A Lesson on Mercy

Today is a lesson on mercy. Today we’re in the school of Jesus. That’s what we are as we walk through just a really, really simple story in Luke chapter nine. And Jesus is going to teach his disciples and all of us a very simple lesson about how to view and engage with the broader world. This is class time.

Jesus is our teacher. This is not a parable. This is not a story we have to unwind. This is is a direct lesson with some direct instructions. And Jesus is going to speak directly to our hearts and talk to us a little bit about what mercy should look like in the broader world and how we are going to engage with the broader world.

So let’s just set the scene. Luke chapter nine begins with the commissioning of the Twelve. Jesus’s best friends, his closest allies, are brought to him. And at that point, Jesus gives them authority and authority to display God’s power so that the message they preach would be confirmed by signs and wonders. So after being sent out at the very beginning of this chapter, their message becomes so persuasive, so convincing in fact, that 20,000 people come to Jesus. What great preachers they were to convince so many people to come before Jesus.

And when Jesus sees the crowds there, he says, these guys need something to eat. And Jesus uses this time to miraculously feed all of them. And then the Twelve join Jesus in a place called cesaria philippi to the north of Galilee, where Peter would, after seeing everything that he’s seen over the last two years, acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the messiah. An acknowledgment that means Jesus is the only hope for the world. To that response, or rather to that acknowledgment, Jesus responds by saying, and you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

And then he describes what the next phase of the plan is. Jesus says that he’s going to die, going to be killed in Jerusalem and suffer. After this, Jesus would go up on a mountaintop, realizing that the disciples did not want to be engaged with a messiah who was planning to die, he takes them up on the mountaintop to encourage them and he transfigures before their eyes, cementing his godship and cementing his message to this little group. So here’s the quick review. Jesus has given them authority, a message, power.

They are certain that he has come from God and they now know that he’s headed to the place of death. So you can keep that all in mind as we begin this account. In Luke chapter nine, verse 51, it says this. At this time, sorry, as the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Up to this point, everything in Luke’s gospel is about the coming of Jesus.

But here it talks about the going of Jesus. The Bible says that he set his face set his heart resolutely to Jerusalem. Jesus is literally moving towards his execution, moving towards his humiliation. He’s going towards his death. He’s going with, you know, towards the place where all the beating is going to happen and the whips and the nail pierced hands and the crown of thorns.

Jesus knows that Jerusalem is the place where he will suffer, be put to shame and be killed. But the Bible says that he resolutely set to go there. You might wonder why. Why would Jesus decide, I am definitely, without a shadow of a doubt going to the place of my own destruction? And it’s simply this, Jesus is on a mission of mercy.

The Bible tells us for the joy set before Him, he endured the cross, scorning at shame. Jesus is resolutely setting his attention to the place of his condemnation. He is on a mercy mission, a grace mission, to save lost sinners, to put the fatherless in homes, to set the oppressed free, to give freedom to anyone. And he’s going to do it because rather he’s going to do it by being crushed on a tree for all humanity. It’s an incredible, incredible, incredible idea that Jesus has decided no more glory on this earth.

I have turned my attention towards the place of my own demise. Now what’s included in the statement is beyond just the place, it’s all of this idea. But I want to talk to you a little bit about the place. Jerusalem is a couple of a days walk from Galilee. The journey starts in Galilee, right?

And it moves all the way down to Jerusalem. It takes a couple of days to do that and on the course you would need to make a couple of stops going from north to south because there’s a bunch of mountains. It’s not just a short journey there, there’s rivers. The Jewish area is separated from itself. So the bottom area is like Jerusalem, the top area is Galilee.

This middle area is Samaria. We’ve talked about this before and so their first stop is going to be in Samaria, verse 52. And he sent messages on ahead of them who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. Again, they’re on the same journey. We just looked at the journey but they’re on the journey.

The ministry in the north is over. It’s been going on for a year and now they’re headed towards Jerusalem. But they make the very first stop in Samaria. This illustrates so much about Jesus’s ministry. But I just want to make a note about the idea of Samaria.

It’s good for you and it’s good for me because here’s the deal about Samaria that’s so important. Jesus reaches beyond societal boundaries to show mercy, beyond the boundaries of his social comforts, beyond the boundaries of his own race. The religious system of the day had no mercy for the Samaritans. But Jesus Christ the Son chooses the first place to stop on his journey to his own death, to be a people of a different race. He would walk through Samaria.

