Mercy at McDonald's

Church Family:
I was at McDonald’s yesterday meeting with a new brother in Christ. As I was clarifying the gospel to him, he was weeping tears of joy over the mercy of God shown to him. Yet, he did not know that he was weeping over God’s mercy since he did not have that word in his Christian vocabulary yet. In real time, I saw my friend get a firmer grasp on God's mercy and infinite goodness to him as he discovered that even in his own debaucherous living for the last 58 years, God was mercifully protecting him and drawing him to Jesus for salvation. My friend could not understand why, as a horrible sinner, he was wanted by God to be in God’s family. We discussed how God is merciful, yet He is also just. We discussed that even in God’s mercy, God demands justice for my friend’s sin. My friend knew that his sins needed to be punished because they were committed against God’s supreme majesty.

Nevertheless, by God’s free and loving choice, God chose that my friend would experience His eternal mercy through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ satisfied God's justice that my friend deserved by taking the punishment for my friend’s sin and then making him perfectly righteous in God’s eyes. With tears pouring forth, my friend looked over to the young McDonald’s employee, who was mopping the floor, and said: Hey brother, Jesus loves you and wants to give you abundant life now, and, by the way, I have some steaks and some pies in my car; do you want them? I watched Beatitude number five, Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy, happen before my eyes in the majestic setting of McDonald’s. My friend grasped God’s mercy at a greater depth, and the only thing he wanted to do was to give that mercy to others.

What is God's mercy? It is not God ignoring or overlooking my friend’s sin, but instead it is God’s just and steadfast loving kindness that He showed my friend through Christ's sacrifice, so that he could be rescued from his sinful misery. God’s mercy in Christ gave my friend salvation by lifting him out of his sinful misery in order to give him eternal blessing. Otherwise he would still be dead in his sin. When Jesus spoke that truth into my friend’s heart, the only response that he could think of was to give that same mercy to everyone else. On the way out the door, he approached four other tables of people while they were eating their Egg McMuffins to tell them that Jesus loves you and wants to give you eternal life, and, by the way, I have some steaks and pies in my car if you want them.    

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we are called to be a people who exude mercy because God Himself, being rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our sin, made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:4). In fact, God’s mercies never come to an end (Lam. 3:22). Throughout the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Ex. 34:6). It is according to His great mercy that God has caused us to be born again (1 Pet. 1:3). When we see the immensity of God’s mercy shown to us while we were still miserable in our sin and without hope, we then have no other option but to be merciful to others who are in the pit of misery and despair. The saving mercy of God gives birth to a transformed people who, in turn, reflect this mercy to others. Mercy begets mercy in the hearts of God’s people, who, in turn, reflect God’s supernatural work in merciful deeds toward others. When our heart validates that we have received God’s mercy, we can bank on the promise that God’s mercy will remain on us forever—we shall receive mercy.    

Let God’s mercy shown to you powerfully distribute mercy to others. That is how God’s Kingdom is to be known—full of mercy.

See you Sunday, giving each other God's mercy: Steve