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Jesu Juva
“The Blessing of Being Mercied”
Text: Exodus 25:10-22; Luke 1:57-79
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people . . . to show the mercy promised to our fathers.
Mercy is certainly a frequent and important word, an important action and disposition in the Scriptures. God is described as merciful and gracious (Psalm 103:8). Christians are told to be merciful, even as our Father [in heaven] is merciful (Luke 6:36). During Jesus’ public ministry, people are crying out to Him constantly, Lord, have mercy (Matthew 20:30)! And mercy is a prominent word in the Benedictus, the words of Zechariah that we are considering this Advent season.
Mercy, though, comes in many shapes and sizes. It is a big word. Many different actions can be counted as mercy. Mercy has many different looks; it can be manifested in countless ways. People who have suffered the destruction of a natural disaster need mercy. Criminals are said to throw themselves on the mercy of the court. Mercy is something everyone needs at some point in their life.
Zechariah received mercy. When he doubted the Word of God, the good news brought to him by the angel Gabriel that he and Elizabeth were going to have a child in their old age, God could have turned His back on Zechariah and chosen someone else from whom the forerunner of the Messiah would come. But He didn’t. He had mercy on Zechariah. He still used him and blessed him.
Zechariah mentions David in the Benedictus, a man who certainly and repeatedly received mercy, especially after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and murdering her husband to cover it up and get away with it. God could have rejected David, thrown him off the throne, and put his son there in his place, but He didn’t. He had mercy on David. He still used him and blessed him.
Zechariah also then mentions Abraham, who received the mercy of God when he was an idolator in Ur of the Chaldeans when God revealed himself to Abram there, promised him he would have a son, be the father of many nations, and that from his descendants would come the Messiah. And even when Abram took matters into his own hands and tried to fulfill the prophecy himself, having a son through his wife’s maidservant Hagar, God didn’t reject him. He had mercy on Abram, renewed His promise to him, renamed him Abraham, and blessed him.
In fact, if God was not a God merciful and gracious, if He did not have mercy and instead only gave out what was deserved, there would be no human race. Adam and Eve would have been exterminated, childless, and that would have been the end of that. Perhaps God would have started over, created a new man and woman, but who knows? Instead, God did what He does, God did what He is - He had mercy.
But Zechariah really isn’t talking about any of those mercies. For he said that God was now acting to perform THE mercy promised to our fathers. One particular kind of mercy that would far overshadow the rest; that really was the cause of all the rest. The mercy of sending His Son to be the promised Messiah. The mercy that would save us from our enemies. The mercy that would deliver us from the hand of all who hate us. The mercy that would be shown, that would be embodied, enfleshed, when God remembered his holy covenant, and acted to fulfill it. God was doing that now, Zechariah said. His mercy appearing in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Mercy unparalleled.
That holy covenant had been made concrete and visible before with God’s presence among His people in the Tabernacle and the Temple, and even more specifically, with the mercy seat - the cover that went on top of the Ark of the Covenant. It was the place where, so to speak, God sat, enthroned, to show mercy to His people. If you asked an Old Testament Hebrew or a first century Jew where God’s mercy was, the mercy seat would be high on the list of responses.
But as with all things having to do with the Tabernacle and Temple, the mercy seat was not the ultimate, but the penultimate. It was not the end-all, be-all, but the pointer, the representation, the shadow, of what was still to come. What God was planning to do to truly show all people just how great His mercy really is. And so with his words, Zechariah is testifying that there is a new place, a new dwelling, a new seat for God’s mercy. The Lord is coming in human flesh and blood. Because of the tender mercy of our God, he says.
Tender mercy. The word translated as tender there is that word used for gut-wrenching compassion. Mercy isn’t always tender. Mercy can be severe, too. But God sent His Son because He couldn’t not. His love compelled Him. The sin that threw down His children, the sin that brought death upon them, the sin that divided the first man and wife, that induced the first murder, and that has been turning us against one another and against our Creator ever since, God couldn’t not act upon. So from the moment it came into the would, He promised to do so. A promise He would repeat to our fathers down through the ages, as Zechariah said. The mercy that would now be born, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. The mercy that would after that be rejected, stripped of His clothes, and hung on a cross. And the mercy that though ascended, would remain, wrapped in water, words, and bread and wine, and given to us. To us who need mercy. Who need Him. This mercy. Embodied mercy. The forgiveness of our sins mercy.
For like with Zechariah, Abraham, David, and more, God could have - maybe should have - turned His back on us and rejected us for all we have done. For our disbelief, for the hurt we have caused, for taking matters into our own hands instead of trusting in His. But He didn’t. Instead He calls us to the font, to the pulpit, to the altar, to these mercy seats, and He mercies us. He forgives us, He raises us, and still He uses us and blesses us. That’s what He does. That’s who He is.
I don’t know how old Zechariah was when John was born. I wonder if he ever got to see Jesus. If he, like Simeon, got to take the baby Jesus, the mercy of God enfleshed, in his arms and rejoice. He was probably well too old to see John begin his forerunning activity, or to see Jesus in action after He began His ministry. Yet Zechariah did see it all. By faith. Hebrews chapter 11 is the great faith chapter in the Bible, mentioning all those saints of the Old Testament who lived by faith. It doesn’t get into New Testament saints, but if it did, Zechariah would have to be one of the first. He who started out faithless and mute, but who the mercy of God transformed into a faithful and vocal saint.
You too. That is the blessing of being mercied. That through all our ups and downs, times when we’re strong and times when we’re weak, times when we’re faithful and times when we’re not, it is the mercy of God that see us through. The strong, dependable, never-ending mercy of God. The mercy promised to our fathers and now fulfilled. In Jesus.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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