Mercy 1—Outrageous Mercy, episode 95

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If you love a prodigal,

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you can discover, help,

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and hope for your wilderness journey right here

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at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast.

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And also help and hope for your own life journey.

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Today we are starting a new series,

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a very important topic.

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Because God has said it is so high on his list of what matters.

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In our loved ones lives and in our lives.

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I'm talking about mercy.

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We all want mercy,

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but we often find it challenging to give mercy.

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I hope you will listen with an open mind and open heart.

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Not long ago, I spent an afternoon in tears.

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I read the book Forgiven,

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written by Terry Roberts,

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the mother of the man who shot and killed

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five young Amish girls in their schoolhouse,

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wounded five more,

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and then he killed himself.

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An unbelievable story of horror and destruction

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that sent shockwaves across the country.

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It made no sense.

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The shooter, Charlie, was a loved and respected member

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of the English, that is non-Amish community,

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in Strasburg in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

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He loved his wife and three young children.

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His parents and brothers lived nearby.

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There were no warning signs.

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How could he do it?

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Why did he do it?

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We'll never know why.

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But even more incomprehensible was

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the response of the Amish community.

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They responded with forgiveness.

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Their faith taught them to trust God and to forgive whatever the offense,

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the pain, the horror,

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the devastation they experienced.

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Through their tears,

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they reached out to Charlie's family,

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extending compassion and mercy to his wife and his children,

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his parents, and his brothers.

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How could they do that?

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Why would they do that?

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Because of our God's outrageous mercy.

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As I read this story filled with compassion and forgiveness,

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as well as horror and tears,

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I knew we should consider God's mercy to us,

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and his challenge to us to be merciful.

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Mercy is one of the foundational qualities of our amazing God.

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James tells us that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

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So what is mercy?

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Let me try to help us grasp the reality, the necessity,

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the impossibility, and the imperative of mercy.

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Here are some definitions of mercy.

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A disposition to be kind and forgiving.

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Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power.

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It's clemency.

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It's refraining from harming or punishing offenders,

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enemies, persons in one's power.

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It's kindness in excess of what may be expected or demanded by fairness.

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It's forbearance and compassion.

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Compassionate treatment.

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Having a capacity to forgive or show kindness.

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Mercy is a concept integral to an understanding of God's dealings with people like you and me.

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In English translations of the Bible,

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it comes to expression in phrases such as to be merciful,

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to have mercy on, or to show mercy toward.

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The corresponding term, which is merciful,

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an adjective, describes a quality of God,

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and one that God requires of his people.

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Did that settle in?

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It's true of God, he's merciful,

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and we also are to be merciful.

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The noun of mercy denotes compassion and love,

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not just feelings of emotion,

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but is expressed in tangible ways.

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God's mercy, unlike human mercy, cannot be exhausted.

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We run out.

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We give mercy, and we've given mercy,

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and we just run out of it, but God doesn't.

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Our God is rich, he's wealthy in mercy.

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So with that basic understanding of mercy,

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compassion, and forgiveness, even though it's not deserved,

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we move to comprehending the wonder and awesomeness of God's mercy to us.

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From the book of Ephesians chapter 2, we read,

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But God, who is rich in mercy,

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out of the great love with which he loved us,

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even when we were dead through our trespasses,

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he made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace you have been saved,

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grace and mercy often go together,

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and raised up with him,

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and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

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so that in the ages to come,

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he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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Our God loves us and desires relationship with us,

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yet we sin and reject and disobey.

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But our heavenly father, because of his love and compassion,

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pursues us to pour out his mercy on us,

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and set us free from the sin that enslaves us.

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And then, and then he says,

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we are to do the same.

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Have compassion, show mercy,

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forgive our beloved prodigals,

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as well as other family members, friends,

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neighbors, and even our enemies.

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As God shows mercy, so should we.

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Now that's not easy, is it?

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Considering some of the actions and attitudes of our prodigals.

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But if the Amish could forgive,

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show mercy to the one who murdered their children,

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and then reach out to that man's family with forgiveness,

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and friendship, we too can grow in to mercy.

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So what was the last thing that your prodigal did that really exasperated you?

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Lied to you, stole from you,

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drove higher intoxicated,

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moved in with a girlfriend or boyfriend,

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refused to go to school,

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wasted all her money,

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got fired from a job,

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did something foolish and dangerous.

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Yes, and there are many more possibilities.

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And we've probably experienced a lot of them.

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So what was your response?

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I'll let you name your own.

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When they did one of those things or something else that really got to you,

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what was your response?

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So then, what was the last thing you did that

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might have frustrated God or saddened him?

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Probably not the obviously destructive things your prodigal might have done.

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But God is saddened by many of our choices in response to

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our loved ones or to other events and circumstances in our lives.

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We often respond with anger or hurtful words or harsh punishments or fear or deceit,

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lack of kindness or compassion, unloving, impatient.

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It could be a long list.

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Our prodigal's things they've done that are hurtful to us could be a long list.

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But our things we've done toward God,

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though maybe not as destructive as prodigal sometimes are,

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they still are hurtful to God and our list could be kind of long.

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And what would be God's response?

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Well, I'm going to just read to you from scriptures,

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three examples of Jesus' response, outrageous responses.

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So there's the woman at the well.

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Jews always avoided going through Samaria,

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but Jesus had to go through Samaria.

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Why? Because he had an appointment to keep with the questionable woman.

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She'd had five husbands and she was living with a man who wasn't her husband.

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Jesus knew all this, yet he talked to her.

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For three reasons he shouldn't have been talking to her.

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One, she was a Samaritan,

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two, she was a woman,

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third, she was a sinner, but he talked to her.

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The shame of it,

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his disciples when they came back from getting food to eat for them,

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they couldn't believe he was talking to this woman.

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He told her what he knew,

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but he didn't condemn her.

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He offered her living water and a changed life.

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Outrageous.

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Then there's the woman caught in adultery.

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The Pharisees or whoever caught her,

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it had surely been a setup,

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caught her in the act and brought her to Jesus, shaming her.

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Dragged her from her bed apparently and thrust her at the feet of Jesus.

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She waited for his condemnation

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and her own death because the punishment for that was stoning.

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Let him who is without sin,

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Jesus said, if you have no sin,

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you can throw the first stone at her.

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She cringed anticipating the stones that would be coming.

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But the only sound was the sound of stones dropping to the dirt.

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Some shuffling feet as each of those who came to stone her, shuffled away.

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Jesus says to her,

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has no one accused you or thrown a stone?

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No, she said,

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Rabbi, no one has.

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And Jesus said gently,

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neither do I.

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Go and send no more.

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Outrageous again.

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The thief on the cross.

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He was an evil man, I'm sure,

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to have earned crucifixion as punishment for his crimes.

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Yet even as he is dying,

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he asks for mercy from Jesus.

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Jesus could have said, it's too late.

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You've lived a terrible life.

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You are only repenting now because you are afraid.

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But no, Jesus said,

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today you will be with me in paradise.

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Is that amazing?

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And you and I, surely we find ourselves crying out to God for mercy,

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even as David did with his sin with Bathsheba.

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He says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love,

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according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.

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We are grateful that our God is like the merciful Father in Luke 15.

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As the prodigal wanderer returned, before he could even speak his repentance,

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the Father ran to him, threw his arms around him,

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kissed him, put a cloak and a ring on him,

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and threw a party to celebrate.

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Our God loves mercy,

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and he is willing to immerse us in his mercy.

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In Ephesians 2, we read,

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But because of his great love for us,

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God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ,

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even when we were dead in transgressions.

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It is by grace you have been saved, and grace leads to mercy.

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Yet God is opposed to sin, no doubt about it.

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And sin generates consequences,

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some that are the natural result of choices made,

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and others that we might impose on our loved ones.

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But our primary response should be one that flows out of the love and grace we have received,

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even as we have been immersed in the mercy of our God.

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So we should give mercy to our prodigals.

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We should be less like the Pharisees, dragging the women caught in adultery,

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and more like the very wronged Father who ran to his prodigal son.

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So may we live in this truth.

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James 2.13 says,

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Mercy triumphs over judgment.

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So I know some of you are saying,

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But, but, but, there have to be consequences to actions.

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If you'll hang on listening through the four sessions we're doing on mercy,

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I think at the end you'll have some good answers for that.

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But I don't want you to think that mercy isn't required.

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God loves mercy.

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And he would like to pour that mercy through you and me,

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to our loved ones, and to other people who hurt us in some way.

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So I have a question, actually two questions.

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So when have you received mercy lately?

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And is there someone that you need to extend mercy to?

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God's there, it's his mercy.

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You don't have to make it yourself.

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It'll flow through you because he's poured it out on you and in you.

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It's available to give to those that you can give mercy to.

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God bless you.