When I hear the word, Mercy, it seems
to take me back to when I was a kid and arm wrestling. As we arm wrestled, we would try and twist
and turn until the other person would yell out Mercy, or sometimes it was:
Uncle. Which ever word we used, the
object of the game was, basically, to cause enough pain to the other person
that they had to admit defeat, surrender, or give up so that you would stop
hurting them. I don’t think I ever
volunteered to play this game, I think it fell into the whole sibling rivalry
thing, but I do remember always being the one that had to cry out – Mercy.
Mercy: is it a word of defeat? Is it a word of surrender? Is it a word of giving up, allowing the other
to be the winner? Yes and No. In the childhood game of arm wrestling, to
call out mercy is to say, I give up, but it is also to say, you win and please
stop hurting me. Please stop doing what
you are doing. Please stop having power
over me. Please stop being the dominate
one. From Wikipedia, the definition is: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone
whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. So in arm wrestling, the stronger person is
in a position of power over the other and can cause harm, but is willing to
have compassion on the other when he/she admits defeat.
So, when we think of the word, there
are at least two opposing sides: one has power and the other does not. One can punish or cause harm, the other will
receive the punishment or harm. Mercy
can be asked for by the weaker or it can be given by the stronger. Please have mercy upon me, or with compassion
he had mercy on the other.
Parents have to pick and choose when
to punish children and when it is a time to show mercy. There does need to be consequences for behaviors
and punishment can help teach a child how to make better choices in the
future. If we lean on the side of mercy
all the time, our children might learn that they can always get away with bad behavior
and then we will really have our hands full as they get older. Reading through the variety of definitions
for mercy, it does involve taking a lenient form of punishment rather than a
harsher form of punishment.
What does mercy mean to you? Often, in church, we seem to use mercy,
grace, forgiveness, and compassion as synonyms.
I will often begin a prayer especially the prayer of confession with
Merciful God. Merciful God: in these two words, we are naming God as
having power over us and we are asking for compassionate treatment or forgiveness
over us. Another definition I saw
mentions not just having power over the other but being in the position of care
over the other. When we think of God and
mercy, we could be saying that God has power over us, but we could also be
saying, God, we are under your care.
So, turning to our scripture passage
today, I was originally going to focus on the ways in which we can pray since
this is a parable of two people praying.
But the question formed for me – what is the tax collector praying
for? He is asking for one thing. His prayer is calling out to God asking for
mercy, asking the one that has power and care over him to be compassionate and forgiving
with him.
This past Monday night, one of our
small groups met and the discussion question was: What do you long for in your life, what do
you long God will do for you in your life?
Have there been things that you long for? Things that you have turned to God in prayer
and asked for? We can long for marriage,
or children, or grandchildren, or getting into our top choice college, or
getting a job, we can long for getting the lead role in the play, or our sports
team to win the top level of play, or making the Olympics. Oh, I longed for this for so many years of my
life. We can long for things, goals,
achievements, relationships, healing, and we can pray to God to make these
things a reality.
In this parable there are two people
praying, but only one is naming something that he longs for in his life, he
longs for God to show him mercy. The
other man is praying, but he seems to long for nothing. He names all of his accomplishments, all the
things he has done right, he is good at following the rules, but there is an
absence of longing, an absence of asking God to do something in his life. This absence is magnified when he points out
the faults found in others and is grateful that he is not like them.
What do you long for God to do in
your life? Do you long for God’s
mercy? Do you long to be shown compassion
and forgiveness by God? Do you think of
yourself as someone needing forgiveness?
The tax collector was in deep pain, he felt wounded at the very core of
his being, and he cried out to God for help, for healing and wholeness. What burden do we carry? Perhaps it is shame,
or guilt, or a form of addiction, or greed.
Perhaps we have a short temper or find ourselves closed minded or unable
to adapt to the changing world. Could
these be places that cause spiritual pain within our beings? Could these be issues or concerns that we
could turn to God in prayer, seeking guidance, help, comfort, seeking healing
and wholeness, could we ask God to continue to shape us into the people that we
know we can be?
The tax collector did not feel fulfilled. He had a great job but something was not
complete and so he turned to God, naming what he felt he needed spiritually, he
needed God’s mercy. He needed God’s care
over him. He was acknowledging that he
was a child of God and as God’s child, he needed the parent, the creator, the
mentor, the one that had power over him, to be involved in his life. There is a song called: Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord. As I worked through this text, this song come
to mind over and over. Humbly thyself in
the sight of the Lord, and he, and he, will lift you up, higher and higher, and
he and he will lift you up.
