According to Jesus. Yet more often than not it is the merciless of the world who seem to come out on top.
Jesus flips our winners / losers paradigm. Those who seem to come out on top by cold hearted means will be proven losers in the long run. Why? Not as some act of divine vengeance for not playing nice with the other kids on the playground, but because they have forfeited their ability to receive mercy. Mercy is a muscle, and the merciless have allowed it atrophy from disuse.
Many in this world speak well of being merciful; if only we had more people who practiced it. More people who didn’t just make a New Years resolution to get into shape, but who actually followed through.
We don’t do so because being merciful is not easy. Because those requiring mercy are often not very lovable. The hurt they have done to us or to others raises a passion in us for judgment, not mercy. It is far easier—and often comes with more public affirmation—to give people what they’ve got coming.
Who is it that deserves our mercy? Precisely those who it is most difficult to give it to.
Mercy takes practice. And the good news is that anything that takes practice can indeed be learned.
Mercy, like physical exercise or anything else, benefits from repetition. One can run farther distances after first building up the stamina to run short distances. One can lift heavier weights after first being conditioned to lift lighter weights. One can hit targets at great distances after first developing consistency at hitting closer targets. One can extend great mercies after first learning how to extend little mercies.
The good news that Jesus came with is that mercy triumphs over judgment, and those who learn to live within that reality are the real winners.
