The Mercy You Give

And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ - 2 Samuel 12:1–10 (ESV)

When David was presented with the account of a rich man who had so grievously wronged his poor neighbor by taking what was his neighbor’s lamb to use for himself, he responded with self-righteous anger. He immediately condemned the man and declared that he deserved to die, and should repay four times the amount he had taken. He didn’t stop to consider how this story reflected his own sin. He judged harshly and issued a harsh punishment for the man he was told about.

In fact, David’s sin went far beyond merely taking a lamb from his neighbor. He had stolen the wife of Uriah by abusing his power as king. Uriah was not simply his neighbor. He was listed among David’s most loyal and capable soldiers. I’m sure David must have known Uriah well, and was aware of how brave and loyal his service to David had been. It was Uriah’s refusal to return home because his fellow Israelites were sleeping outside at the battleground that prompted David to arrange for his death. So not only was David guilty of taking his wife, he was guilty of murder as well.

I can only imagine how his face went pale when Nathan revealed that account was revealing his own actions. In fairness to David, he responded with sincere acknowledgement of his sin and repentance, and accepted the punishment that the Lord had to mete out to make the situation right. David is justly considered a great man and leader, and the Lord Himself said he was “a man after My own heart.” I wonder if his punishment would have been less severe if David had been more merciful. Consider that over the course of David’s lifetime, he lost three sons: 1) the child borne to him and Bathsheba through their affair, 2) Amnon, who was killed by his brother Absalom in revenge for raping his sister, and 3) Absalom, who died in battle during his rebellion against his father. After David had died, yet another of his sons died prematurely. Adonijah tried repeatedly to usurp the throne and was executed by Solomon. That’s four sons who died before their time. Was that the fourfold payment that David unwittingly pronounced on himself?

We live in an age where our sins can be broadcast to the entire world over the internet. When someone acts badly, their actions can easily be captured on video and posted online. Then the mob shows up and pronounces judgement on that person. Often the sentence it renders involves revealing the person’s name, home address, and employer or business. Frequently the mob seeks to get that person fired, and often it gets that outcome. If things really go south the bad actor might receive death threats against them and their family. We shrug when this happens. After all, I’m not the one leaving the death threats, it was some other crazy who did that. And if he or she gets fired, well, it is only just desserts. They shouldn’t have been a bad person.

Examples abound for this kind of thing. There was the woman who sent out a poorly considered tweet and was fired from her job as a PR director during an 11-hour flight to South Africa. Or the dentist who shot a lion while big game hunting in Africa and posted his trophy kill online. Both of them received a stream of online hate through a variety of social media platforms, and saw their careers crumble as a result. I’ve heard it argued that this system holds people accountable for their actions and causes us to think twice before we do something stupid or wrong. I can’t help but wonder how much of a deterrent it is when every day it’s a new case of who did what now. Another argument made is that it gives power to the weak against those who abuse their own power. Perhaps true, but the power of the mob is a crude tool, and an uncontrollable one.

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. - Matthew 9:13

We (and I count myself among the “we”) often forget the extent to which Jesus exemplified mercy and how much his message was intended to teach us to be merciful to others. We’re not called to be a mob of angry, self-righteous seekers of justice. That is not to say that seeking justice is wrong. When we seek that justice, however, we should do so in humbleness of heart. We should be reminding ourselves of how much we have been forgiven. We should recall that if we ourselves were to face true justice for our sins, we would not be able to stand against it. Eternal separation from God in hell is what we all deserve. We avoid that not by our righteousness, but that of Jesus’s righteousness. Faith in Christ is rooted in faith that His blood pays the price for our sins, so that we can stand before God as pure and holy, fully justified. That is grace, not justice. When I’m tempted to join with the mob and express my righteous indignation against someone’s bad acts, I pray that I am reminded of that which I have been forgiven.

Mob justice has been around as long as people have been around, but members of the mob rarely stop to consider if the punishment being meted out fits the crime, or if we should be forever judged for our worst mistakes. Once our worst selves have been revealed online, it can be hard to ever move on. Employers routinely include a person’s online presence in their screening process for new hires, and even years after your own scandal has blown over, the evidence of it is likely still hanging around, waiting to be discovered anew. Should a person guilty of little more than an outburst at the grocery store or a display of bad judgement in a social media posting have to be forever stained by it? Are any of us really so saintly that we’ve never said something cruel to someone else, or behaved less than Christ-like after a rough day to the cashier at Best Buy?

Jesus makes this point with the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The teachers of the law who brought her to him in this obvious setup wanted Jesus to justify their own religious approach to the law. He responded by acknowledging that the law did indeed call for her death, and stated that “he who is without sin should cast the first stone.” Even the self-righteous religious leaders were forced to confront their own sinfulness. I imagine the Holy Spirit was at work in this. Every one of them left without taking further action against her. Was He saying that adultery is fine? Absolutely not. He even told the woman “Go and sin no more”. He wanted to provide a striking example to reveal the tremendous mercy God has shown toward us.

Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ - Matthew 18:32-33 (NKJV)

We should take care to be merciful, for the mercy we show to others determines the mercy we receive from the Lord. James tells us that “judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy”. I suspect that David experienced a taste of this when he pronounced his judgement on the man who he believed had wronged his neighbor. I cannot know if God’s response to him would have been gentler if David had been gentler in his response to Nathan’s story, but it gives me pause when I consider it.

Thankfully, as believers in Christ we live under a new covenant where God doesn’t seek to punish us for our sins. But He does expect us to show mercy as part of the heart change we experience when we give our lives to Jesus. Genuine faith never exists on its own but produces fruit. Jesus laid down His life in the ultimate act of mercy. He even asked His Father to forgive those who were crucifying Him while He was on the cross. If that is the standard by which He showed mercy to us, how much more should we strive to be merciful in our dealings with others?

Lord, please help me to show mercy to others, whether they have wronged me or simply had their wrongs be brought to light. Remind me that You have forgiven me of so much, and help me to live out the example of Jesus to be merciful in my thoughts and actions.