Upside Down Justice (1)
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Matthew 5:7
Merciful – [Note: The next few Today’s Word editions are going to be a bit longer because the topic is so important.]
“You get what you give.” “Do unto others as . . .” Doesn’t this Beatitude seem to tell us what is obvious? If we show mercy to others, God will show mercy to us. Pretty simple – so simple that Robinson calls it “a self-acting law of the moral world”. But if it’s just commonsense, why did Jesus say it? We’re missing something here.
Sometimes Christian concepts have had such powerful influence on our ordinary culture that we become immune to their radical nature. This is one of those times. We will discover the power of Jesus’ teaching here only if we unhook the moral and ethical influence that has been part of our western Christian upbringing.
Jesus is making an announcement. This is not a conditional command. It is not a statement that says “You should be merciful so that you will get mercy”. This is not a variation of the Golden Rule. Jesus is announcing that those who are already practicing mercy are happy. Literally, the phrase reads “Happy the merciful”. There is an added verb in the English translation but the Greek makes it clear that Jesus is proclaiming a statement of fact, not an invitation to action.
Our English word “mercy” is a word taken from the legal context. We imagine a courtroom scene. The guilty person stands before a judge waiting to be sentenced. He falls to his knees and begs for mercy. He is asking that the sentence he deserves be set aside. For us, mercy is about removing punishment. But it didn’t always have this kind of meaning.
The Greek word is eleemones from eleos (compassion, mercy, pity). It is used twice in this verse. The word is very old. In the Greek culture it was considered one of the passions (from pathos). For the Greeks, passions have a very special classification. They are emotions that come over us. We don’t control them. They control us. We are the passive recipients of these disturbing and upsetting fluctuations of the soul. Grief, envy, lust, sorrow, mercy, joy, rage or fear – whether good or bad – we are the victims of these tidal waves of feelings. Greek philosophers believed that a life battered by emotions was a life out of control. They sought a balanced, uniform life – a life in the middle, calm and free from the disturbances of life’s uncontrollable turmoil. Aristotle tells us that we are better off without these emotions.
In the Greek culture, mercy was not a moral or legal consideration. It was a psychological emotional response. We are swept into the emotion of mercy when we come into contact with someone who is experiencing undeserved suffering. Something in us responds to the plight of another. We just can’t help it. And this creates another problem in the Greek mind. Mercy is connected with fear, the fear that what has happened to this person who has aroused my feelings of mercy might also happen to me. Mercy is not a passion that is aroused when we see someone suffering because they deserved it. We don’t feel sorry for them. Actions have consequences. If they are suffering because of justified consequences, then that is right. No mercy is required. It is undeserved suffering that births mercy in our souls. And precisely because it is undeserved, we fear it. Since there is no apparent reason for this tragedy, it also could happen to us.
Mercy does play a part in the Greek idea of justice, but not because justice requires mercy. In fact, just the opposite is true. Justice requires punishment. Mercy is the only escape from what we deserve when we have broken the law. We must plead for mercy instead of punishment if we are to be freed from the inevitable consequences of our crimes. But the Greeks believed that the proper response to those who deserved punishment was wrath. Mercy was not expected in judicial decisions. In fact, mercy was a sign of weakness because it diminished the Law. The merciful judge was one who could be swayed and was therefore not dependable.
In the final stages of Greek philosophy, the Stoics argued that mercy was “a sickness of the soul” and was an unworthy emotion for those who were enlightened. This seems entirely uncaring to us today. But remember that mercy was considered an overpowering and uncontrollable emotional response. It did not have moral consequences. It only made life more upsetting. The Greek ideal was a life like Mr. Spock in Star Trek. As a Vulcan, Spock was not subject to human emotions like Captain Kirk. His life was completely controlled by reason.
But all of this changes in Hebrew. The Hebrew word that was translated by the Greek eleos (mercy) is hesed. In the Old Testament, mercy is part of the covenant relationship. Mercy means the act of giving help to one who is in need. In the Old Testament, mercy is tied directly to knowing God (Hosea 6:6). Yet it does not mean that God shows kindness toward His people simply because they have a covenant with Him. Rather, it indicates that behind God’s promises to any of His children lies God’s love for His own creation. God loved us before He made promises to us. In fact, His help toward us was not dependent on our keeping the terms of the relationship outlined in the Law. Instead, God desired to rain His love and compassion on us when we needed it most – after we rejected our relationship with Him.
It is important to understand the difference between grace and mercy. Grace is about God’s free gift of redemption and His forgiveness for of our active rebellion against Him. Mercy is God’s alleviation of the consequences of sin. It is the repair work that God performs to overcome the destruction that our sin has caused. Mercy is the consequence of grace. When God grants mercy to us, it is a pardon to the undeserving. But unlike the Greek view, when the Judge of all Mankind grants mercy by removing the consequences of sin, it is never viewed as partiality or a sign of weakness. It is viewed as a sign of the covenant promise – the stronger party coming to the rescue of the weaker. Mercy demonstrates God’s strength. He is so powerful that He is able to release us from punishment without compromising the Law. How He does this is the story of the crucifixion.
For the Greeks, society depended on right behavior. So, right behavior was rewarded and wrong behavior was punished. Anyone who fell prey to mercy was likely to lessen the bond between behavior and consequences. Therefore, mercy was weakness of emotion detracting from strength of will. Like all emotions, mercy was not under the control of reason. Since the Greeks viewed reason as the final destiny of Man, uncontrolled emotions belonged to a world they wished to leave behind.
The Hebrews had a completely different picture. Mercy was all about morality, not about emotions. Mercy was the blessing of God in spite of the demands of the Law. It was a sign of God’s lovingkindness toward His people. Mercy made life possible because without it everyone would be punished. Unlike the Greeks, mercy was the purest act of will because God Himself made the choice to set aside deserved punishment. Mercy is not an overpowering emotion that robs the will of its power. Quite the opposite. Mercy is the supreme example of God’s will turning away justifiable wrath. In this view, mercy was completely within the control of reason. In fact, showing mercy was the logical thing to do. It was built into the idea of the covenant, a final expression of God’s supreme reasonable control.
What motivates mercy in your life? Are you Greek? Do you run from the powerful emotions of compassion in order to maintain a nicely balanced existence? Or are you Hebrew, embracing amelioration of punishment for those who deserve it because you want to reflect the character of God? You can’t have it both ways.
Topical Index: Mercy