We mentioned this before, but many Jewish people would walk around Samaria in order to not be defiled by the Samaritans. The Samaritans Second Kings, Chapter 17, verse 33, tells us they feared God and they also served idols, so they’re idol worshippers. But Jesus never had a problem extending the borders of his mercy. He was willing to cross boundary lines. He served people of different religions.

He served people of different races. He engaged to show mercy to people with different and even sometimes radical political persuasions. He was merciful towards people with demons the Bible says, people with diseases, people who were ignorant of the truth, people who were rude to Him, people who were jealous, people who were slanderers. Jesus showed them mercy.

And there’s so much for us to learn here. But a simple reflection question might be helpful. How far does your mercy extend? It’s easy to be merciful, compassionate and loving to the people of your own little group, isn’t it? To be merciful to the people who you’re comfortable with, those who speak like you, those who sound like you, those who believe like you, those who worship like you, those who look like you, those who live like you.

But here’s what we see throughout Jesus’s ministry, is that Jesus is willing to journey to any race, any religion, any belief system to extend his amazing grace. You might remember the lady with five husbands. Jesus met with her. You might remember the demoniac. Jesus met with him.

Tax collectors, the Pharisees. Jesus spent time with Nicodemus in that room that day. And I just want to make a quick note about speaking truth, because immediately we’re all going to respond like, well, if they’re a different religion, I’m not sure if I can hang with them because I have to speak the truth. Of course, truth is important. Let’s just say this, it’s absolutely critical, 100%.

But along with the truth of Jesus, Jesus comes full of mercy. Jesus spoke truth with equal weight of mercy, with an equal weight of mercy. To the outcast, Jesus would speak truth, but also mercy. To the marginalized, Jesus would speak truth, but also have mercy. To the people who distorted scripture, Jesus would speak with truth, but also with mercy. People who misrepresented God. Jesus spoke with truth and mercy. He engaged with idol worshippers. He went to those on the social fringes.

And I want to just make a really important point here, because this would be the equivalent of us saying, hey, when you engage with the pedophile, come with truth and mercy.

When you engage with the child predator, come with truth and mercy. When you engage with someone suffering through homelessness, truth and mercy. Those who have been sexually abused, those who are identified with different sexual orientations, those who are in the corrupt political system, those prosperity gospel preachers, those radical rightists and those radical leftists and those radical whatever-ists. Again, I’m not saying you don’t speak truth, but like Jesus, our mercy should extend beyond where we’re comfortable into the places where Jesus would go. Man, this is the way it works, right? It’s like, well they sound like me. But you didn’t really understand them. You didn’t capture their point. If you really would have listened to them, you would have gotten the whole context because they sound like me. But if they don’t sound like me, they don’t look like me, they don’t act like me. You don’t even give anybody the shred of a benefit of a doubt.

Instantly we go to judgment. The Bible says he sends messengers ahead of him. Jesus needed a place to stay. Again, he’s expanding the boundaries of where most people would be comfortable. He’s headed to Samaria.

But here’s what happens. The people there did not welcome him because he was headed to or for Jerusalem. He’s going to Jerusalem. They don’t want to deal with him. Hey, if you’re going to go to a different place of worship, I don’t want to hang with you.

Just because you accept other people don’t mean they accept you, obviously. The villager says, we don’t want that dude here. Just for a moment, can you just imagine that conversation? John or James or whomever goes into the group and they’re like, let me just say something. We need you to make some space for us.

Twelve spaces, in fact. We need to make some space for us. And they’re like, who are you and John’s like, twelve of us are preachers, but one of us is God.

Clean this place up. Jesus is coming to town. God almighty is coming to town. The Samaritans obviously do not care about whatever the apostles are saying. They’re unimpressed and so they reject him.

And here’s where this lesson is brought home. I’m going to show you the tension again. The disciples who are sure that he is God, the disciples who are given power and authority now get word that this race of people they deem as less than them are telling their God he cannot stay in their town. How dare they? So verse 54 is the reaction.

They are furious. When the disciples, James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? Jesus on a mission of mercy. And the disciples are like terrorists. It’s like Saddam Hussein stuff or something like that.

The disciples are I don’t know, maybe they’re tired. It’s been a long journey. Maybe they’re hungry. Maybe they’re wanting some rest. And here are these people that are less race than them they believe and they’re dishonouring their God, the God of the universe. And they’re outraged. They’re outraged by the fact that these people would not give him a place to stay. And so they ask God do you want us to kill them?

