Blessed are the merciful
Mercy. It’s not just Duffy. We all want it.
If you are accused of something you didn’t do, you don’t want mercy. You want.. justice. You want the whole world to know, you did not do this thing – THEY did. Treat them as they deserve.
But when you’re accused of something you DID do, you no longer want justice. You want.. mercy. You don’t want the whole world knowing your business, what you did. Don’t treat me as I deserve.
If God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-places God that the Bible describes – and, let’s face it, there either IS God or there isn’t - then, when we come face-to-face with God, we’re unlikely to be saying, God, you who’ve seen everything, everywhere – every action, every thought, what I’ve done in secret as well as in public - show me justice. We’re far more likely to say God, you’ve seen everything - show me mercy.
When Jesus launched His big Agenda, right up there was “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
We’ve already seen that, when Jesus said “Blessed are..” the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for what’s right, He wasn’t saying, if you want God to bless you, you need to become poor in spirit, be bereaved, meek or more righteous than others.
Jesus was saying, if you feel spiritually empty, beaten up by religion, or have lost a loved one, or are oppressed by the System, You are blessed because God is with you. He’s on your side.
So. in the same way, Jesus was NOT saying, if you want God to bless you, you need to start showing mercy to others - as if God is only merciful to those who deserve it, have earnt it. If that was the case, it wouldn’t be mercy – it would be more like justice.
Instead, Jesus was saying, when you show mercy to others, be blessed in the knowledge you are reflecting God’s nature, doing what He does – relentlessly showing mercy – not treating people as they deserve.
And the more you experience God’s mercy, the more you will instinctively show mercy to others. It’s infectious.
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
You who show mercy, God is with you. Why? When you show mercy, you are reflecting God’s nature/ character, you’re joining in with God. We become what we receive.
Jesus was the great example of Mercy-on-legs. 
Matthew, who edited together this collection of Jesus’ sayings into the “Sermon on the Mount”, had a very personal reason for knowing this. Jesus had shown him mercy. He tells his story in Matthew chapter 9.
We know him as Matthew, which means “God’s Gift.” But prior to meeting Jesus, everyone knew him as Levi. That was a good Hebrew name, but he wasn’t being a good Hebrew. He had sold out his community and was colluding with Empire -the Roman He was helping the Invaders plunder the wealth, he was a tax collector. Far from being ‘God’s Gift’, he was ‘Caesar’s Theft’.
Everyone despised him. 
The Pharisees and the Religious Elite despised him because he had turned away from his faith – making blasphemous vow ‘Caesar is Lord’
The community despised him because he was getting very rich at their expense. He would add his own additional Levi Tax to Caesar’s Tax. He was the equivalent today of a loan shark, getting hugely rich by exploiting the vulnerability of the least.
And Jesus could see this. So Jesus came to him in his workplace and said, “Follow me.” Not so much a command, more an invitation.
That evening Levi, Caesar’s Theft, threw a dinner party and invited all his colluding tax collector mates and those simply labelled “sinners”
Oh, AND JESUS and his slightly-bemused, this-is-awkward, should-we-be-even-here disciples. What a table! 
The people that were most unlike Jesus, actually liked Jesus. You don’t have to look like, sound like Jesus to like Jesus. Come as you are.
The so-called Religious Elite snuck in, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and.. “sinners”?” They didn’t say this to Jesus - just to His followers, to undermine Him. Cowards whisper to others.
The Pharisees didn’t get mercy – religious people don’t – they said it was all about sacrifice.  God is angry with you. You need to make God think better of you by trying harder at being religious. Do as we say (not as we do).
For them it’s all about how you dressed, what rituals you observed, who you associated with – all to try and justify to God – more like, to each other – how good you were. I’m better at religion than you are. I’m holier than you. The Pharisees talked about sacrifice, not mercy, but really, for them, it was all about shame.
We can slip into shame when we measure ourselves against others – whether we are “better” or “worse” than them. We all have standards, how we want to live. I want to exercise this amount, dress that way, eat healthily… We feel elated, proud, when we live up to our own ideals.  
We feed our pride by shaming those we judge to not meet our standards. 
But equally we feel shame when we fail even to live up to our own standards. I feel so embarrassed… I feel a failure.. I feel ashamed… 
And that’s compounded when others heap their shame on us.
The Pharisees were the masters of shame. They shamed as ‘sinners’ those that didn’t conform to their self-imposed standards. Hence why they tried to shame Jesus because of who he was having dinner with – “sinners”.
Religious people still use shame today. Just look at how LGBTQ communities have been labelled by some religious-types – singled out as ‘sinners’. 
There are over 31,000 verses in the Bible, only 7 appear to make reference to same-sex attraction and, as a personal opinion, I’d say, these 0.02% of verses are often misunderstood and clumsily applied to say something different to their original context.
Anyway, Jesus wasn’t conforming to the Pharisee’s way; He was all about God’s standard – He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. And by God’s standard, no-one is perfect. 
Jesus was wise to them. He said:
“It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, the judgmental, the self-inflated, holier-than-thou’s but sinners
Jesus has come for the rest of us.
God sees you at your best, when you’re the best version of you – kind, generous, loving, faithful...
But He also sees you when things aren’t going to plan, those moments that no-one else sees.
And He responds, not with judgment, but mercy-undeserved, unreserved
Before Christ, people thought the answer was to try and justify themselves to God – be nicer, show God how serious they were by sacrificing something. Maybe that’d make God think better of them? 
Jesus came and blew all that away: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” The revolutionary Good News – the Gospel – is that God is merciful.  He is FULL of mercy to all, whether we think they deserve it or not.  He is El-malei Rachamim – All-merciful God. Mercy is at the core of who God is. Richard Rohr says, mercy is not just what God does, it’s who He IS
And when you know God’s mercy is for you, it changes how you live. You discover a new humility.
You live humbly in awe of Merciful God, forever grateful that, despite your best and worst attempts at life, God remains merciful towards you.
You also find a new humility with others: you’re no better, no worse than them.
So, just as you have received such undeserved mercy, so play it forward, and show mercy to others.
Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy
Sometimes it easier to show mercy to those we think deserve it. Maybe the lesson here with Levi / Matthew is that mercy is not just for the deserving oppressed or those we feel sorry for. It’s for everyone.
If you struggle with this, ask God to reveal more of His mercy to you.
Let’s be people that give and receive mercy, not shame.
Blessed are the mercy-FULL, for they will receive mercy.
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DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk