Pay to Plead…
09.29.24
“Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him, for they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.” Mark 11:15-18
Grace and mercy are often described in this simple phrase… “Grace is getting something I don’t deserve(blessing)/mercy is not getting what I do deserve. (punishment)” There is truth to this statement, but I think in the scenario found in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21-35) is more complex. In the quoted phrase, mercy can be seen as a simple resistance to retaliate. But retaliation wasn’t what caused the king to punish his servant, it was a lack of forgiveness that presented itself as their resistance to let go of what they thought they were owed or deserved. The servant had no problem accepting the king’s mercy when faced with their own debt but had a much more difficult time sharing in the blessings they received from the king’s grace.
There is an important connection between the lesson in this parable and the lesson in Jesus’ clearing of the temple courts. The temple was the place to receive forgiveness and restoration with God. The traditions of the pre-resurrection time were to use animal sacrifices as one’s atonement (forgiveness) so they could receive God’s grace again. Why did Jesus reject this practice so passionately? Because it created a system run by unmerciful servants. God’s free mercy and grace had granted them a position of access and authority in the temple. Unfortunately, they (like the unmerciful servant) were now benefiting from an unauthorized tollbooth for others to receive God’s mercy and grace. When Jesus calls the temple (that he later reveals as himself and the Church) a “house of prayer for all the nations” he is tearing down all the man-made barricades and opening back up the road to God’s mercy and grace.
Unfortunately, Jesus might have successfully flipped those tables, but there always seems to be another, even with well-meaning intentions at first, to give into the temptation to setup shop again. Prayers for healing, forgiveness, or blessing become an item for purchase over the phone or through a website. People who claim the title of servant of God appear to be nothing more than a salesman of religious products with no fruit of a servant to be found. Is that not who the unmerciful servant had become? They received an unimaginable amount of mercy and grace from the king, only to turn around and put a price tag on who would receive from them.
But not all of us are “professional Christians” so does this temple story or parable still apply to us? You might say to yourself, “nobody is coming to me for access to God or Christian commodities, if anything, I feel like I’m on the outside trying to get access in.” That is where the truth of Jesus flips something else upside down. Once Jesus revealed himself as the temple (the new covenant of restored relationship with God) we all received that immeasurable amount of grace and mercy from God. In the same universal way, the warning in the parable is not just for religious leaders but for all who accept and receive God’s mercy.
When we accept this truth, we begin to realize that holiness is not something we earn or purchase. Instead, we embrace Jesus’ picture of holiness that is measured by how we return the grace and mercy we receive toward others.
So, when we think of our calling to show mercy, let’s think outside of the box and outside of the walls of the brick-and-mortar church buildings to answer these questions for our own day-to-day lives.
- Do we set expectations for others to be worthy of our mercy that we don’t expect God or others to set for ourselves?
- Do we let the someone or something else determine who is worthy of grace and mercy from us?
- Are we guilty of leveraging our mercy toward others in a way that profits us in some way? (feeds our wallets, power, ego, etc.)
As we think about these questions, here is a quote from author Matt Tebbe on the significance of living out pure mercy. “You can become more holy by becoming more merciful: with yourself and others… God’s mercy is holy. God’s holiness is merciful. Be like God today: be wholly merciful.”