WISDOM: MERCY

(Further reflections on “The Mystery”—Sunday 30-May-2021)

To be wise in our own eyes is to be a fool in God’s sight. We all are prone to this. We wanted to be wise in the world’s sight. We feel good when some commented that we are smart or intelligent or wise. The problem with human is that even the brightest mind or the most intelligent people on earth can be a fool in God’s definition. Eve was deceived by the Devil's lie and Adam deliberately ignored God’s word, “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Genesis 2:17).” They were not ignorant. They were informed. They might not fully know why, but clearly know the consequence, that is, death. However, their knowledge and relationship with God did not translate into their obedience. In fact, the Devil did nothing, except raising a question of doubt in their mind/heart. They themselves took the “fatal bite” because they wanted to be wise in their own eyes. They excluded God’s word as they included their own wisdom. They became fools.

Some Gentile believers (Romans 11:25-36) might have thought that they knew it all. They might have thought that God had rejected the Jews. They might have thought that God had enough of the stiff-necked Jewish people and ran out of His mercy for them. And they were reminded, by the Apostle Paul, that all the remnant of Israel will be saved. It can’t be logically and fully explained. This is why it remains a mystery. And this is not, in a sense, that God is trying to hide something from us. He had revealed everything we need (not want) to know through His Son, Jesus Christ. He demonstrated and displayed His love on the cross; gave the evidence of hope in the empty tomb; ate and dined with His disciples in the new resurrected body; ascended to heaven to prepare a place for His people; and will be coming back to bring the final judgement to all. So there is no mystery in God’s love and grace. However, His mercy that is new every day can be considered as mystery. Think about this. If it is true that God’s mercy is new every day, it means that everyone on the planet is receiving it every day. Some know and are deeply thankful. Others don’t and are terribly disgraceful. Despite of the faithlessness and disobedience of believers and unbelievers, God’s mercy still goes on for all. “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” This is especially hard in the context of Jesus’ saying, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew. 5:44-45). The enemies here were non-Jewish people, specially the Romans, the Oppressor of the Jews. Reflecting on this, as Jesus’ disciples, we cannot deny that God’s mercy is tangible and visible in nature, the sun and rain. By believing in Jesus and following Him, we are called to exercise God’s mercy to the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is sometimes (if not most of the time) hard to swallow, especially when our human mind always have “fairness” as operating system. Nothing is fair in the fallen world. Even God is not fair (as the way human defines), but He is absolutely just. Now when we refuse to show mercy to others, we are in a way refusing to receive God’s mercy. Using the analogy of the sun and rain, when we try to block others (who might not deserve) from receiving God-given mercy in nature, we then block ourselves from receiving them, too. And this is not wise. Again we all are prone to be wise in our own eyes, especially exercising our own vengeance which is in a way rejecting God’s mercy and injecting our human wisdom. And this is foolishness.

One question may still be lingering, Why? It is because, God’s mercy is meant to receive and give, for “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all (Romans 11:32).” In His mercy,

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Pastor Lap P.S. Beware! Sometimes, the hardest person to receive mercy is…YOU! And if this being the case, you can’t give what you don’t have.