Having and Expressing Mercy

There's a story/parable about a man that became a world famous engineer that built bridges, tunnels and railroads all over the world. He became hugely rich. Later, things went wrong, he became sick, poor, and his projects became failures. He moved back to his home town with his wife and daughter to make a living the best he could as a small farmer.

He had a neighbor with a mean and terrible dog, and one day when the man came home, the dog was attacking his daughter and had her by the throat. The daughter died, and the dog was put down. The owner of the dog was shunned, and he couldn't buy seed; he was a farmer too. The man began to feel sympathy for his neighbor, that his life was on the verge of ruin. Before sunrise one day, he took the last of his seed of barley, went to his neighbor's field and planted. When the seed came up, it showed half the neighbor's land turning green, and half the man's fields turning green. It was obvious what was done. The moral is that sometimes to be merciful, we have to sow the seeds of mercy in the field of someone that wishes us harm, and we have to make a sacrifice to make that happen.

Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall obtain Mercy.

The Greek word for mercy is 'eleemon', and going further back to Hebrew, the word is 'chesedh'. The meaning understood here is to experience with the other person, to see through his eyes. Sympathy is from two Greek words, 'syn' meaning 'together with', and 'paschein', meaning 'to experience' or 'suffer'. Much of the time we are so wrapped up in our own feelings and experiences we detach ourselves from the experience of others.

To do that we must make a conscious effort to step closer to other's experience, and understand them. Jesus tells a parable, in Matthew, about a king that forgave his servants some debts. One of the biggest debtors begged for his freedom from the debt, and the king had sympathy for him and forgave the debt. That same servant then went out, beat, and imprisoned a man that owed him. That action showing of a lack of compassion and mercy got back to the king. The king had the servant brought before him, and said, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?" The king had him thrown in prison with torturers. Jesus concluded the story, "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses".

God entered into his own creation, and forgave our debt to Him, and sacrificed his Son to do so. We must do no less. Be merciful, caring, compassionate. We don't know what the other person is experiencing until we see with his eyes, and when we do, we'll be blessed. We ask for our Father's Mercy.