“Church Talk: Mercy”
Text: Matthew 9:9-13
a sermon by Kevin Fleming
March 25, 2012
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - EVANSVILLE, INDIANA
Just listen to the word. “Mercy.” What do you hear?
For many of us today, the word mercy has a ring to it that we all
know. When we hear mercy, we hear the cries of a powerless person to a
powerful person. It‟s the kid on the playground, being beaten up by a
bully, crying out for mercy. It‟s a governor vacating, or reducing, a
sentence or a conviction. It‟s a person to whom money is due, forgiving
the one who owes the money.
Even in the church, when we use the word mercy, we usually have in
mind, God forgiving us for whatever it is we have done this time. God has
all the power and we have none and we go to God looking for a reprieve.
In this respect, we keep reinforcing the idea that God is a God of anger
that must be appeased and whose rage must be sated. God‟s mercy stands
in opposition to God‟s wrath. Mercy, for most of us, means forgiveness,
pardon, and absolution.
But is that what the Bible means? When we read the word mercy, is
that really the best translation of the original words that we could use?
And, if mercy isn‟t the best word to use, what might a better word be?
We‟ve got some sleuthing to do this morning, so let‟s get to it.
When you look at the word we typically translate as mercy in the Old
Testament, the word most frequently means compassion, or to have
compassion. That immediately changes things, doesn‟t it? While mercy
has within it the sound of forgiveness for wrongdoing, the word
compassion has an entirely different sound.
© 2012 Kevin Scott Fleming
When we hear the word compassion, we may hear “feeling sorry for,” or
“sympathy.” That‟s a kind of compassion, I suppose, but it is a terribly
watered-down form of compassion. We may also hear “empathy,” which
means to have an understanding for the situation in which someone finds
themselves. Compassion might be a form of empathy, but it would lessen the
meaning of compassion to use empathy as a synonym.
The word compassion comes from two Latin words meaning, “suffering
with.” To have compassion, means to suffer with another, or to enter into the
suffering of another, or to share the suffering of another. In fact, when you
look at the commonly used word in Hebrew that we translate as mercy, it is the
plural of a noun that in the singular form means “womb.” “To be
compassionate is to be womb-like: life-giving, nourishing, perhaps embracing
and encompassing. To be compassionate is to feel for another the way a
mother feels for the children of her womb; she loves them, wills their wellbeing, and sometimes becomes fierce when their well-being is threatened. To
say that God is compassionate, as the Bible often does, is to say that God is
like this.”1
Which is to say that mercy, or forgiveness is about as far removed from
compassion as you might get. While mercy and forgiveness imply
wrongdoing, compassion implies that there is a need for deeper understanding
of and identification with one in need. Think of it this way. Consider the
difference in the responses we could make to those whose lives were turned
upside-down by the recent tornados. “We should show mercy to the people of
Henryville and Marysville,” or “We should be compassionate toward the
people of Henryville and Marysville.” Do you hear the difference? To show
mercy to the victims seems to imply that they caused the tornado, or at least
had done something wrong to bring the tornado upon them. We know that is
simply not true. To be compassionate toward the people of Henryville and
Marysville acknowledges that the people were (and are) suffering tremendous
pain and in need of someone to enter into that pain and walk with them,
showing compassionate care and compassionate acts. It makes a difference,
doesn‟t it?
And the words compassion and compassionate far better describe the
character of God. In the story of Israel, when the people were in bondage in
Egypt, we are told that the cries and groaning of the people went up before
God. God heard their cries and took notice of them and went to them. This is
not sympathy, or empathy. This is compassion. Compassion seems to require
more than an intellectual assent. Compassion seems to require action.
In our Psalm for this morning, we read the words: “Have mercy on me, O
God, according to your loving-kindness; in your great compassion blot out my
offenses.” Yes, there is evidence of sin and mercy being the remedy. But the
parallel statement, “in your great compassion blot out my offenses,” seems to
invite God to enter into our suffering and make a difference. Don‟t be put-off
by what I have done, O God, but enter into my pain and sorrow and assist me.
The Psalmist saw God as One who would become intimately involved in
the sufferings of God‟s people. God did not stand removed and at a distance.
God did not stand back and say, “I understand their pain.” Instead, God
involved God‟s Self in the situations and pains of God‟s people. God took
their pain and suffering upon himself. God identified with those whose lives
were in chaos. God recognized the need of the people and went to work
meeting that need. Compassion is love in action.
But, not only is God a God of compassion, God calls God‟s people to be
people of compassion. Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means, „I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.‟” Jesus says that empty ritual and legalized living will not
lead us to the life that God intends for us. If we are to be God‟s people and
live as God created us to live, then we must be reflections of God in the world.
If we are to be reflections of God in the world, then we must be people of
compassion, even as God is a God of compassion.
Should we be forgiving people who do us wrong? Of course we should. In
the Lord‟s Prayer we pray “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,”
which is to say, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Of course Christians are to be forgiving people.
But we are called to be much more. We are also called to care for those
who have not sinned against us, but who are crying out for help. We are to be
merciful, that is compassionate, just as our God is merciful and compassionate.
(Luke 6:36) We are to be merciful and compassionate, for those who live in
this way will receive mercy and compassion for themselves. (Matthew 5:7)
It is not enough simply to be sympathetic. It is not enough to say, “I‟m
sorry that you are going through this.” It‟s not enough to hold people and their
pain at a distance.
It is not enough to simply be empathetic. It is not enough to say, “I
understand what you are going through. I‟ve been there, too.” It is not enough
to stay uninvolved and detached.
It is only when we enter into another‟s pain – it is only when we suffer
with another – it is only when we take their burden onto our own backs – that
we begin to practice what God practices and feel as God feels. It is when the
needs of the other become as important as our own needs that we begin to be
the people God intended us to be.
If you drive down near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, you‟ll notice a sign for the
“trail of tears.” This is a reminder of one of our nation‟s darkest times, when
we forced the Native American peoples to walk a thousand miles from their
homes to reservations in Oklahoma. Thousands died along the way. We
decimated the people and nearly killed off their culture.
But traveling along with the Native peoples were Presbyterian ministers
and missionaries. Refusing to sit on the sidelines, our forbearers walked that
Trail of Tears, entering into the agony and pain of people who had done
nothing wrong, other than to be born without the benefit of being AngloAmericans. They entered into the suffering of the Choctaw, the Cherokee, the
Seminole, the Chickasaw, and the Muscogee. They were God‟s caring
presence in the midst of injustice and deep pain. They were the embodiment of
mercy and compassion.
I don‟t know if we should give up the word mercy in favor of
compassion. But I do know that we need to expand our understanding. For
now, I‟m leaning in the direction of compassion.
What if:
we embraced the suffering of others,
entered into the suffering of others,
stood in the rawness of the suffering of others?
What if:
we saw those in pain and responded,
so identified with those in need that we felt compelled to act,
felt our hearts break with those whose hearts are broken?
Then we would begin to be the people God created us to be. We would be
merciful and compassionate and kindhearted and benevolent and munificent
and unsparing and charitable – just like God.
May we find that path and walk in it. For now and evermore. Amen.
1. Marcus Borg, Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning. His
chapter on Mercy is extraordinarily insightful and I give full credit to him and have used
his material extensively in this sermon.