The Merciful

1Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. 10Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 11“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

That the Word took on flesh and came to this earth is a plain fact. Whether people of the world believe it or refuse to believe it, that is their own problem, on which their salvation depends, so it does not affect the fact. What matters is that Jesus came to this earth as God promised and carried the cross to atone for sin. God made the beautiful garden of Eden so that Adam and Eve could live freely, but people forgot that grace and gave in to Satan’s temptation. For the sake of those who fell into eternal death because of their sin, God the Son became flesh and came to this earth. The command not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil works like a sea wall, keeping people from trespassing on God’s authority. As long as they did not cross the line God had set, they could have lived as freely and richly as they liked, yet out of greed and cravings people sinned. Driven out of Eden, people had to live without protection and came under the yoke of death, able to live only for an appointed time. People who should have enjoyed rest and lived freely in the glory of God coveted God’s place and lost the blessing they had been given.

God created people because he wanted to share his great glory and grace, but people who forgot to give thanks fell into being Satan’s playthings. Adam and Eve probably never imagined that such a terrible punishment would be waiting if they defied the word of God. Their hearts were stolen by the whispering temptation of Satan, so for a moment they thought themselves great, and they did not think of it as sin. Once people grew used to the darkness, they felt no resentment even under Satan’s rule, and they defiled their good conscience only to protect what was theirs. Satan knows that people’s spirits are formless and empty and full of darkness, so he made them sin to keep them from meeting God. But God had mercy on sinners living as Satan’s slaves and made a plan to save them. To lift the curse that you will surely die if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God the Son took on flesh himself and came to this earth. The law demanded death for anyone who did not keep the whole law, but by carrying the cross he made it possible for us to be forgiven, and he rescued sinners from death. It is Jesus Christ who set up the cross in front of death, the place we all must go whether we want to or not, and gave us the chance to enter heaven by faith.

John 17:24

24Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

This verse is part of a prayer Jesus offered to God. He pleaded that those who believe in Christ be allowed to live in heaven. This earnest prayer to God, though it could be fulfilled only if he himself suffered death on the cross, is true sacrifice and love. God, who had given the command not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, had to suffer throwing his own body into death, and yet he poured out all his water and blood to give us honor, glory and eternal life. I stop to think whether we really deserve such love. When Jesus Christ goes searching so as not to lose even one sheep and holds it in his arms, I hope you will ask yourself whether we are truly thankful.

Are you perhaps failing, day after day, to resist the temptation of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil that Satan hands you, and making excuses like Adam, saying you did not pick it yourself but Eve gave it to you? Are you perhaps grumbling about why you must repent every day when you have committed no sin, why you must read the Bible when you have so many other books to read, and why you must go to church when you have so much to do, and so easily taking and eating the fruit Satan offers? Do you perhaps love receiving God’s grace but dislike having God come close to you, and plead with him to keep a comfortable distance? People are already Satan’s slaves, so they cannot overcome death. To carry the cross bearing the sins of such sinners is enormous suffering. The love of Jesus, who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to save people who could not see such love and foolishly mocked and persecuted him, is a grace beyond what we can bear. The love of atonement, which carries the cross and dies in place of the sin of people who curse him and vow to kill him, is possible only because he is the God who created the heavens and the earth. Could a human being dare to imitate that love? What kind of faith must a person have to understand the love of Christ? It is that unconditional love that makes us live as those who are poor in spirit, gives us a heart that mourns as we look at souls that are not saved, and fills us with a gentle heart to carry out our mission. Only when you let go of yourself can you live as one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and God, seeing the faith of believers who have been born again, will fill them spiritually.

Luke 10:33-34

33But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, 34came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

A lawyer, to test Jesus, asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus told him to love the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength and with all his mind, and his neighbor as himself. Then the lawyer asked who, then, his neighbor was. Jesus answered the lawyer’s question with the example of the good Samaritan, and so led the lawyer to see for himself, naturally, who his neighbor was.

Jesus said that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell among robbers, and the robbers stripped him, beat him and ran off, leaving him half dead; a priest and a Levite happened to pass by, but when they saw him they avoided him. A little later a Samaritan saw the dying man, had compassion on him, treated his wounds with oil and wine, set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. He asked the innkeeper to look after the man, promising that if the treatment cost more, he would pay it all back when he returned.