What do you think? You want us to kill them? We’ll do it. We have no problem. You gave us power. You gave us authority. We will kill that whole place, every single person. Fire. sodom gamora, that whole thing. Some translations say this.

It says, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elijah did? They know where they are. This is in Second Kings, chapter one. Elijah is in the same area, and fire comes down from heaven.

So they’re like, I know the Bible. This is my time. I get to be Elijah lord, do you want us to kill him? Do you want us to go Elijah on all of them? And the Bible replies but Jesus turned and rebuked them.

Why? Because Jesus is on a mission of mercy, and these men are on a mission of judgment. Well, what’s the rebuke? Some manuscripts, or rather yeah, some manuscripts. Some Bible translations actually tell us what the rebuke is.

This is from the new American Standard Bible. Your Bible probably has nothing there if you’re reading the NIV. But if you’re reading an NASB, you would see this. But he turned and rebuked them and said, you do not know what kind of spirit you are sorry. You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.

For the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. See the little addition there? Now, it’s not my responsibility to debate all of this, like which one’s correct and which one’s not. But let me just make a little note for you.

There are thousands of Bible translations, and usually translators use the oldest manuscripts they have access to to do their translations. Like, every couple of years there’s some archaeological discovery that pushes the origins of the text closer to the original. So more modern translations, I would say, maybe even better translations are removing parts of 55 and 56. But you have a little footnote that says some manuscripts say if you’re looking at your Bible, some manuscripts say, right. So the NIV removes portions of 55 and 56 because it’s not in the oldest manuscripts.

However, and this is super, super important, quotations like what you find here at the end of 55 serve a super important function. They serve to clarify amplify or to explain Christian early Christian interpretation of the text. So what you’re reading here is a citation from, like, a monk who’s telling you, this is what early Christians thought this meant. So what did they think it meant? Well, it says it in two ideas.

One is you don’t know what kind of spirit you are. What’s the rebuke? Who do you think you’re representing? I’m here to extend grace, and you want to throw up condemnation. And then the second point.

The Son of man did not come to destroy man’s lives, but to save them. Now we don’t actually need this passage to teach this point. Luke, chapter 19, verse ten tells us this. Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost. Now, it may not be in the original text, some scribe probably added it, but it doesn’t really matter because the truth is still the truth. The Son of man did not come to destroy man’s life, but to save them.

That’s true right? John three, he didn’t come to destroy man’s life. The Bible says he was sent into the world to save the world.

Here, though, you have James and John who just want to show judgment. But Jesus puts a stop to their judgment and reminds them, James and John, why are we here? Why are we here? And the answer for James and John should have simply been this we are here on a mission of mercy. Some of us have struggled with this idea.

We are on a mission of protection. Maybe some of us thought, I’m here to protect the church from outside forces. Maybe some of us thought, we’re on a mission of judgment. We judged the world for their sins. That’s the Holy spirit’s job.

But we thought it was our job as well. Some people think we’re on a mission of comfort. This is all about just being comfortable and living our lives and fulfilling our own dreams. Some people have thought that we were on a mission to make sure every I was dot and t was crossed so that we could have a perfectly dogmatic religion where everyone would know exactly what we would believe about every single thing. We all believe we’re on different missions, but I think Jesus made this point very, very clear.

We are on a mission of mercy. And look, some will say, well, one day mercy will run out. And I would say that’s true. There’s an old preacher, an old illustration that I heard that says that one hand, with one hand God holds back his fury and with the other hand, God extends his mercy. And at one point, God will drop both hands.

He will no longer hold back his fury. He will no longer extend mercy. But here is the point. We leave the judgment in the hands of God and we stay on the path, on the path of mercy. And you may say, but we need truth.

And I would say, of course the world needs truth. Of course the world needs truth. And so here’s my clarification for this. Carry the truth with a heart of mercy. Can you do that?

Can we do that? Truth without its counterbalance is harsh. It’s brutal. And sometimes the more refined your understanding of truth is, the more careful your understanding of truth is, the more precise your understanding of truth is. When you remove all the nuances, the less merciful you become.

And you just become arrogant. But even God, who is perfect in truth and perfect in justice, the Bible says, is also perfect in mercy. I’d argue that what the world needs more than anything is a church that can hold these two things up high, that can be full of truth, but full of love and grace and compassion and be merciful. So what we need most what we need most, I’d argue, is this type of church. But also I’d say what you need most personally is mercy.

