Mercy 2

             David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.” (I Chronicles 21:13)

             For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)

             Mercy: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.

 

            As promised, today’s topic is mercy. The unofficial definition is above, but often, I hear grace described as our getting what we don’t deserve, and mercy as our not getting what we do deserve. When I referred to God showing me mercy yesterday, I was correct, because I don’t deserve to be allowed to live, let alone to build garden beds. God caused the rain to stop getting in my way. But I was also incorrect. God gave me a couple of hours to work on the garden that I didn’t deserve. While we differentiate between them, I suspect the real difference is in our perception. We’re back to optical illusions. Is it a young woman (grace) or an old crone (mercy)?  Yes.

          A second idea comes from the definition. Mercy can only be shown by someone who has the power to punish or harm. I don’t know about you, but I see myself as being very limited in my ability to punish or harm. I’m probably very wrong in this, because there are thousands of ways that we can punish or harm others, sometimes without knowing it. But in general, a police office or teacher has more ability and opportunity to show mercy. A judge or school principal has even more. A husband/wife, or father/mother have more than I have. And God has the most of all.

          There’s a detail in this that is easy to miss. If you have the power to harm or punish, who do you harm or punish and why? If you’re a world-class jerk, you harm or punish anyone, for no reason or for a purely selfish reason. Better folks tend to harm or punish someone whom they believe deserves it. But what do you do about the person who doesn’t deserve it? If you withhold punishment or harm from someone who has done nothing to deserve harm or punishment, are you being merciful? Or are you being just?

          For God to be merciful, we must be able to deserve punishment – and we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When someone asks how a good and omnipotent God can allow evil, this is at least one piece of the answer. He doesn’t have to require evil to exist or reward those who do it for doing it, but if He does not allow people to have the capacity to do evil, or to do it, He cannot demonstrate mercy to anyone.

          At the same time, mercy isn’t mercy if it ignores the harm done to others. Mercy can’t exist if there is no justice, because justice is mercy to those who have been harmed or punished by others without deserving it (or greater than what is deserved.)

          Another interesting detail is found in David’s comment about wanting to fall into the hands of the Lord, whose mercy is great. But he didn’t want to fall into human hands. The implication is that humans are insufficiently merciful. I suspect we’ve all experienced that.

          And that brings me back to “Have mercy on me, Lord!”