The Samaritan did this good deed because he had a heart of compassion. When he had finished speaking, Jesus asked the lawyer which of these three he thought had been a neighbor to the man. Without needing to think, the lawyer answered that it was the one who showed mercy, and Jesus told him, then, to live as that man did. What did you think when you saw what the Samaritan did? Did you think you should live a good life like the good Samaritan? But if you think only of good deeds, you will not learn the mercy of Jesus. Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan to tell us to know God rightly and throw away a faith that is only a formality.

Jerusalem stands about 1,100 meters above sea level, and Jericho lies low, about 400 meters below sea level. Jerusalem means the city of peace, and Jericho, which was called the city of the moon, was a place of pleasure. We should not think that because this man was not staying in Jerusalem, the city of peace, but going to Jericho, the city of pleasure, he had fallen spiritually and set out to find pleasure. If he had been someone setting out in search of pleasure, Jesus would not have gone so far as to use even the priest and the Levite as examples to rebuke the lawyer. He was probably someone who usually worked hard at doing good. If he had thought only of his own ease, he could have stayed in safe Jerusalem and lived comfortably, but seeing that Jesus went out of his way to use him as an example, he seems to have been a man with a good heart who had mercy on souls. If you see Jerusalem spiritually as the church and Jericho as the world, the parable Jesus told will be easy to understand. A believer who stays only in the church will feel safe, sure of being saved, but having no heart of mercy, will not preach the gospel.

God’s will is for the gospel to be preached to the ends of the earth, so you must go out into the world to preach the truth, with a heart that has compassion on souls. Just as Jesus said that you will be persecuted if you live by the word, once you decide to preach the gospel, the spiritual war begins from that moment. The mission of the priest and the Levite was to save life, yet they had no heart of mercy, so they simply passed by. They, more than anyone, should have set an example of faith and loved their neighbor, yet they left a dying man to lie there. People to whom only their own salvation matters like this can never know the will of God. People who do not know the deep meaning of who God is behave selfishly, living their life of faith only for themselves. Jesus valued one soul more than the whole world, so he gave even his own life, but the priest and the Levite sinned by passing by a dying life even when they saw it. If they took the man who had been beaten half to death by robbers, they would have to spend money and time and take responsibility, so they pretended not to see him at all. They did it because no one was watching, but they forgot that God was watching.

The priest and the Levite offered sacrifices for people’s sins, yet they acted this way. That means they had not fully understood the meaning of sacrifice; they did not believe God is alive, and they lived a faith that was only a formality. Their mission was to offer a life to God as a sacrifice and bring forgiveness of sins through its blood. Yet they ignored a life that was dying, which also means they held life that cheaply. In today’s terms it is like pastors and believers who care only about the act of worship itself and are satisfied with worship that looks grand and is bound by form. I hope you will not forget that God wants to receive worship offered wholeheartedly in the Spirit and in truth, rather than worship that is only a formality. Yet more and more churches offer worship that is only a formality like this. Of course it is also important and necessary for the church to follow its forms. But because of countless hours of services and formal events, we believers do not hear, and do not know, the truth that really matters. We think it is enough just to attend the Sunday service, so we pay no attention at all to our posture, our clothes or our frame of mind in worship. You must have the mindset that if you fail in this worship now, you are spiritually defeated by Satan, so you must worship God with all your heart. The worship we offer now is offered to God, who created the heavens and the earth, and to Christ, who rules and judges heaven and hell. Holy worship is a precious time when I offer myself to God.

Some time ago, when I was devoting myself as a teacher in the high school group, the young people could not concentrate in the service, so I asked the pastor whether we might change the order of service a little, and he opposed it very firmly, saying that if we did that, we would never receive blessing from God. I thought it was important to change the order of service a little to suit the young people and help them concentrate on the word, so I suggested it again, but he only repeated that the young people would not be blessed. When the pastor started preaching, the young people would close their eyes and sleep or play on their phones, paying no attention at all, and I was frustrated, wondering what blessing they could possibly be receiving. Of course there are things, like the feasts and the sacraments, that must be done in their set form, but I think even those are not more important than the salvation of souls. My view is that believers can grow only when they know God through the word. Only when you know God does the longing arise for him to accept the worship you are offering now. When you know God rightly, you concentrate so as to offer holy worship and you work to live by the will of God, and this is the worship God wants.

