Hebrews 4:15-16, New Living Translation

“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

When reading through the beatitudes in Matthew 5:7 (NLT), Jesus says, “God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Automatically when I read the scripture, it reminded me of another verse that that says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36, NLT)

My heart connected these verses and the words, mercy and compassion together. I then began to think of all the ways Jesus had mercy and compassion on His flock. He fed them, He healed them, He raised them from the dead, He forgave them. He was the perfect example of mercy in the beatitudes! 

And researching the word, ”merciful,” I felt like what I understood was going deeper. It wasn’t just sympathizing with the individuals. According to what I learned from the  bibletools.org website, Jesus had most likely been speaking in Aramaic when he addressed the crowds. His statement would have derived from the Old Testament, which was Hebrew. The Hebrew word for mercy is “Chesed”, which means the being able to see from another person’s perspective; being able to identify with and be slow to judge, not just based off of appearance. This corresponds to the Hebrew definition of mercy, which states that we need to be able to see from another’s perspective of what that individual is going through and relate with them– and to have mercy on them.

Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT) says, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Because Christ has seen through our eyes, He has “walked a mile in our shoes”, He understands what we go through and is able to intercede to the Father for us.

Jesus warns us, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1-2, NLT) 

Instead of judging others, we should be looking at ourselves. Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7:3-5, NLT, “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log on your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”

To be merciful, we will do a check-up on ourselves. We go to the Lord to repent of our sins to make sure our own heart is clear. Then, with no judgment, but with identifying with our friend, family, coworker, etc., we can help them, however the Lord leads. This won’t always be an easy thing to do, but by the grace of God, we can be merciful to others and we, in turn, shall receive mercy. Amen.