Measuring by Mercy

Have you ever looked at a homeless person, a drunkard, an addict, or two adults of the same gender holding hands, and thought something like, “their circumstances and their eternal situation are a result of their own choices?” Or, “if they would just make different choices, they would be able to escape that lifestyle?” It’s hard not to think what very well may be true. However, Jesus calls us to a different course of action than pursuing these kinds of thoughts.

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36).

Mature disciples grow into thinking on these situations thus, “but for the mercy of God, there goes me. Ergo, I shall pour out mercy.” Even if God’s mercy did not go so far as to deliver me out of drunkenness or the like, it did deliver me out of something. Apart from this mercy I would be condemned. Those people need the same thing that I have.

The negative counterpart to this mercy is judgement.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you  . . . (Luke 6:37, 38a).

As I indicated, our initial thoughts may very well be true, but there’s likely a whole lot more truth that we do not see: truth about sexual abuses during childhood, truth about lost jobs in a harsh economy, truth about mental illness, or truth about demonic influences. Judgments limited to what is seen inherently lack much.

This is the kind of mercy I received and the kind of mercy I strive to give:

“. . . good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:37b, 38 ESV).

In the Jewish society during Jesus’ ministry people commonly went to the open market to buy a short supply of grain to get the family by for a few days. Sometimes they pulled up the front of their clothing (the lap portion) into a fold to carry the grain back to the house. The best way to get a full measure was to put some grain in there, jump up and down a few times, shake side to side a few times, and fill it again until it began to spill out. This was the Good measure.

Lord, teach me to measure it out aright that I may know how to experience what you freely measure back.