God showed His great love for us by sending [Jesus] to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8

 

There’s nothing quite so disarmingly beautiful or strange as mercy.

Francis of Assisi understood mercy. A young man once came to Francis complaining that a thief had stolen his hood.[1] Francis told the young man to chase down the thief and, when he found him, to offer his robe as well.

Mercy runs counter to human instinct, offering goodness to the undeserving. It’s impossibly and happily generous. When the merciful are spat upon and hated, they only bless and forgive. Mercy doesn’t make sense, and yet it has the power to heal the senseless hate in our world.

We’re much more comfortable with the logic of justice. Justice tells us that if someone blackens my eye with a blow, I should be entitled to blacken theirs. If my enemy knocks out my tooth with a punch, I’m perfectly justified to knock out one of theirs. But a poet once pointed out, “Vengeance [means an] Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. [It’s] a fair, satisfying, and rapid way to a sightless, toothless world.”[2] Vengeance doesn’t solve our problems; it only makes us equal in pain.

Mercy possesses power that even justice lacks. Mercy can stop a heart in its vengeful tracks, turning a relationship around in a moment. Jesus is the embodiment of mercy. The Bible book of Romans says, “God showed His great love for us by sending [Jesus] to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). When we receive Jesus’s mercy, He calls us to be merciful like Him (Luke 6:36).

Need to turn a vengeful relationship around?  Try mercy’s baffling, mysterious beauty.

[1] Sweeney, Jon M. The Complete Francis of Assisi: His Life, The Complete Writings, and The Little Flowers. Paraclete Press, 2015.

[2] Miller, Calvin. The Singer Trilogy. IVP, 2010, p. 105.