. It is the basis of justice, morality, altruism, charity, benevolence.

Mercy is the opposite of misanthropy, arrogance, uncaring, bullying, torture, revenge, unfeeling, being a miser, having a seared conscience, warmongering, narcissism, exploitation, sociopaths, scams and con artists.

 

So what is mercy in our daily lives? How do we become merciful? What does it mean to obtain mercy?