Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

The tallest Methodist church in the world stands in the loop of Chicago.

Skyscrapers of offices are around it, but stretching still steeper into the sky is the slender steeple symbolic of man's aspiration to reach God.

Sometime ago bells were installed in this steeple in order to peal out a Christian witness to those in the streets far below.

When the installation was complete, and the bells were rung, they discovered that they could hardly be heard because they were so high.

The crowd thronged the canyon-like streets unimpressed because the message of the bells went uselessly into the sky.

So much of what the church does goes uselessly into the sky because it never reaches the man in the street.

This is the very danger that faces the Christian who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.

He can obey Scripture, and set his affections on things above, and aspire to climb to perfection, but without the attitude of mercy which keeps him relevantly and realistically related to his fellow man, he may literally become so heavenly minded he is no earthly good.

It is possible to be so involved with your own righteousness that you become narrow and harsh and holier than thou.

Some of the old Puritans got this way, and were such brutal perfectionists that in there determination to be heavenly they made it hell on earth for those around them.

They lost all sense of tenderness, compassion, and mercy for the sinner.

This is the very thing Jesus does not want, and He condemned the Pharisees for their cold and hard-hearted righteousness.

In Matt.

23:23 Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faith."

Jesus is not interested in bells ringing so high they cannot be heard, and He is not interested in a righteousness that cares about all kinds of details, but which neglects to meet the needs of the common people.

Jesus wants to make it clear what kind of righteousness it is we are to hunger after, and that is what these next few beatitudes are all about.

A righteousness that is not merciful is not the righteousness of Christ.

A right relationship with God is always demonstrated by a proper attitude toward man.

If mercy does not characterize our relation to others, there is reason to doubt that we are right with God.

John says we cannot love God whom we do not see if we do not love men whom we do see.

Mercy is love in action, and without it there is no possibility of being happy in any true and lasting sense.

A merciful attitude has always been God's requirement for His people.

One of the outstanding Old Testament texts is Micah 6:8: "He has showed you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Jesus kept telling the Pharisees that God wants mercy and not sacrifice.

The New Testament letters are filled with references to mercy.

E. Griffith Jones wrote, "Mercy is the richest fruit of the divine love.

The Bible is full of it from the first page to the last.

It is ankle deep, as it were, in Genesis, knee deep in the prophets, shoulder deep in the Psalms, and fathomless as midmost ocean in the New Testament."

Paul says it was according to God's mercy that He saved us, and we are urged in Heb.

4:16 to call upon God for more mercy constantly.

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

The poet wrote,

O King of mercy from thy throne on high,

Look down in love and hear our humble cry.

Thou art the bread of heaven, On Thee we feed.

Be near to help our souls in time of need.

Thou art the mourner's stay, the sinner's friend,

Sweet fount of joy and blessings without end.

Our salvation, blessings, victories, and all that contributes to our happiness comes from the mercy of God.

Therefore, whatever opens the door to God's abundant mercy is the key to happiness, and Jesus says here that being merciful is that key.

In other words, if we are not merciful in our relationship to others, we choke off our own supply line of mercy from God.

The Bible is filled with texts that make this clear.

Prov.

21:13, "He who closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard."

This says in effect, cursed are the unmerciful for they shall be treated unmercifully.

Later in the Sermon On The Mount Jesus repeats the same idea in different words.

In Matt.

7:2 He says, "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get."

No where did He put it so forcefully as after the Lord's Prayer in 6:14-15, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses."

In James 2:13 we read, "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy."

These texts make it clear we are not dealing here with any minor matter that we can ignore if we like.

Our whole Christian experience of the mercy of God in life and for eternity depends upon power being merciful to others.

It is essential, therefore, that we understand just what it means to be merciful.

There are three things which will characterize us if we are merciful, or becoming merciful.

First-

I. KEENNESS OF HEAD OR AWARENESS.

This means one is sensitive to the needs and feelings of others.

There is sharp awareness of, and keen interest in the problems of others.

One of the surgeons at Homestead Hospital confessed that he never bothered to go down to waiting families after an operation to tell them of the outcome.

But one day his wife discovered he has cancer of the breast, and he took her to a friend for surgery.

Being a surgeon he knew exactly what was taking place and how long it would take.

When his friend did not come and talk to him for an hour and a half it seemed like eternity to him, and ever since that he goes down immediately to inform loved ones.

Those moments of misery led to much happiness for many people because it made him keenly aware of what it is like to wait in suspense.

His mind was sharpened to the needs of others, and he became more merciful.

We cannot be merciful if we are blind and dull to how people feel.

The doctor was not trying to be mean, he was just without an awareness of what his neglect was doing.

He was not very sharp.

The sharp man and the keen man perceived the needs of others, and how their acts and words meet, or fail to meet, those needs.

Keenness is essential to being merciful.

In the day of Christ people were not very sensitive.

Cruelty was very common.

Slaves were treated as mere tools, and could be killed for the slightest mistake.

Children who were not wanted were thrown out like garbage.

It was not done in hate and anger, but cool deliberation.

There was just no keen awareness of the preciousness and infinite worth of the individual.

We have a letter that was written in the year 1 B.C. that illustrates this so clearly.

Let me read it to you.

"Hilarion to his wife Alis, warmest greetings....

I want you

to know that we are still in Alexandria.

Don't worry if, when

they all go home, I stay on in Alexandria.

I beg and entreat

you, take care the little child; and, as soon as we get our pay,

I will send it up to you.

If-good luck to you!-you bear a child,

if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, throw it out."

Here is a husband concerned about comforting his wife, but thinks nothing of telling her to throw out her child if it is a girl.

To make things worse these exposed children were often picked up and trained for brothels, or deliberately maimed and used as professional beggars.

Even the Jews, in spite of the Old Testament teaching, were lacking in mercy.

A popular view of suffering was that it was the direct punishment for sin, and so the tendency was to look upon the sufferer as one who was deserving of what he was suffering.

This destroyed compassion.

In a world like that Jesus came with His love, compassion, and mercy.

He was so keenly aware of the need of every individual.

He was embarrassed with the woman taken in adultery, and he helped her escape the cruelty of those who would have stoned her.

He felt deeply for parents whose children were suffering, and girls were as precious as boys.

He healed the daughter of Jairus and the daughter of the Syrophonesian woman, and raised the dead son of a poor widow, and cured the boy who kept falling in the fire because of fits.

Jesus was so sensitive to people's needs that He had compassion on them just because they were hungry, and He performed a marvelous miracle to satisfy that need.

Keenness characterized Jesus in all His relationships with people.

He entered right into their sorrows and fears.