The Mercy That Pleases God
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? — Micah 6:8
But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us. — Ephesians 2:4
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: God loves us without making his love conditional on our performance: Christ made us righteous because he loved us first, and his mercy grants us the favor we do not deserve. Therefore, our response cannot be reduced to study, prayer, religious sacrifices, or feelings of compassion. True mercy acts: it gives, lifts people up, meets concrete needs, overcomes prejudice, and walks alongside the poor, the suffering, and sinners held captive. God prefers this solidarity to a religiosity separated from love for one’s neighbor. Because we were once helpless and received his everlasting mercy, we must now share it with everyone, especially through the Good News that transforms lives.
God loves us, but the beautiful thing about this statement is that He does not go around constantly reviewing His children’s spiritual inventories in order to make His love conditional. He is not like a professional inspector who examines our guilt
and failures before putting His mercy into action. Christ made us righteous before God, not because of how much we love Him, but because He loved us first and has many more plans for you than you could ever have for Him. To fulfill those plans, He will have to show mercy in your life again and again, again and again. The new wine will not be denied to your wineskins, and even if they grow old, it will not be spilled. God is always by your side. He loves righteousness, and the earth is full of His mercy (Psalm 33:5)
In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders of the time, attached to the precepts of the Law and obsessed with making everyone obey it equally, failed in practice to show mercy to the poor and to those marginalized by society, and they justified their obedience to God through sacrifices in the temple, thereby purging their sins.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13), the Lord said to the religious hypocrites of His day. Two thousand years have passed, and God’s voice resounds in the ears of the Pharisees of this century. What is the point of so many Bible studies, discipleship courses on God’s love, seminars, and spiritual retreats on the subject if our spiritual sacrifices seem to be divorced from the mercy the Lord requires us to show our neighbor? When was the last time you extended your hand to a beggar on the street or embraced someone suffering life’s blows? Was a simple prayer for the sick enough to make you feel devout and believe that you had been moved to mercy?
We must understand that God’s mercy has to be accompanied by action; otherwise, it remains on the threshold of piety, and although God longs for us to be devout, He is glorified even more when we add the gift of mercy to it. Mercy means acting; it is not a concept that remains in the intellect, in the conscience. It is not compassion, but action.
Can you imagine a God who was indifferent and apathetic toward our sin, showing only pity and compassion for our rebellion and frailties without putting His mercy into action? Did we deserve it? Of course not! Mercy is receiving from God the favor we do not deserve. How much more, then, are we obligated before God to offer mercy to everyone, especially to those who have not yet known Him—to those who are still captive to sin and lost, as we once were? God expects us to be merciful: “He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker; But he who has mercy on the poor honors Him” (Prov. 14:31), says the Lord. In this context, to have mercy is to give, to lift up, to attend to a need through concrete acts of care, to tear down religiosity and prejudice, and to show the face of solidarity.
The religious people of yesterday and today understand that God’s mercy is essentially directed toward those who have already known the grace of God through salvation. Certainly, the people of God cry out for mercy, but it is sinners in captivity who need it most; and because they do not understand it, do not know that they need it, and do not know God’s love, we are the ones chosen to offer it to them through the Good News of a God who can transform their lives. Sacrifice (religiosity) is not what God prefers, but mercy. He came to seek sinners, not the “righteous.”
How wonderful it is to know that His mercy is eternal, everlasting, forever! God encourages us to practice mercy as a gift of the Holy Spirit, not only toward our brothers and sisters in the faith. The merciful eye will be blessed, Because it gave of its bread to the needy (Prov. 22:9). Neediness also means helplessness, unhappiness, and being dispossessed. In times past, we too were needy, and God showed us His merciful face; He decided to cleanse our wounds and heal us forever. He is slow to anger—can you imagine if it were the opposite?—and abounding in mercy (Exodus 34:6).
God bless you!