Counter Culture Revolution! Remeber Him…
Today we’re carrying on making our way through the beatitudes of Jesus, and we can see how He is calling us to a style of life that is opposite to the culture that we live in.
Mercy is not something that the culture that we live in is known for, if someone dents your car it is only fair that they pay for it. Yet this is what Jesus is calling us to in this next part of the counter cultural revolution, not to pay back an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, rather to show mercy. But, why should we be merciful?
Isn’t it the right thing for someone to repay you when they wrong you, if they broke it, then they should fix it, if they stole that then they should be punished, etc, etc… But let’s take a step back for a second, what if God was like that with us. What if God was up in heaven with an all seeing eye, a clipboard marking down all the times that we messed up, marking down all the times that we messed up and making sure that we pay that back fairly. He isn’t like that, God has shown us mercy upon mercy, and grace upon grace… God is merciful, that is why we should be merciful.
The story goes that there was a boy and his dad on a camping trip, they were camped next to a river that was known to contain crocodiles. The dad said to his son can fish as much as he wants, but he must only fish from the jetty, and not take the boat out, because of the crocodiles. By the second afternoon the boy couldn’t contain himself anymore, and he took one of the boats out. A while later the dad heard a loud scream, followed by splashing, and he knew. The dad raced down to the waters edge and saw his son being attacked by the crocodile, without thinking he dived into the water and grabbed his son, swimming him to safety. The boy stands up, and sees his dad’s leg bitten almost clean off, steps over his dad laying there and gets into the other boat to carry on fishing.
That is obviously absurd, the boy would have been completely heartless to do that! This is the second charge of Jesus here, to those who have been shown mercy by God because of sin, will desire to be pure in heart. Notice this, pure in heart, not only in what they do, but in their very heart. God has saved us, and we receive mercy upon mercy from Him day after day, shouldn’t it be our greatest desire to live for Him with a pure heart, or are we like that boy in the story, do we look at the cross of Christ, and carry on doing those very things that He died for?
Let’s be a people, who love mercy, and desire purity, that is the opposite to what the culture is trying to teach us, but it is what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is…
