Prayer of the Day: O merciful Father, You have shown kindness to us, though we were unthankful and evil. Grant us hearts grounded in Your mercy, that we may not judge or condemn, but forgive as we have been forgiven and show kindness as You have shown it to us in Christ. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye. For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

Definitions matter. Take empathy and sympathy—two words often confused. Do you know the difference? Empathy, as commonly understood today, means feeling the same emotion as someone else, while sympathy means recognizing their emotion and feeling concern for them. But definitions shift over time, sometimes in ways that create confusion. Sympathy literally means “feel with,” much like the sympathetic nervous system refers to the nervous system reacting with emotions. Empathy literally means “feel into.” However, it has come about that empathy now means “feel with,” when it literally means “feel into,” and sympathy means “feel into,” when it literally means “feel with.” Well done, psychology. Way to mess with our heads.

The world may redefine words like empathy and sympathy, but we must not let it redefine mercy, even though it tries to. God’s Word gives us the true definition, and we are called to live by it and on it. Do you know what mercy is? Do you know how to define it? The world uses this word all the time but doesn’t understand it. So what is mercy? Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” But what does that mean? The answer comes in the verse before: God is kind to the unthankful and the evil. That is mercy—God’s kindness toward sinners.

When we read verse 35, did you think of yourself? Did you think God was talking about you when He mentioned the unthankful and evil, or did you think of drug dealers and prostitutes? You should think of yourself. Yes, drug dealing and prostitution are evil, but so are the things you have done. Lusting, unkindness, coveting—these are all unthankfulness and evil. We have done these things, and God has been kind to you, an unthankful and evil sinner. Yes, He has been kind in providing you food, clothing, and homes, for which we are thankful, as we should be. But most of all, He has been kind in coming and dying for unthankful, evil sinners like us. That is mercy. And when we know it and show it, we will be acting like God. We will be behaving like His children who have been shown mercy.

Our text continues to define mercy by telling us all these ways to show it. First, God tells us things not to do—do not judge, do not condemn.

This is one of the most misquoted parts of Scripture, and it is where the world shows that it doesn’t understand love or mercy. If you tell someone that something they are doing is wrong, often they will say that you shouldn’t judge them. They may even say that the Bible says not to judge. But they don’t understand the definition of mercy or judging. You don’t even have to know Greek to know this. A few verses later, where it talks about a speck in your brother’s eye, what does it tell you to do? Do nothing about someone’s sin? No, it doesn’t tell you to do nothing. It tells you to try to remove it—after removing the log from your own eye. Before telling people their faults and sins, you should humbly repent of your own great faults and sins.

“Judge not” does not mean saying nothing. “Judge not” means something similar to the next phrase: condemn not. You can absolutely tell a prostitute or a drug dealer—or, for that matter, a liar—that what they are doing is sinful. But don’t wish evil on them. Don’t turn up your nose at them and say they aren’t worth your time or worth saving. Don’t condemn them to death and hell. That is what “judge not” means.

Here is another example. You can tell people they shouldn’t go 60 miles per hour in a school zone, but you can’t fine them because you aren’t a judge. That is not your job—unless, of course, it is. But when it comes to God’s Law, only God is the Judge, the One who punishes. We should not be trying to punish others. That is God’s job. That is what “judge not” means—don’t condemn them; don’t punish them.

People who, through faith, know what Jesus did for them understand the definition of mercy. They know that we deserve death and hell, but God has had mercy on me, a sinner. When we are acting like God’s children, we will not judge the prostitute, the liar, or the drug dealer. We will condemn the sin, but not want them condemned. We will show them kindness. Kindness points out sin because we want them to see that what they are doing is sinful and harmful to themselves and others. Kindness tells them of Jesus because kindness wants them to know the mercy of God shown to us.

This is very much connected with the next two things God tells us mercy does. God has just told us two things mercy does not do: it does not judge and condemn. But mercy does forgive and give. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

When God says, “Give, and it will be given to you,” He is not promising financial prosperity. He is calling us to be generous in forgiveness and love, just as God has been generous to us. Mercy forgives others because we have been forgiven. No matter how ungrateful or evil someone has been to us, mercy forgives because God has freely forgiven our greater sin. And mercy gives—not just forgiveness, but also help and empathy. It gives kind words. It helps the hungry. It prays for others. It lends a helping hand not just to those who are kind to us, but to those who have been unkind to us. That is mercy, and we learn it from Jesus, who, while we were at enmity with Him, died for us that He might ransom us from sin, death, and the devil.

In Jesus, God teaches us the definition of mercy. In Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, we are not “the blind, being led around by the blind.” When we know the love of God in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, through the implanted Word, causes us to bear good fruit. “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good.” The good that is in us was born of the mercy God showed us—that He was kind to us, unthankful and evil sinners. From that, we can bring forth mercy and bring forth good.

Dig down to this foundation and build your life on it. Jesus uses the parable of the man building his home on bedrock and on sand. He was thereby making the point that those who build their lives on His sayings cannot be shaken, no matter what life throws at them. While Jesus’ sayings aren’t limited to teaching us the definition of mercy, mercy is at the center. It is the good treasure we have in our hearts—the thing we treasure most. God’s mercy in Christ toward us, unthankful and evil sinners, is what we need to build our lives upon so that nothing in this life, and nothing in the next, will harm us.

Build your life on God’s definition of mercy. Mercy is not weakness. It is not ignoring sin. It is not “live and let live.” It is God’s kindness toward sinners—kindness that does not leave us in sin but calls us to repentance and forgives us completely. Build your life on this mercy: the mercy of Christ, who bore our sin so that we would never be condemned. When your foundation is God’s mercy, you will not be shaken. Amen.

—Pastor Aaron Ude

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Rapid City, SD

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