Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy
This drawing captures a key moment in one of Jesus’ most striking parables.
A servant owed his king hundreds of billions of dollars. The king commanded that he and his family be sold as slaves to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees, begged for mercy, and asked for more time to repay: something he couldn’t have done in a hundred lifetimes.
The merciful king showed mercy. He forgave the man, cancelled his debt, and set him and his family free.
That same servant went straight to someone who owed him a few hundred dollars, and began choking him. “Pay back what you owe me!” When his debtor begged for mercy and asked for more time and promised to repay the debt, he refused and had him thrown into prison.
The poor man’s friends were shocked. They told the king.
The king was outraged: “You wicked servant. I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you!?” Jesus said that “In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”
The lesson is obvious.
We have sinned and committed high treason against our infinitely holy Creator. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We’ve broken his laws and owe him an infinite debt of punishment: hell for all eternity.
Yet God in his astonishing kindness has given his Only Son to take the punishment that we deserved: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isa 53:5). He’s forgiven our unpayable debt.
The Christian knows that God has forgiven us a hundred billion dollars of debt. How can we not forgive the much lesser debts, the wrongs and harms inflicted upon us by others?
This should be so obvious that anyone who does not show mercy to those who have harmed them prove that they have not themselves asked for and received God’s mercy.
“Blessed are the merciful” said Jesus. Those who show mercy are the happy ones in God’s eyes. Why? “For they shall be shown mercy.” Let us first receive Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins and his abundant love and mercy. And may we then show that same mercy to others: praying for the best for those who have caused us the worst.