Beatitudes 3 - Blessed are the Merciful

“Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7

The more I square life to these sayings of Jesus the more I become certain of the truth of the saying that ‘Christianity cannot be said to be a failure because it has never really been tried.’ If it had we should not hear the word that is cried out so much to-day “Reprisals”. In a world where God reigned the central spirit would be forgiveness.
So we find ourselves again faced with another of these simple but hard sayings of Jesus, and even to the most casual thinker it is plain that this on is of primary importance.
It is a grace essentially Christian. Modern war does not savour much of mercifulness but it is significant in to-days struggle that the Nations which have renounced God and Christianity have become revoltingly merciless. Nobody wants existence in such a world and we are prepared to fight to save it from such ancient savagery, but we must be very careful that we preserve in our own National and private lives the spirit we seek to save. The solution is – Christianity. Without it the world would be a pitiless place. True we may meet with mercy at the hands of many who make no profession of Christianity but that in no way affects the issue. It only proves that after 50 generations of Christianity the spirit of Christ is so engrained in the very blood of the race that it would take 1000’s of years of any other ‘ism’ to stamp it out. The fact is the spirit that Jesus brought into the world exerts its unconscious influence and without knowing it men act under the influence of Christianity.
Heathendom is destitute of such eloquence signs of mercy as like hospitals, asylums, almshouses etc with which civilization is so familiar and wherever we find them they mark the sign of the forward march of the Christ across the nations. Yet the most Christian people are only superficially Christian; the relics of barbarism slumber just beneath the skin. It is significant isn’t it that in lands like out own we have to have organisations such as the N.S.P.C.C. & N.S.P.C.A.  Every such organisation testifies to the spirit of Christian mercifulness and at the same time to the mercilessness of the individual that has been unaffected by, or has broken beyond the restrains of Christian influence. The only mercifulness that, in these days, will be strong enough to remain steadfast and reliable is that which is definitely Christian which has come along the way Christ has set out in the beatitudes. The way of poverty of spirit, of meekness and thirst of righteousness.
So As though He were afraid that we were most likely to fail at this point Jesus was always urging by both practice, precept, and parable the necessity of being merciful. To forgive even as we are forgiven – and He likens the merciless recipient of mercy to the wicked servant who although forgiven seized his fellow servants throat crying “pay me what thou owest”
So if I am to enjoy this state of felicity I am to keep heart that is slow to condemn, ready to forgive,
The emphasis that Jesus placed upon this necessity for forgiveness was due to the fact that he was a realist and knew that we should have to live our lives in a world of men and women who ignore and sometimes defy God’s purposes, and the fact is that without the spirit of mercy the evil in the world can never be eradicated and God’s purpose realised.
At the root of the power of evil lie wrong standards of values. Men worship power and wealth and the crimes that follow, avarice and selfishness, perpetuate themselves and cause social unrest, industrial dislocation and still wider National and international strife.
When and how can it all be brought to an end? This Beatitude suggests the way. Forgiveness break the spell of the vicious circle. Instead of being vindictive and spreading more poison forgiveness stems the flow and draws the poison from the wound. A man inflicts some evil upon his neighbour and thereby awakes the desire for retribution – may develop into a life long feud – increasing in bitterness – extending its sphere – But if the injured man chooses rather to forgive the entail is broken and the whole process is arrested. Or if after the wretched business has begun one turns round to forgive the entail is broken.
It is from this point of view we must view this spirit of mercy, as a positive and active thing -m
It is not easy to be merciful when we feel like exacting justice, it needs strength of character, but mercy will accomplish what justice never can.
C. F. Andrews – Christ in the silence - young sikh headman – requires strength of character.
Calvary cost Jesus Gethsemane. - His aim was not merely to condemn evil but to cure it, and to cure it you need forgiveness. In His ministry mercy – made men whole.
Divine mercy so perfectly expressed in Him was a wall against which the waves of evil broke, and broke finally, for the could go no further. Mercy alone frees men from evil. I.e the appeal of the cross.
Jesus taught us to forgive not that we might be forgiven, but rather because we are forgiven, and this much is true that in so far as we fail to be merciful we exclude ourselves from fellowship with God. That must be so or we keep the vicious circle moving.
The effort to overcome bitterness against one who has wronged us is often the hardest thing we have to do – it is easier to ask for forgiveness. But our difficulty should help us to understand what is cost Him to forgive us “while we were yet sinners.”
It was only as we learn the worth of God’s pardon and it wins its way in our heart, and mercy become to habit of our life, that God’s mercy can have perfected its work, - and we can truly be said to have obtained mercy,


Other passages written at top of sermon
Matthew 18.23
Proverbs 17.25, 21-25

Preached on the evening of 17th November 1940 at Sydney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent.

Also Unknown date Morning service location unknown

Dates on back of Sermon
Station St 1/12/40
Byrnley St 2/2/41
Rolleston 9/2/41
Winshill 9/3/41
Unknown church 4/5/41