After listening to a speech in 1846, the Reverend Dr Campbell said, “If there is a man on earth, he is a man. My blood boiled within me when I heard his address tonight, and I thought that he had left behind him three million such men.”
Those 3 million he mentions refers to black slaves. And the man whose speech so boiled his blood was Fredrick Douglass. Fredrick Douglass was a black man who had escaped slavery and went on to become a powerful orator, writer, abolitionist and statesman. His voice was like a razor going across the country slashing slavery, working to free “3 million such men.”
Ten years after he successfully escaped his master he wrote and published publicly a letter to his former master, Thomas Auld. It is an incredible letter. In addressing his former master he tells him that he will continue to drag his name before the public in his cause to end slavery. He explains his justifications for doing so and that he – Thomas Auld – has no right to privacy over the matter and to be left alone. Douglass takes his master – and the public – through the personal atrocities he faced as a slave at the hand of his former master – what he calls “the grim horrors of slavery.” As you read the letter Douglass takes you through the internal struggles he had trying to understand the world he lived in and his place in it as a slave. He explains things like how he tried to understand why God would make him a slave, the view he came to that he and his white master were equals as men created by God and neither was property of the other. He even feels compelled to give a justification for running away – as if it were not as self-evident as “these truths we hold.” He takes us through his hatred of white people after he escaped and was a free man – and then he takes us through his change of heart and no longer hating white people.
All of this powerfully grips your heart as you read it, but the end is where you find your heart will never be let go by Douglass’s words. He turns the tables on his master and tells him to imagine that he – Douglass – and some villainous type characters came and snuck into his property at night and stole Thomas’s precious daughter Amanda. He says imagine then that we took her and did to her all the things that are done to young slave females…he goes on to list the very specific things that were happening to slaves on Thomas’s own property. He forces Thomas to consider all of that happening to his own daughter – things that Douglass says were happening to his own 3 sisters still in Thomas’s possession. Douglass masterfully forces the question: “What would you say about me and the kind of person I am if I did that to Amanda – your sweet Amanda?” Douglass answers for him and says there are not heinous and vile enough words in Hell to describe what kind of man he would be if he did that to Amanda. With these words Douglass forces his old master into self-condemnation: because he could not condemn such vile things hypothetically done to his own daughter without condemning himself for actually doing those things – things he was doing right up to that very day to slaves still in his possession.
But then Douglass ends the letter with pure moral brilliance. I can only imagine how it shamed his former master. After informing him that he will continue to use his experience as a slave to fight slavery as an institution publicly, Douglass incredibly says this, “In doing this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other.” And then he signed off with this, “I am your fellow man, but not your slave.”
I bring this to your attention this morning because our theme is MERCY. And I find in Fredrick Douglass’s posture towards his former master a supreme example of mercy. Despite the scars from whippings on his back, the injustice of stealing the fruit of all his labor, the torture of having his family torn apart and sold off, witnessing the glaring hypocrisy of being whipped and abused by the man he went to church with, and despite all the abuses towards his family members and fellow black slaves…..Douglass tells the man personally responsible for all of this: you would be more safe under my roof than any other. If you were in need I would give it to you instantly and freely. He tells him, “I have no malice towards you.”
And that is because of his mercy. I challenge you to find a more prime example of Jesus’ words, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty give him something to drink. By doing so you will heap burning coals upon his head.”
Jesus gave us the beatitudes, and the one we come to today is Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy.” Lets look at 3 questions this morning: What does mercy mean? What does it look like to give mercy? What does it look like to receive mercy?
WHAT DOES MERCY MEAN?