The Samaritan had a heart of mercy for life, so he poured his precious oil and wine on the wounds, took the man to an inn, gave the innkeeper two denarii, and asked him to look after the man. Because he was a good man, he showed love whether anyone was watching or not. Just as you can sacrifice yourself when you have a heart of mercy for souls, you can offer holy worship in truth and in the Spirit only when you love God. I saw this Samaritan as Jesus. He looked to me like Jesus Christ, who shows love without discrimination, whether the one suffering is a believer or a person of the world. I do not know whether the man who was robbed was a man of faith, but Jesus saw him suffering at the hands of evil people in a harsh world and had compassion on him. It also looked to me as though he were putting the oil of the Holy Spirit on a believer attacked by Satan, pouring out wine for them, and telling them not to be afraid, because he is here now. Even if the man who had been so badly attacked did not know of the good Samaritan’s kindness and could not thank him, the Samaritan would have done the same, whoever it was. This is the love of Jesus Christ, who does not discriminate among people and carried the cross to atone for all the sins of humankind.

Deuteronomy 10:18-19

18He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. 19Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Just as Israel lived as slaves before the exodus, we believers live like strangers in this harsh and dark world. We have no choice but to live as strangers until the last day, so we must keep a heart of mercy and show love until we arrive in heaven. As with Abraham, who entertained angels without knowing it, God will remember the devotion of anyone who does good in any situation. In life we will meet people like the priest and the Levite, who live only for themselves, but we will also meet brothers and sisters like the Samaritan, who sacrifice themselves and give. When we become people who humble ourselves and give like the Samaritan, we can fulfill the role of light and salt that shows the love of God to the world. When the Samaritan said that if it cost more he would come back and pay it, it looked to me as though Jesus were assuring us that he will surely come again. We can see the love of Christ, which never lets go to the end, like the promise that if we care for one another and love one another, he will surely come back after preparing a place for us. If we proclaim the gospel to a world like a wilderness, we may be persecuted by people like robbers, but like the man the Samaritan cared for, we also receive, at times, the care of our fellow workers and the love of Christ.

Jesus Christ will come again with the sound of the trumpet. He will come to this earth with countless angels singing praise and with the children who have been saved, and he will have mercy on the believers who kept the faith and save them. We cannot die in place of other people’s sins as Jesus did, but if we cannot share our brother’s pain, we are no different from the priest and the Levite, who saw the man who fell among robbers and passed by. Jesus Christ has a love like a parent’s. When you leave your child at a boarding house, you are grateful to the landlord who is kind to your child even though you have paid a fair price; in the same way, he will give grace to those who are kind to God’s children. God will rejoice over the love that brothers and sisters in faith show one another, as if he himself had received it, and he will commend them.

Jesus said that the merciful are blessed, for they shall obtain mercy. If we have mercy on souls who have not received Christ, God will see that small love and forgiveness and fill us with overflowing love. The blessing of mercy is the forgiveness of sin, eternal life and rest.

We must know God the Father rightly. God’s love is the great love that threw his Son into death for our sake, and the grace that rescued us from death when we were held down by Satan. We cannot bow down now before him as he rides the donkey toward the cross, but we must be able to live a life we need not be ashamed of before Jesus, who suffered. Rather than waving palm branches with a double heart, we should be able to confess, like the thief on the right, that we believe he has no sin, and ask him to save us. Now, what will you give to Christ, who carried the cross? Can you go toward Jericho with the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you stay only in Jerusalem because you are afraid of robbers, all of God’s grace will rot, and you will not meet the good Samaritan God sends. When the world’s robbers strip your clothes, Christ will clothe you in cleaner garments of righteousness, heal you with oil and wine, and take charge of everything you who are faithful will eat, drink and wear. Now you too must put that love into practice with devotion and resolve. If only you resolve, God will be at work first, and if you love souls with a heart of mercy, he will give you the strength and courage to preach the gospel through the work of the Holy Spirit. If you have mercy on souls who are not saved, God will show you mercy through a good Samaritan on the bleak road you travel as a stranger. I hope you will become holy believers who, like the good Samaritan, lead many people onto the road of salvation, and receive God’s grace in overflowing measure.