The Happy Life: E4 The Merciful

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, so the question is, who do we show mercy to now that we kind of saw the parable? Hey everybody, welcome back to the Formage Podcast. We're back with episode four of the Happy Life series. We hope you've been enjoying this series. Chris, do you have a favorite Beatitude so far?

Chris: Yeah. Who do we show mercy to? It's like everyone, I guess. I think it's less about who. It's like obviously everyone. I was in the research for this sermon, I looked at Keller's book, Ministries of Mercies. And it was fascinating the quote that he said. mean, it's so short, but so profound. We're here.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, that's right.

Chris: Ugh, it's like everyone I'm on is my favorite. It's like my least favorite and my favorite at the same time. I'm like, can they just stop kicking me in the teeth?

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm. Yeah, seriously. Seriously.

Chris: So if you think this last one was hard, wait till the next one.

Jacob Creighton: Right, right. I actually do think the next one is my favorite.

Chris: What do we do when we provide mercy or extend mercy? It's we look, we listen, and we feel. We move towards people. It's just such an incredible step towards people as we see them as the Samaritan did on the side of the road. He saw them, he moves before them. He almost... ⁓ Yeah, it's so well, this is gonna take another whole podcast. Yeah, just

Jacob Creighton: which we'll get there when we get there, but ⁓ Chris is sermon prepping this week and it's gonna be great. I'm hoping that it, it'll be great. So this week though, this week though is we're talking about ⁓ blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. If you're just jumping in on these, this podcast series, we're going through the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five.

Chris: I want to cry. should be fine. It's always fine. Yes. like listens to the heart of this like half dead man. And, you know, I think who do we show mercy to? It's the ones that we see. ⁓ We move towards them. We ⁓ step, I I was at them, into them. You know, we step into the mess. We look, we listen, we learn. We learn about them. We learn like what needs they actually have sometimes.

Jacob Creighton: So you can ⁓ catch up and listen to what we've talked about in the previous three episodes ⁓ and you can go ahead and read Matthew 5, but basically in Matthew 5, this is Jesus's first public sermon. He's speaking publicly for the first time and he's got a lot to say and so ⁓ he kind of lays out these beatitudes and we're taking them one by one. So today we're talking about Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: is a difference between their felt need versus their deep need. And we learn about what that deep need is.

Jacob Creighton: what he says, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. ⁓ Chris, any opening comments? Yeah, it's the challenge is what I hear you saying is it's two things. It's one, seeing the need and identifying the need, which can be hard. ⁓ That's where the parable challenges us not to just turn a blind eye to what's going on around you to ⁓ people that may be close to you, either in your family or friends, neighborhood, whatever, but also the people that might be close to you that you just want to ignore.

Chris: Mm-hmm. I mean, just such a good one. Diving into Mercy was a deep, deep well that was really good for me. So I'm ready to jump into this. Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, let's do it. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Begs the question, ⁓ what is mercy?

Chris: Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: to not just turn a blind eye to what's going on around you, but then also not just seeing it, but stepping in and doing something about it is the next part, is the action step. And so both of those things, I would say, really challenged me from this beatitude and parable is, man, there's...

Chris: What is mercy? You know, it's funny because I have like struggled with that question for months now, just trying to, I don't know what it is. Like there was just, as I've been reading through scripture this year, ⁓ just seeing God's mercy on full display through the Old Testament and like, what does it mean to receive mercy? And some of this goes because, Yeah. ⁓ Yeah, well, I think it's also the balance of, we all have stories to tell. Our hearts pour out in different ways. There's certain things that just strike a...

Jacob Creighton: I need to do some inventory in my own life. What do I see going on around me and what can I actually take action and do? So, and not just turn a blind eye and walk by.

Chris: I've heard the definition said of grace is that grace is receiving what you don't deserve. We say often unmerited favor. All we say all the time, we received unmerited favor. And then mercy is kind of the flip side of that. Mercy is withholding or having withheld what you deserve. And so you're not gonna give someone what they actually deserve. So you're withholding that, that's mercy. But I was like, if that's mercy, if that's all mercy is, then how do you know?

Jacob Creighton: Right.

Chris: strike a chord on your heart that my heart strikes a different chord. And I think being even acknowledging that, not going to provide mercy so you feel better about yourself and that chord gets struck and your heart feels good now, but I mean, we all have stories to tell and things that have either happened to us or we've seen happen or we've experienced. Man, and I think that's just like a bending of the spirit in us. And I think following that, like, How do you know if it's just been withheld from you? Like what is it then? You can't say like, well, God was mercy here because, you know, whatever. And I think you see, you experience mercy by its grace. And actually the word mercy, the way it's used is actually like a combination of a demonstration of loyal love and gracious action.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Chris: like acknowledging that, man, I have a brother who is a person with autism, man, and I have a love for people with disabilities, and because it's ingrained in me, you know, and other people are different, man, what is it that you're bent towards? What do you see around you? How can you be extravagantly generous towards people to go above and beyond and pouring out mercy, ⁓ loyal love towards our neighbor? And so you don't receive mercy from someone that doesn't have some type of love for you. And so there's this loyal love that's present and then there's a gracious action. So the loyal love causes you to like withhold what that person deserves, but then you don't wanna just withhold it and then not know, you want them to know how much they love you. So you give them a narrative favor. You give them some type of gracious action. So I said on Sunday, and this is what I've actually been telling myself constantly is that mercy is not

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: and gracious action. And I don't know where the boundary is. know, don't know where the, there's no really stoppage to this. just withholding what is deserved, but it's also giving what is undeserved. And I think getting some of that clarity has just like put me in a tailspin, in a really good tailspin of really being able to start to name times where I have received the mercy of God because I see it in His unmerited favor.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, yeah. So good. So, ⁓ blessed are the merciful, those that show mercy, that see things, that take action to show others mercy for they will receive mercy. ⁓ such a good one. So challenging. ⁓ as you're wrestling through this, ⁓ we'd love to hear your comments, your questions, ⁓ just what you see even going on around you. We'd love to interact with you. So, ⁓ thanks for joining us. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, you said something that's really good. I want to kind of hit on right now. You said that mercy is the language of the kingdom of heaven. So this concept mercy, it's not just like a benevolent ⁓ concept where it's like, okay, you know, basically do this and be good. Great. Yes, it is that. ⁓ But it's...

Chris: Right.

Jacob Creighton: on the Forum to Podcasts. Can't wait for you to join us next week. We'll see you.

Chris: We'll see you next week. ⁓ yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: about our relationship even with God that that's how God treats us is mercifully ⁓ is pretty pretty insane so yeah do you have any further comments on that

Chris: Yeah, and you something I've wrestled with, you know, being mercy, I said constantly, like, mercy is the native language of the kingdom of God. And like you're saying, it really is only a language spoken within the kingdom of God. Because actually, if you If you withhold something that something deserves, if a judge does that, they're actually accused of being an unjust judge because it's like, well, they didn't get what they deserved. And so the family of that, the victim's family feels slighted or whatnot. But mercy is a different language, it's a different concept. It sits on the other side of, we talk about within our sin, we deserve God's wrath. Well, God withholds his wrath and instead of,

Jacob Creighton: Right.

Chris: giving us wrath, he actually gives us the kingdom of God. But there was a payment that was done there, which we'll talk about in a little bit, I'm sure, but it's still a just action. Mercy is as just as grace is because of something else that happened. ⁓ And so you can't claim God to be an unjust judge. He is a very just judge. We just don't pay the price.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: And so it's a fascinating concept where it can only be spoken within the context of God's kingdom. Mercy can only be spoken within context of God's kingdom. Which is crazy to think because we, you know, I say all the time, law have mercy, you know? ⁓

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. And he does And he does ⁓ yeah, really really good stuff to unpack this kind of further and to put it into kind of a parable or story example that Jesus gives we looked at the ⁓ Good Samaritan and just that parable the pair that story and so

Chris: Mm. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: Chris, you want to give us a Chris Notes version of the story? It's becoming a thing. It's an actual thing now.

