Good afternoon! I hope this finds you well. Thank you for reading this blog post. If you’re not currently subscribed, click the button below to receive my weekly reflections via email.
A Prelude…
You may have noticed that my Substack email looks a little different. While I love writing about mental illness, I noticed that I was feeling a bit of self-inflicted pressure to stay on topic and… well… I didn’t want to anymore. So, I have broadened my Substack branding, so I feel I can write whatever works. I’ll still keep writing about faith and mental illness, and I’ll continue looking at the Gospel of Matthew, but I may explore other topics as well. I hope that’s okay!
Fresh Starts
We have moved to ‘the other place.’ Cambridge will be our home now instead of being only a bus ride away from Oxford. And there’s lots to like. The sun’s been out so the town centre looks stunning. The church we visited on Sunday was incredibly welcoming, and we met lots of kind people. The retail park is right behind our house, so groceries and good coffee aren’t too far away. And our two-year-old son appears to have adjusted perfectly.
But it’s still been a big transition with a fair amount of hiccups. The kettle and its plug got separated in transit. The internet hookup is broken, so we’ll have to wait a few more days before we have WiFi. Our dresser didn’t fit up the stairs, so it is sitting in the living room. I have only been to Cambridge twice before, so very few things look familiar and there are very few familiar faces at the moment. All I’m going off are the recommendations from friends, and faith that things will make more sense soon.
Matthew 5:7
Thank you for the positive feedback I received about last week’s post. Do go and have a look if you want my overarching perspective on the Beatitudes. But for now, we’ll continue looking at them one at a time. And this week’s one is Matthew 5:7 (as follows):
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
I have always found the phrase 'you are what you eat’ a weird one. Even as I’ve grown up and realised that it doesn’t mean I will turn into a tomato or a piece of cheese or whatever, I’ve still struggled to believe the message behind the message. It seems to imply that your actions are what define you, and that has always been something I’ve struggled with. Sure, our actions are important, but I think it goes the other way: ‘you eat what you are,’ if you will.
We’ll soon get to the parts in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about our words and actions being the overflow of our hearts. And I think that’s true. The things we say and do reveal our innermost character, the good bits and the bad bits.
This thought, it may seem, has little to do with Matthew 5:7, but I find it to be an important starting point, maybe for all the Beatitudes. Most of the Beatitudes speak to our private lives and interrogate who we truly are, not who everyone thinks we are or who we want everyone to think we are. We can pretend to be someone else for a while but either our character changes as we ‘fake it until we make it’ or the facade comes crumbling down.
The Beatitudes cannot be easily manufactured, though. You could theoretically pretend to be merciful, but having mercy often requires sacrifice. It is difficult to feign that. Even if I were to show mercy to someone for my own selfish gain, for the sake of garnering attention or receiving favour from others, I would still have to make some kind of sacrifice for that to occur. And, if my goal is to further myself, is it really mercy?
God knows our hearts as we do these things. And I think we often do as well. I can certainly think of occasions where I’ve done something good for the wrong reasons, and it’s made me feel a bit icky inside. When I do something truly good with truly good motives, that icky feeling isn’t there.
And while I don’t think we’re rewarded by God in a one-to-one exchange, I do believe that authentically and truly extending mercy to another person requires supernatural love and care, the kind we see demonstrated by Jesus. It’s normal to seek revenge and justice when people cause harm. Being merciful, therefore, depends upon believing that it’s worth it. You don’t need to know Jesus to be able to see that, but all Christians should.
Romans 3:23-24 tells us that we have all “fallen short of the glory of God” but that “all are justified freely by his grace.” Those who claim ‘Jesus saves’ ought to show mercy because mercy has been extended to them too.
It is nonsensical to me that Christians are harsh in the face of injustice, even at times taking on the form of the oppressor. I can see why it’s happened but it isn’t consistent with the gospel, which teaches us that we have each received mercy.
Maybe what Jesus means here is this: to receive the mercy we are offered, we must live with him as our primary example. And that requires being merciful. Blessed are the merciful because they get it. They’ve seen the wonder of the gospel, and they actually live it out. Therefore, they will receive mercy.
I hope this was helpful, or at least provoked some interesting thoughts. Please feel free to send it along to someone and encourage them today.
With much love and gratitude,
Stephanie