Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Matthew 5:7

The Beatitudes of Jesus (Matthew 5:1-12) teach us to travel with him on the path of blessedness. This journey begins with our being poor in spirit, which leads us to mourning the brokenness of our world, and then to a meekness which is not weakness, but rather a desire to place God’s will above our own. Continuing on this path leads us to a hunger and thirst that is spiritual, not physical; it is a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Our fervent desire becomes for all of God’s world to be righteous, for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. This becomes our life and our prayer as we travel with Jesus on the path of blessedness. 

But there is a fork in the path here, and one way can lead us away from following Jesus. The danger to our hungering and thirsting for righteousness is that we can become self-righteous. When we try to live a righteous life we can sometimes become self-righteous. And this brings us to the fifth Beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful.” Being merciful keeps us from becoming self-righteous. 

This should come as no surprise, but if we want a perfect example of what it looks like to blend righteousness with mercy, we need only to look at Jesus. Jesus came “to fulfill all righteousness,” as he told John the Baptist before his baptism (Matthew 3:15). But he also came to show us God’s mercy. As he said to the Pharisees, so he says to us, whenever we are tempted to become self-righteous: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). And we are the sinners, as we learn in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. In this parable, both men went to the temple to pray, but only one went home justified (made righteous) – the tax collector, who “would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).

When we recognize our constant need for mercy, and God’s endless willingness to give us this mercy, then we are ready to be merciful to others. In fact, we can’t help it. God’s mercy is not given to be hoarded, but shared. And when we share God’s mercy, we receive God’s mercy. Perhaps this is why this is only the Beatitude where what we are promised is also what Jesus asks us to do: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” I picture rain falling from the heavens, watering and nurturing the earth, and then being returned to the heavens, only to fall again. Such is the gentle rain of God’s mercy, which falls from the heavens, nurtures our souls and all the earth, and is returned to the heavens, only to fall again. Blessed are all who know and share the gentle rain of God’s mercy. 

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This is my sixth in a series of devotions on the Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel. You can find the others here: 

1. The Path of Blessedness
2. What Does It Mean to Be Poor in Spirit?
3. Mourning with Jesus
4. Who Are the Meek?
5. Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness