God Wants to Have Mercy on You. ​​​​​​​Will You Have Mercy on Others?

Sermon given Friday, January 19, 2024
 

God Wants to Have Mercy on You.
Will You Have Mercy on Others?

(Readings: 1Samuel 24:3-21;
Psalm 57:2, 3-4,6,11; and Mark 3:13-19)

We have all had times in our lives when we have cried out these words to God: “Have mercy on me, God have mercy.” Perhaps we have committed a grave sin, and the guilt of our actions convicts us, prompting us to call out to God for mercy. Or maybe we or a loved one has succumbed to an addiction or been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

Seventeen years ago, on Friday, January 19, 2007, my wife Carolyn and I, along with our entire family, were crying out to God in this way. At 8:05 that morning, our oldest son Justin passed away after a ten-year battle with leukemia, at the age of eighteen.

In those times when we finally come to realize that God is the only one who can provide the healing, comfort, and hope we so desperately seek, we often find ourselves pleading, “Have mercy on me, God have mercy.”

As Christians, when we truly turn to God in this manner and seek His mercy—uniting our sufferings with the sufferings of Christ—God demonstrates His mercy by transforming our suffering into something good for ourselves and others. In my case, this transformation was often facilitated by God drawing me deeper into His heart. The bond of sharing His life and love with us becomes much stronger than ever before.

It's not unusual for us to beg God for mercy when we have offended Him or are in dire straits, desperately needing His love and mercy. And then, God responds with more blessings than we could ever imagine. The question for today is: how often do we extend the same mercy to those who have harmed or offended us when they are in need of our mercy?

In our reading from 1 Samuel, we see a profound example of this concept. King Saul did everything in his power to hunt down and kill David. David, having done nothing wrong and having served Saul well—fighting and winning his battle with Goliath and routing the Philistine armies—became a target of Saul's jealousy due to his battlefield successes and the people's cheers. Saul, infuriated, persecuted David and plotted to kill him. David, in turn, became a fugitive. However, as we learn today, David found himself with the perfect opportunity to easily kill Saul.

Saul was in a dark cave, unaware of David's proximity, yet David was close enough to cut off an end of Saul’s mantle without him noticing. He could have killed him, but instead, David had pity on him because he was his king—the king God had given the people of Israel. In a great act of mercy, David spared the life of King Saul.

While it is extremely difficult to show mercy to those who seek to harm us or have shown us no mercy, Jesus commands us to do just this. He speaks of this directly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel and in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke's Gospel. In Luke chapter 6, Jesus said, “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Our Gospel reading from Mark tells us about Jesus selecting the twelve Apostles, whom He sent out to spread His gospel of mercy and love. He empowered them to preach the Gospel and gave them authority to drive out demons. From these twelve ordinary men, Jesus built the church—a church that He declared the gates of hell would never overcome.

A church that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, has spread Jesus’ Gospel to all nations, making new disciples, baptizing the faithful, and teaching them all that Jesus commanded. This is the mission Jesus gave to the Apostles in Matthew 28, emphasizing, “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” So, what is one of the things Jesus commanded of us? He commanded us to love our enemies, to do good to those who curse us, to pray for those who mistreat us, to do to others as we would have them do to us, and to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

My friends, let us strive to live our lives as Jesus commands—extending mercy and love to everyone we encounter, especially to those who have wronged us, and even to those who do not love us and may in fact hate us. In this way, we may continually grow closer to Jesus, preaching the Gospel in our daily lives, through word and deed. We should always remember that in the tough times of life, even when we are persecuted or possibly even called to die for the Gospel of Jesus, God’s love never fails.

The closing prayer to the Divine Mercy Chaplet echoes a profound message. It reminds us that God's love and mercy are beyond measure. We pray:

"Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us. Increase Your mercy in us, so that in difficult moments, we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence, let us submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself."

Amen!