Elisabeth Elliot wrote Through Gates of Splendor in 1957 recounting the experience of five missionaries who lost their lives at the hand of men from a tribe in eastern Ecuador. After the five men were killed, Elisabeth, along with her daughter Valerie and one of the other widows, Rachel Saint, began working to share the gospel with the tribe whose men had killed their husbands/father.
When I read this book several years ago, I was struck with the level of mercy the women showed to the tribe. It would have been easy to become jaded toward the tribe and to have even sought for justice and revenge. Yet, the love of Christ and their desire to continue the mission the men had set out to complete, drew the women to the place of mercy and grace. They wanted the tribe to know Jesus.
In Matthew 5:7, we read, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” Within a cultural backdrop of “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (which Jesus will speak to later in the Sermon on the Mount), the idea of showing mercy to people who had hurt me or who had hurt people seemed counter-intuitive…it didn’t make sense. Yet, the invitation is to show mercy in hopes of finding reconciliation and growth. The goal of mercy is to regain the relationship, over against the cultural understanding of revenge where if I am going to experience some level of discomfort and pain, so will the person who caused me discomfort or pain.
Instead of seeking to match pain for pain, the idea of showing mercy means we also receive mercy. Just as Jesus will teach about prayer later in the Sermon on the Mount, “forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors” and then later in the Sermon, “do to others as you would have them do to you,” we are invited to shift the focus from revenge to relationship. We are invited to seek forgiveness, grace, and mercy so that reconciliation and love can be at the forefront where peace can reside.
How are we being called to be people of mercy? How is our willingness to show mercy point people to Jesus? How is our willingness to show mercy when someone has wronged us, place us in a position to receive mercy when we have done the wrong?
Prayer: Lord, it is convenient to pursue revenge when someone upsets me or hurts me. Yet, you have taught and modeled for me the beauty of mercy. Forgive me when I am short on mercy. Change my heart and create in me a merciful heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.