13th
Mercy
Evangelist Eric Clark
I thought about what I was going to write for this month’s fresh word and had many things in my spirit. However, I felt compelled to simply talk to you about “Mercy”. Jesus saw multitudes, and he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. The words “compassion” and “fainted” just jump off the page at me! Every time I hear a preacher preach or teach on similar subjects as mercy, like love, it always seems to really be just basic “God is love”. Well, I wonder why He is love, and what makes God a God of Mercy? What makes Jehovah slow to anger, plenteous in mercy? Jesus saw the multitudes fainting. You would think that those closest to Christ wouldn’t get weak. Jesus is in their synagogues preaching the gospel and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Yet in the midst of the crusade there were weak people. Many people got healed physically. Others got wore out. Yet the Christ of God is not content to send them away fainting and tired. Their desperate situation caused a deep compassion to come up in Him. Jesus was moved with compassion and fed 5000 plus people. Mercy is the gateway to a miracle. It’s very difficult to have faith for a miracle if you don’t have mercy on the person in need. I believe the Spirit of God helps our infirmities. The Spirit of God doesn’t come to a spirit of pity, but it does come to a compassionate merciful spirit. Don’t show me passion without compassion. Jesus wept over Lazarus’ death even though he knew he was going to raise him from the dead and Lazarus would be back momentarily. He still had mercy on his PRESENT situation.
In Mark chapter ten is the story of blind Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus was the son of Timaeus. Timaeus means defiled and unclean. Bartimaeus obviously means the son of the unclean. Blind people were considered to be less than the common man in Bible times. Timaeus had a son and called that son “junior”. Why? He named him right out of the realm of life he was in. I’m unclean and you’re unclean. I’m backwards and you will be too. I can’t tell you how many children I have met that their present dilemmas could easily be traced to a mother and father who just tagged them and fed them. Children become whatever they hear and see from their fathers and mothers. I am not afraid of what most full gospel preachers call the “fatherless generation (young men with no fatherly coverings)”. I’m afraid of the “fatherless AND motherless generation”. Many grow up with no one. A fatherless generation is a dirty generation. Bartimaeus and his father were begging. They heard of Jesus of Nazareth passing by their way. Bartimaeus cried, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called”. Jesus then healed Bartimaeus and he followed Jesus in the way.
That’s it; unless you stop and look at this. Why was Jesus’ response so quick and sudden to this man? Bartimaeus’ cry was “Lord, son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus knew that faith comes by hearing and this man had heard that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. The same Messiah that was the offspring of David, the root of David, and David’s King! So if Jesus was “genealogically” the Son of David, he would respond. One man under a generational curse of blindness and begging called out to another man who was the Son of King David. Why did Bartimaeus ask for Mercy? He needed his eyes fixed, right? Yes, but Mercy is the doorway to a miracle. Mercy breeds the miraculous. Why did he call for Mercy? Let me further my point and say this: Whoever needed mercy like David? He was a liar, murderer, and an adulterer. Yet God had Mercy on him. He should have been stoned to death for these sins. Why wasn’t he? I believe it was because during the years that he spent running from Saul, David never retaliated with anger or bitterness. He could have killed King Saul. Yet when the opportunity came up, David sowed mercy; therefore David reaped mercy.
Why is God love? Love covers a multitude of sin. I know, and you do too, that there have been many, many times in our lives where we wanted to “bury the hatchet”, preferably right on top of someone that has injured us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Yet God commands us to be merciful, not stupid, but merciful. Let it be a law with you today to be merciful. When observing the character of men and women, let us lean to the most favorable and merciful side. We ourselves may need the same Mercy before the sun goes down. God says in Psalms 18:25, “With the merciful, thou wilt shew thyself merciful!”