Yes, you know what mercy is, and there’s lots of definitions. Here’s the definition of mercy for you. I’m going to define it by telling you why you need it. Here it is. Mercy is what we crave most when our guilt is exposed.

Would you agree with that? Yes. You come home late, put yourself back in your 16 year old face. You know you look good. Your skin was perfectly flat.

You know, you were there. And on the table was the thing. They caught you. They caught you red handed. There’s no wiggling.

You walk home, you get there, and your dad and mom are both sitting there, we need to talk, right? And that thing happens. It’s right there. It’s exposed. There’s no loophole.

They have your phone, they have whatever. They have the magazines, they have whatever. They have the trinkets, whatever it is, they have it. They have your test scores. It’s exposed.

No, it’s my sisters. But you know it’s yours. Everybody in the whole world knows it’s yours, or you get that call from work. Hey, I need to see you in the office. What do you want at that point, you want mercy.

Mercy. Mercy. You’re busted. In that moment, what you crave most is mercy. You’re looking for someone to give you something you know you don’t deserve, right?

You’ve been there before. I’m busted. There’s no way out. I need mercy. Here’s the flip side of mercy.

Here’s another definition of the way to look at it. Mercy is what’s is what we’re hesitant to extend when confronted with the guilt of other people, especially if they hurt you. We want mercy, but nobody wants to give mercy. You want forgiveness. Nobody wants to give forgiveness.

And herein lies the tension, right, about mercy. When we’re on the receiving end, it’s amazingly refreshing. When we’re on the when we’re required to give it, it’s extraordinarily challenging. Now, if you grew up in this church, this is a good enough definition, but here’s another one. It’s undeserved unearned, sorry. Undeserved unearned unearnable favor. You don’t deserve it. You couldn’t get it if you wanted it. You couldn’t fight for it. There’s no way you’re going to receive it.

That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about mercy. We’re talking about the idea that the person is obviously wrong, and you say it’s okay because we’re brothers. That’s what that is. It’s fine. I’m good.

We’re okay. We’re on the same team. That’s the idea of mercy. I once heard it say this way, you can no more deserve mercy than you can plan your own surprise party. If you plan your own surprise party, the fact that you planned it voids that it’s a surprise. And the moment you think you deserve mercy, actually voids the idea that you’re going to get mercy. You could ask for mercy, you could beg for mercy. You could plead with someone to extend mercy to you, but the minute you think you deserve it, it’s no longer mercy. So what is Jesus saying?

He’s saying these people are probably in the wrong. But you know what? I love them anyway. I forgive them anyway. These people that will crush me, I will stand on, or I will be slain on this cross, and I will say, Father, forgive them. They don’t even know what they’re doing. That’s being merciful. I didn’t come to destroy. I came to save. I want to point something else out to you because it’s rooted deeply in our theology, and it’s this idea that I want you to kind of capture this point that Jesus is a savior.

I talk about this a lot with our staff. And the reason Jesus is a savior is because God is by nature a savior, and that sets him apart from every God of man and the world has ever invented. God is by nature compassionate, tender hearted, kind, patient, forbearing, merciful, gracious, loving, and forgiving. In fact, in the book of Jonah, Jonah wants to destroy the ninevites. He wants to kill them.

And then he has a sermon that says, repent or you’re going to die. That’s his whole sermon. And the whole town repents. And Jonah is angry with God. He says, I’m mad because I knew you were compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.

I knew you were going to forgive them. He is by nature a savior, and the Bible tells us he’s not a reluctant one, even in the birth of his own son. Mary and Joseph were told the name of Jesus because he’s going to save his people from their sins. The name Jesus in the Old Testament means jehovah saves. God is a relentless savior.

He weeps over the lost. He weeps through the eyes of the Old Testament prophets. He weeps through the eyes of his own son. The Bible says he has no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. We are told by the apostle Paul concerning the characteristics of Jesus, that God, this is good and pleasing God our Savior, who wants people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

I’m sorry, I misquoted that. Who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. The character of the one you and I worship is such that though we have failed at being his image bearer, and though our conduct and our contract says that the wage of our sin is death, he could have called fire down from heaven to destroy us. But our type of our God is the type of God that lets sinners live. What kind of God does that?

What kind of God says if sinners sin, they die and then lets them live? He who sins shall die, and then he lets you live, but not only let you live, but he seeks us and finds us and captures us and celebrates us and redeems us. God has the right at any moment to step in and take the life of every single sinner, every single one of us, at any point. And yet he not only lets us live, but he saves us from our sin. What kind of God is like that?

