BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” Matthew 5:7
Today we come to the main point in this second trio of beatitudes. Matthew 5:6-8, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy”, is the central thought between the bookends.Being a merciful person is in the middle of being righteous and pure in heart.
In Hebrew culture, firstborns always get justice, second-borns always get mercy. A curse on the second-born father was passed to his firstborn son – e.g. Ham and Canaan, Genesis 9:24, 25. Every firstborn son belonged to God (Exodus 13:2) and had to be redeemed by sacrificing an animal. At the first Passover, God killed the firstborns of Egypt (Exodus 11:5); they got justice for Egypt’s treatment of Israel.
Firstborns got the double portion as a compensation for their responsibilities; firstborns had to take responsibility for the sins of the family; firstborns had to be the judge of the whole family and they had to be the judged of the family; firstborns had to be kinsman redeemer e.g., they had to take over the role of a deceased brother, i.e. marry his widow(s) and produce a son.
John 3:1 – Nicodemus was a Pharisee; Pharisees made up 2% of the population and they were all firstborns. Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born again, from firstborn to second-born so that he could be moved from firstborn who got justice to second-born who gets mercy.
We are all in Adam (God’s firstborn) and get justice. Jesus (the second Adam) took the form of man (in Adam the firstborn) so that He could take the justice for Adam’s race in order that we can receive mercy.
All who receive mercy are expected to give mercy (James 2:12-13).Every word from God is to be full of mercy (James 3:17-18). We are to express to the world the heart of God that is full of mercy, full of passionate grief for lost potential.
The whole issue of being merciful is that God Himself in Jesus took on the form of the firstborn (Adam) to take the justice for Adam’s race. Through the miracle of rebirth by the Spirit of God, we become God’s second-born and are therefore eligible for mercy. Since we have received the mercy of God that has cancelled such a huge debt, we are to imitate the character of God (Exodus 33:19) by showing mercy to all people.
Like the wicked servant in Matthew 18:23-35, not to show mercy to those who offend us is to cancel out God’s mercy towards us and place us back in the position of firstborn – justice, not mercy.
We reflect the heart of God by being generous to those who do not deserve it, just as God has been generous to us so that we ourselves will experience God’s generosity to us and that we can truly know Him, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness – Exodus 34:6.