“Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you…Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is also merciful.” – Luke 6:28, 36
“For I know that in me that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” – Romans 7:18
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” – Micah 6:8
Scripture Reading: Luke 6:27-36
I think God is trying to tell me something, and frankly, it’s a little hard to hear. It has to do with being merciful, being humble, and doing right rather than being right. I’m sorry to say that most Heart Medicine devotions stem from the things I struggle with, and not the things I do right. If anything, they chronicle God’s endless mercy to me, and when I foolishly think that I have the right to prove my point to someone else, His mercy brings me back to reality. It’s stopped me in my tracks more than once.
When conflict comes, it’s easy to go on the defensive. And when you’re sure that “right is on your side”, it’s even easier to move to the offensive. Sadly, our need to be right can justify a whole lot of craziness in our heads, and we can find ourselves doing and saying whatever it takes, just to prove our point.
None of that craziness is excused in Luke 6. Jesus clearly explained and clearly modeled mercy and humility. As a matter of fact, He came to earth as the human extension of the Father’s mercy (Romans 5:8). That mercy had been extended in a million other ways since the beginning of time (Psalm 100:5, 106:1, Isaiah 55:7, Titus 2:11), and Christ would ultimately extend it by willingly stretching His arms out to die on the cross for millions of undeserving souls (Ephesians 2:1, 8-9) – including yours and mine.
If you break it down, everything that Jesus did in His 33 years on this earth – from His humble birth (Luke 2:7), to His itinerant ministry of mercy (Matthew 8:20), to His submission to death (Philippians 2:6-8), and His denial of any attempt to defend Himself (Isaiah 53:7) – was about doing right rather than being right. He came to do the will of His Father, not to prove Himself, not to set up a triumphant earthly kingdom as His disciples hoped, but to humbly serve the purposes of His Father’s heavenly kingdom (John 4:34, 5:30, 6:38).
And think of all the people who were clearly wrong, who were treated with love and compassion by Jesus – the woman caught in adultery (John 8:10-11), the rich young ruler (Mark 10:21), the crowds that would eventually cry for His crucifixion (Mark 6:34).
When we have answers and advice for everyone else, but our own actions are lacking in mercy (I Corinthians 13:4-5), we may win in the moment, but I’ll tell you, we’re not winning on God’s behalf. The true victories come when we fight our flesh and defeat our “self” – our self-seeking, our self-serving, and our self-defense (Romans 6:6, 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20).
Today, I want to challenge us to give up our right to be right. I want to challenge us to choose to have mercy for others, because we need it so much for ourselves. Proverbs 14:1 says that every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down. Can I tell you that the real brick and mortar of any earthly home is mercy, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find it mixed in with the gold that paves heaven’s streets.
I’m not going to win today. I’m not going to finish my speech, or prove my point, or lay anyone out in lavender, and by God’s grace, I’m going to keep all the pieces of my mind (or what’s left of it, anyway) to myself. And chances are that, if I start praying like Luke 6:28 suggests, the point I was trying to make in the first place will seem a lot more pointless. I’m slowly learning that I deliver the victory to my wonderful, merciful Savior, when I put my pride aside and experience a little “self” defeat.
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