God that’s a savior? What kind of God lets the rainfall on the righteous and the unrighteous? What kind of God lets us enjoy his beauty even though we’ve been destroying it? What kind of God is so patient, so forbearing as to demonstrate that he said, look, Adam, if you eat of the tree, you will surely die and then let Adam live for 900 years? What kind of God is like that?

A patient God, a God that’s a savior? The Bible says he is joyous when he saves lost sinners. And so then he tells us that if God is Jesus is a savior, we are to be like that also. Luke, chapter six, verse 36 is very direct. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

The way God forgives you, you forgive others. The way God shows you mercy, you show mercy on others. But they really hurt me. What have you done to God? I bet if we put up a list like all the things you did to Him and all the things that brother did to you, that list would be way longer.

You’ve done terrible things to God. You cursed his name and then you worshiped Him the same day. You pretended that you were telling the truth about Him and you were actually lying. You said, this is the last time I’m ever going to do this, God. I promised last, last time.

And then you did it again. But you’re like, that brother said he’ll never do that again. And then he did it again. It’s like, how many times have you done that to God? Like, I don’t know, every single day.

You, as his children, are to manifest the life of God, the characteristics of God. And one of the characteristics of God is the mercy of God. God says this in Ephesians, chapter two, verse four, that he is rich in mercy, rich in it. Don’t be stingy in mercy. Be rich in mercy.

Here’s an encouragement for you. Be stingy with judgment, rich in mercy. Stingy with your judgment, rich with mercy. These guys were rich in judgment, low in mercy. And as the church, you know, we are to take this message of mercy, the mercy of God, outside the borders of our comfort zone, out of our religious turf, outside our political circles, to the undeserved, to the unearnable people, to those who hate us. You’re supposed to be merciful to those who hate christianity, who would love to have the whole Christian idea destroyed. Where’s your mercy? No, we got to kill them before they kill us. No, we have to speak truth but laced with mercy. People who hate us, we should show honor, dignity and respect. We are people, we are in the business of mercy.

We’re in the business of honor, dignity and respect. People who want to destroy your life, give them compassion, sympathy, be tender hearted for them and be patient. Don’t live in the realm of God’s judgment, live in the realm of God’s mercy. Judging people in the Church, judging people in your work, judging people at home, judging people all the time is just not a great way to live. Learn to live rich in mercy.

Of course we need to make right judgments, blah blah blah, you know, all that stuff. But we talk about that so often. This is the mercy lesson. So just like put that in that corner. Now again, it doesn’t mean we’re not tolerant of sin, it doesn’t mean we don’t confront sin, but we’re patient with sinners, we’re merciful towards sinners.

We must confront sin, we must call people to repent, we must warn them of the consequences of their sin. But we also must do it in a way that’s kind, respectful and gives them dignity for because they are image bearers of Christ too. It’s not for us to determine and to execute the consequences of God’s judgment. Church christ’s vision for us as a congregation is to be on a mission of mercy I believe. Let me just say this whenever the church in history has moved from mercy to judgment, they have brought tremendous dishonor to the name of Jesus Christ.

Look through the history. Think about things like the inquisition, the execution of people who deemed by the Roman Catholic Church to be substandard or disobedient to the authority of the Church or heretical. People were killed. That is a movement away from mercy, towards judgment and it dishonored the name of Christ. Think about the crusaders who have a terrible blight on the name of Jesus Christ because the crusaders would march through cities in the name of Jesus Christ and kill people, slaughter people throughout Europe.

You can go all the way back through all of the scriptures where we’re warned against this. We’re warned let the weeds and the wheat grow together and let God decide which one are weeds and which one are wheat. Don’t be the person that tries to destroy other people because of how Christian you are. That’s a terrible way to live. The church has missed, I think often misses its mission of mercy.

The Church has even throughout the years, executed infidels executed other people of other religions. The Church has killed people, and I think, again, that brought dishonor on Christ. I want to tell you one story, and this is just this lays how terrible this is. That the reformers, Anibaptists, who were kind of like a line from. The Anibaptist, believed in adult submersion. The reformers believed in child submersion for baptism or child sprinkling for baptism.

The reformers would often bury the Anibaptist in water and drown them and tell them, look, if you’re going to get baptized, you’re going to get baptized all the way to the point of death.

This is Christianity. What is happening? What is happening? What is going on? It’s a terrible dishonor to the name of Jesus Christ.

