He Melts Our Anger with Mercy

Rejected at every turn, the rough and destitute traveler knocks on the final door of the village, a small house next to the church. The door opens; received into the comforting warmth by a gentle old man, the traveler marvels at such kindness. He is not one to pass up an opportunity, however, so he leaves in the middle of the night, taking with him the valuable silverware in return for the welcome he had received.

Quickly apprehended, he is brought back that same day, forced to stand before the man from whom he has stolen and receive his just condemnation. But then the elderly man directs his attention to the thief. “Ah, there you are! I am glad to see you. But! I gave you the candlesticks also, which are silver like the rest, and would bring two hundred francs. Why did you not take them along with your plates?”

Here is one of the more stunning displays of mercy in literature. Jean Valjean, the criminal hardened by nineteen years of service in the galleys, receives what he never expected from the gentle bishop: mercy. And the bishop, a Monsieur Bienvenu, tells Valjean, “My brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!” (Les Misérables, 91–92).

God calls Christians to be, like Monsieur Bienvenu (whose name means Mr. Welcome), merciful people. But if we are to imitate God’s merciful demeanor, we must understand first his merciful character and his acts of mercy toward us. Only then, humbled and happy, will we imitate our perfect Father in showing mercy toward others.

God of Mercy

To understand our calling to be merciful, Christians first look to the God who describes himself as the merciful one (Exodus 34:6). David, repeating God’s declaration to Moses, sings,

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
     slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all,
     and his mercy is over all that he has made. (Psalm 145:8–9)

Considering the whole of creation as well as God’s particular actions toward his people, David sees a wondrous display that teaches him of God’s character, that he is good and merciful. These characteristics of God are part of his unsearchable greatness. He alone is great, and therefore worthy of constant praise (Psalm 145:1–3).

In creation and redemption, God acts mercifully; he gives bounteously to those in need (all creatures), especially displaying his mercy in his redeeming sinful creatures from the misery into which they cast themselves. And so the common refrain of Holy Scripture is that God is gracious and merciful. He acts thus in his works because he is, according to his own nature, good. For “whence comes his mercy,” asks John Calvin, “save from his goodness?” (Institutes of the Christian Religion 1.10.2).

Mercy Displayed and Received

In Christ, we see God’s mercy most fully on display. Writing to Titus, Paul draws attention to the divine mercy revealed in the work of the Lord Jesus: “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:4–5). God’s goodness, because of which he lovingly created creatures for fellowship with himself, is revealed in the merciful act of salvation accomplished in “Jesus Christ our Savior” (verse 6).

In Jesus, the rich mercy of God is given to those who were “dead in [their] trespasses,” rebels who followed “the prince of the power of the air,” who “were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1–4). Here is the greatest possible display of mercy, for, in sending his Son, the Father does more than simply provide for needy creatures. The Son humbles himself and enters into our own neediness, taking upon himself the curse of our misery. We, fully deserving wrath, sinners utterly lost in willful darkness, are brought into the bright light of salvation by him who is life, who gives life, and who is the light of men (John 1:4).

The divine mercy we receive in Christ is not, then, a reward. It is a gracious extension of God’s bounty to another who desperately lacks. God is the wellspring of all goodness and bounteousness. When he acts mercifully toward us, he gives to those who are destitute, who, like Valjean, have nothing to offer in return. We can stake no claim on him. We can only, with the tax collector, plead, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

Mercy Now and Forever

Amazingly, the mercy of God is not limited to the moment of salvation. It encompasses the whole of life for God’s covenant people. For even after our sins are forgiven, we remain needy and dependent. The saints continue to benefit from the boundless mercy of God in daily life. He relieves our distress. He saves us from our enemies. He continually, moment by moment, does us good, for he “is merciful” (Luke 6:36) “and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9).

Furthermore, mercy is what we look forward to in the final day. Jesus says that the merciful “shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7), teaching us to look ahead to mercy yet to come. Likewise, Jude tells us to wait “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 21). We anticipate that, according to his mercy, God will bring us, his children and covenant people, into his presence forevermore, where we will no longer be subject to the wasting power of sin and death. Finally set entirely free, we will sing evermore of the salvation of our God, his mercy toward us (Revelation 7:10, 15–17).

We are, forever and always, recipients of mercy. Knowing all this, what then does it mean for us to be merciful?

Merciful Saints

We live in a merciless age. Transgressions of much less consequence than theft get met with outrage, public shame, and cancellation. A few wrong words can end a career or destroy a family relationship. A minor disagreement can dismember a church. Swift to deal justice, we can look at each other like so many vigilantes, waiting to seize upon the slightest infraction.

The words of Jesus pierce into this vindictive culture with the keenness of a two-edged sword: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). The sword of Christ cuts against all worldly inclination to turn our backs upon those in a poorer condition than ourselves, for by these words he calls attention to the poor condition of all who have received mercy from God, who know themselves to be humble recipients of God’s everlasting love. He thus challenges us to imitate our heavenly Father by showing mercy.

He also promises to give more mercy to the merciful. David attests to this in Psalm 18, where he writes that God shows himself to be merciful to those who show mercy to others, blameless to those who act blamelessly, pure to those who have been purified. “For you save a humble people,” he writes, but “you bring down” the proud, those who with “haughty eyes” consider themselves great and therefore despise others (Psalm 18:25–27). Do you hear these words echoing in the Beatitudes? “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” “the meek,” “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” “the pure in heart,” “those who are persecuted” (Matthew 5:3–11).

Blessed are those who open their hearts and hands to the afflicted, gladly and generously giving to them out of the bounty they have received from God. Blessed are those whose homes are open to the stranger, the lowly, the needy. Blessed are those who minister to the sick, the imprisoned, the dying. Blessed are those who call the sinner to repentance. Blessed are those who forgive their brother seventy times seven times. Blessed are those who are not great in their own eyes. Blessed are those who know themselves to be recipients of mercy.

Blessed are the merciful.