Chris: The Christ notes version of the, so a lot of us have heard the Good Samaritan. ⁓ man, and it's like, this is not good. If Chris is doing Christ notes versions of the Bible, this could be really bad. But no, this is because I love my folks, but I love my ⁓ people, my congregation. ⁓ The Good Samaritan, I mean, you hear Jesus is like stepping up. He just gets challenged. They're like, what's the greatest commandment, Jesus? And he's like, love God, love people, love your neighbor.

Jacob Creighton: Good. That's what we need. Yeah. Who's your neighbor? Yeah.

Chris: and they're like, who's your neighbor? And then he gives this, they give this illustration. it's Jesus' illustration of what a neighbor is. But he does it in a way that's just so beautiful that relates to mercy, and you'll see why in a second. So he starts it, he's talking to these scribes and Pharisees, religious elites, social elites, and they're like, who's my neighbor, Jesus? And he's like, well, there's this man, this Jewish man's walking down the road, and they know what road he's talking about. It's a very dangerous stretch of road. ⁓ culturally speaking, he gets robbed, mugged, beaten, stripped, and he's left, it says half dead on the side of the road. Well, here comes this priest, and it's like, yeah, the priest is coming, he'll help him, he'll help this half dead man. The 100%, I mean, he's gotta be, he's supposed to speak the language of mercy, right? So here he comes up to the man.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, Priest is definitely helping the Jewish man, for sure. Yeah.

Chris: He's like, nope, not today, I don't have time for this, I got other things to do. And so he sees him, there's an acknowledgement there of this man's ⁓ circumstance. He goes the other side of the road, stays as far away from him as possible so he's not defiled and slides past him. Oof, that's not good, all right? Then the Levite comes. Well, Levite would be like a worship leader. I'm gonna pick on you, Jacob, so it's like a worship leader. You're supposed to be...

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: ⁓ a speaker of mercy and, or it could be just a good church person. We said it could be like a first responder and like a non-churchy. Yeah. So they were actually, yeah, they actually led the worship and the sacrifice and the temple. ⁓ But they don't help either. Pass the other side. And then here comes this Samaritan and it's like, ooh. And then like that would create a visceral response in these, in these. ⁓

Jacob Creighton: He's the good enough guy, he's definitely gonna do the right thing. The Levites, yeah. The Levites were actually the worship leaders,

Chris: the listeners. ⁓ There's a lot of, it'd be like a Browns fan, you know, is gonna help a Steelers fan. It's like, ⁓ no, like a Browns fan is gonna kick the Steelers fan while he's down, right? ⁓ The Samaritan would have every ⁓ excuse possible to actually do damage to this man. It's like, ⁓ no, this could be really bad. And the Samaritan is the one who shows, who cares for this man. He doesn't just have compassion towards him.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: If he was, because he's a Samaritan, this is the Jewish man and their like cultural relationship, it would be merciful if you just go with the whole like definition of mercy, like withholding what this person deserves. It would be merciful for the Samaritan to not go kill this Jewish man. Like it would be like, that's justified. And he could have left, but he didn't. He actually went above and beyond. He shows that gracious action.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Right.

Chris: He shows love, he shows compassion and gracious action. He bandages the man, he puts him on his donkey, he takes him to an inn, he pays for his care, promises to even reimburse the innkeeper. He goes way above and beyond. We said on Sunday that mercy never does the minimum. And Jesus asks, he says, who is this man's, who's the neighbor? And it's funny because the religious elites and the social elites who, The despised, the Samaritans won't even say that the Samaritan did it. They say the one who showed mercy, the one who showed loyal love and gracious action. And so Jesus is demonstrating just like how mercy goes above and beyond, how ⁓ showing mercy actually reveals how much of a neighbor we are.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: how much we love people, how the outpouring of our love for God then pours out onto others and gracious love, loyal, I'm sorry, loyal love, gracious action, it just flows. And so it's not just like walking around being like, well, I'm not gonna kick their door in, I'm not gonna call the cops on them, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna beat them up because they moved my parking chair, you know, it's loyal love and gracious action pouring out in abundance.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and you know, like we said, mercy is the language of the kingdom of heaven. I think we see that kind of at play just in this parable, but ⁓ in two specific ways. ⁓ So I kind of want to ask both the questions at the same time. How do we, and maybe who are we, and how do we receive mercy that God would give us? And then ⁓ I guess part of that is who do we receive mercy from? Is it God? Is it the Samaritan? it, you know, who is it that we receive mercy from? ⁓ And how do we receive it from God?