Witches have been hung. People have been burned at the stake. And every time the Church, the Church and Christ are dishonored, there’s a blemish on our record. I want to say something. We are in a war in this culture, and I really believe that people, I believe, will grow up to hate our religion.

We will be driven I think we will be driven out of the public squares because of what we believe about truth, our stances on truth. We’re going to be pushed aside. I believe all that’s going to happen. People are going to hate you because of Christianity. But when you’re pushed to the margins, you can dishonor God or honor God.

When everyone turns against you, you can honor God or you can dishonor God. You can be like Jesus, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, or you can be like the crusaders who would say, I want to cause judgment on every person who disagrees with me. I’m just saying I think we’re going to be pushed to the margins. And when we’re pushed to the margins, man our mercy and grace should shine through so much that no one could even question how biblically minded and how beautifully minded we are, because we have the mind of Jesus Christ, who is a savior. So, yes, you speak truth, but you hold the judgment to God.

Let him deal with the judgment. We are, as Jesus was, on a mission of mercy. On a mission of mercy. I want to close with this one idea, and it’s this. James, chapter two, verse 13 says, this. Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.

Can I read that for you one more time? Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. You can’t be more direct than that. Then it goes on to say, mercy triumphs over judgment. Jesus told the story, and I want to tell it to you as we prepare our hearts for communion, you remember this story. There are two servants. One of them approaches the king, realizing that his debt is beyond the ability for him to pay it’s tens of millions of dollars. The king takes him, puts him in jail, and the servant begs for mercy. Please let me work it off.

He could never work it off. The debt was beyond what he was even able to do. It would be like to be the equivalent of you owing $2 trillion. You can’t pay it. No matter what you do, no matter what jobs you take, you could never pay it.

The guy could not pay his debt. And in that moment, the King takes the man, and the Bible says, forgives his debt. Forgives it. You’re good. You’re good. You’re free. That same man who had his debt forgiven returns to the village and realizes that there’s a guy who owes him a couple of $100. This guy owes me a couple of $100. He takes them he has them taken to the side and thrown into jail. And he goes, you need to pay back your couple of guy begs, have mercy on me. I will pay you back. And the guy has no mercy at all. The Bible says the King then looks at the man who he had just given mercy to, takes him, tortures him, and throws him in jail. What’s the story about? You know what the story is about.

God is the king. You are the man who received mercy. And if you don’t learn to give that same mercy that you have received to other people, God is unwilling to give you any mercy on the Day of Judgment. This is a salvation matter. I’m just letting you know.

Be on a mission of mercy. Be like Jesus Christ. You could never, ever, ever, ever repay Christ for what he did for you, but you can live out your life in such a way where you extend the mercy he gave you to someone else. Let’s pray for communion. Father, we just want to say thank you for passages like this that are just reminders of what we need to do.

Father, I know sometimes I feel a little bit like James and John. I think about your name or your image being distorted by people. I think about people on I mean, I have all these private things, my thoughts right now. I think about people who talk about you but are clearly not following you, people who distort the truth in order to make their lives seem like it’s good before you. People who lie to other people about how to live.

I think about people that promote the whole prosperity thing. Part of me just wants to just tear everybody up and rip them up and then say, this is injustice to my King. But, God, I am convinced, Lord, that you would temper my intensity with a lot more love, that you would temper my anger with more just peace, more kindness, more patience. That you would temper sometimes the righteous indignation I feel with a lot more grace than I have, God. And I pray that if we err, we err on the side of grace and if we err, we err on the side of mercy.

And if we err, we err in a place where we’re patient with people, God. But I pray that we can hold up mercy and truth in equal balance, that we can be people that are just totally honest about everything that needs to happen, that we can call sinners to repent, but do it in such a way that honors the idea that they were made in the image of God. Lord, I don’t know how to do that. I know we need your Holy Spirit to do that.

So I beg that Your Holy Spirit would come alive in us in those moments so that we can be the people we need to be. Lord, I just want to say thank you for Jesus, who came full of grace and truth, as John One says, who was able to talk intensely to people, but also give them a way out to find righteousness. Lord. I just want to say thank you for him. And thank you for the fact that on the Day of Judgment, or rather on the day where he was crushed for our sins, that he extended grace to all people so that we could have it and we can hold it.

Father, I just pray we can do the same for others. We just want to say thank you as we eat the bread that represents your body and the juice that represents Your blood, I pray that we’ll have a reminder. This will be just a reminder of the grace and mercy that you have given us. We just want to say thank you, Lord in Christ Jesus name. amen.