A Particular Kind of Favor

To give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, Luke 1:77-78a NASB

Tender mercy – Luke’s use of the Greek splánchnon marks one of the few occasions where this word appears in the Synoptic gospels. Interestingly, it is not a word found in the LXX. Greek is its real home. Where the word is used, “what we have is not so much the description of a human emotion as a messianic characterization.”^[1] But in this case, its attributed to God, not the Messiah. It is God’s tender mercy (splanchna eleous) that brings salvation. Manifested through the Messiah, salvation is the prerogative of God and the expression of His compassion. I’m afraid “Jesus saves” isn’t quite biblical. God saves and His Messiah is the vehicle of that assurance.

As long as we are thinking about tender mercy, I thought it would be nice on this nearly universal religious holiday to view a few of the tender mercies I have encountered. Maybe you’ll feel the presence of the Father who cares in some of these scenes too.