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Man, and this is where it's like such a deep well. And so I think you, I can answer the question of, because Jesus says, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. And you're asking, who do you receive the mercy from? Is it God, is it people? And I think Jesus, I can just imagine him saying it and kind of like pausing for a second and like smiling. You know, like, who's gonna give it? You know, like,

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: Yes, the answer is yes. Who do you receive the mercy from? Prayerfully, it's both. Prayerfully, you're receiving it from people and you're receiving it from God. ⁓ Obviously, we will receive it from God. And so you ask, and I think this answer is what we said earlier, is why is mercy the language of the kingdom and only the language of the kingdom? It can't be a language of anyone else.

Jacob Creighton: Right. Yes.

Chris: is because of what God demonstrates to us through the giving of a son. Because if he withholds what we deserve, we deserve God's wrath. We are naked, stripped, we are naked, not naked, naked, and you can pick on me and put comments in there. We are naked on the side of the road, stripped, beaten, wounded, shameful, guilty, half dead.

Jacob Creighton: I could, yeah, sure.

Chris: God sends his son down the road in his perfection. He could have gone to the other side, turned his nose up and said, not today, not for those people, not for what that person did. And he sees us, he has compassion. He comes to us, he bandages us, he heals us, he cares for us. He does way more than the minimum. are...

Jacob Creighton: Right.

Chris: We are chosen children of the one true King, given the inheritance of the King. And that's mercy. We deserve his wrath, but his unmerited favor pours out upon us. And so there's no other way to really explain mercy, but through the giving of Christ.

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm.

Chris: And it's just mind blowing. That's why it's such a deep well. So that's why we sit here as followers of Jesus. We say that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And that's like a super cliche, know, churchy statement. But when it comes to us as people, it doesn't matter what your life looks like per se, what you've done before, what your laundry list of sins are.

Jacob Creighton: Right. Yeah.

Chris: when we're there on the side of the road and beaten and depraved and everything else, no matter how good we think we look, we're still beat up. And God says, in my mercy, I'm giving you my son. And not only is he gonna pay the price for you, but you're gonna receive all the benefits on the back end as well. ⁓ Eternal life, life now, abundant life, riches and promise for eternity. It's like, how do you, what do you?

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: We're all there. It's all of us. We all receive that mercy and we all receive that grace. And it's just, ⁓

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's like that, ⁓ whatever laundry list I have compiled in my mind for what I deserve, not, not even necessarily what I think I deserve. It's like what I actually deserve for, ⁓ what I've done before God. It's not just, like I said last week, not just wishful thinking that it just, it goes away. It's just whatever. No, it's actually, mercy is.

Chris: Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: that it's paid for. That yeah, it was deserved. Like, separation from God was deserved. It's what I like, sought out. But yet, ⁓ God did not give that to me. Instead, ⁓ He gives me His grace, which is His mercy and grace in action. ⁓ So, yeah.

Chris: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it goes back to say like a judge who withholds what a criminal deserves is an unjust judge. And that's why God is not an unjust judge because someone paid the price for that, but it's his son. So he's able to withhold it from us because Christ's payment counts for us. But the thing is, it's like, he didn't just buy our meal. He like, This is the money for all the other meals. He pays it forward for eternity and it's it's baffling. And that's why mercy has been such a tumultuous thing, I think, within my heart is like sitting in the reality of that truth. It can just spiral me into just worship and praise. And I realize all I can do is just stand there with my hands open and tell God that, listen, I don't.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. All right.

Chris: deserve this, you still call me your son. I'm still yours. And it's just like, ⁓ my gosh. It's it.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,