Mercy is a prime virtue according to God. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you O mortal what is good. What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love MERCY, and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus repeated those three – justice, mercy and walking with God – when he lambasted the Jewish leaders said in Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices…But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, MERCY, and faithfulness….” Mercy is a “more important matter of the law.” James 3:17 says, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, FULL OF MERCY….” Jesus said in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”
Mercy is used in two primary ways in the bible: first it refers to bringing relief to those who are burdened or troubled or in need. One commentator says mercy is being “actively compassionate,” while another says it is “compassion in action.” In other words, its not just a feeling inside, but it’s a feeling deep inside that will not allow you to not act – you feel you have to act. Mercy in this way means to be moved by the helplessness of others to help them. Jesus looked on the crowds and saw how hungry they were as they followed him, so he fed the 5,000 miraculously. Every one of his miracles were an expression of mercy. They were demonstrations of his actually helping people – every one of them.
Mercy used this way is the very theme of Jesus judging the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, visiting the imprisoned, sheltered the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick.
All of these are expressions of mercy. The first way we see the word mercy used in Scripture is to help those who are in need.
APPLICATION: God is merciful. He is who helps us when we are in need. “
The other way mercy is used is judicially, or legally: mercy means not giving someone what they deserve. It means the punishment a person should get they get pardoned from. They are spared the experience of the consequences for what they’ve done:
- Cain murdered his brother Abel in Genesis 4 and God would have been just in putting him to death. But God had mercy on him and not only did not kill him, but did not allow others to kill Cain either.
- Ahab was the most evil king in Israel’s history but after God said he was going to destroy him and his entire lineage forever and do other bad things to him he humbled himself…..and God had mercy on him (1 Kings 21:29)
- In John 8 a woman was caught in adultery and Jesus had mercy on her
- The Apostle Paul said of himself in 1 Timothy 1, “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown MERCY because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.” He goes on to say a few verses later, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown MERCY….”
Mercy in the judicial sense is that sparing of a sinner from the penalty they fully deserve for their sins. It is someone who owes a debt for their offense but they are relieved from having to pay it back. In Matthew
WHAT DOES GIVING MERCY LOOK LIKE?
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful…” Blessed are those who show and give mercy to others. So what does that look like?
First it looks like helping others who are in need. Turn with me to 1 John 3:17-18…..
- It means being eager to help. Paul said in 1 TImothy 1: 6 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.
- Help anyone who needs help – even if they’re not you’re favorite people (Good Samaritan)
- Be even more ready to help fellow Christians. Galatians 6:10 says Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
- Its easy to help people we like, or think deserve it. But Jesus takes mercy to a whole other level when he says help our enemies if we see them in need. Turn to Matthew 5:43-48 with me….
So mercy looks like helping others in all these ways. But mercy also means pardoning someone from their offenses and not having to pay them back. When Jesus wanted to give us a picture of what this looks like he told the parable of the Unmerciful Servant. Turn with me to Matthew 18:21-35….
The lesson there is that simple: because we have been shown mercy we should show mercy. How do we do that?
- Showing mercy essentially means forgiveness, which means to cancel someone’s debt. It means to no longer hold the charges against someone. It means to stop wanting to punish someone for what they did and free them from whatever consequences
- We should forgive those closest to us
- We should forgive fellow Christians
- We should forgive our enemies
- We should forgive because we keep in mind that God has forgiven us. All forgiveness of others should be an intentional flow out of our knowing that we ourselves have been forgiven.
- We forgive so we can witness. Do you think of how forgiveness and mercy function as a way to evangelize? We emphasize going out on the streets to tell people about Christ. We emphasize loving each other by helping each other – which Jesus says will let unbelievers know we are disciples (John 13). But do you realize the effect on people it has as they see us forgiving?
CONCLUSION:
Next week we will examine How We Receive MERCY. But I will leave you with this one thought on receiving mercy. Titus 3:4-5a says this, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy…” No one is saved because God was impressed with righteous things they had done. Anyone who is saved is saved because of God’s mercy. That means God looks at us and all our sins and pardons us from the guilt of all our sins. As surely as you would trust God for that pardon right now is as surely as God will pardon you right now.
SILENT REFLECTION
- Do you need to ask God for salvation today?
- Is there a way to show mercy to someone right now and help them with a need they have?
- Is there someone you need to be more merciful towards and forgive them for the way they have hurt or wronged you?