He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”  Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 

(Mark 5:39-42)

It’s natural to want revenge when someone wrongs you.

Hollywood has made fortunes off this premise for years. How many movies are titled something like Payback or Unforgiven? In fact, it existed long before Hollywood, the idea that nothing satisfies like some good ‘ole fashion payback, the sweet solace of revenge.

And yet, Jesus shows us a better way. 

Now don’t be confused. Jesus was well aware of the fact that Israel’s law featured some very specific instructions surrounding this topic: “you have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” (that expression is used three times in the Torah alone). But he was also aware of the law’s purpose to create a fair and just society; to make Israel an example of God’s justice to the nations.

This is why Jesus had no problem challenging his disciples to go a step further: “But I say to you, do not resist the evil one. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:38-39).

 He did so while modeling the mercy of God in real-time.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus was mocked and laughed at for claiming that a dead young woman was “only sleeping” (5:40). Turns out, Jesus saw what others could not and proceeded to raise the girl from the dead. 

It would have been really easy to double back to those folks afterward and offer them a dose of humility: “who’s laughing now, huh? You faithless and ignorant people, got any more jokes you want to crack at my expense?”

But Jesus did none of that. He was one with the Father, and thus, the Father’s attributes were as much a part of who Jesus was as his own flesh and blood. 

God’s mercy is one of His most sacred and effectual attributes. Without it Christ would have never gone to the cross for you and me. 

We deserved God’s wrath, not His forgiveness, let alone His love. But because of God’s mercy – lovingkindness and the withholding of due consequences – you and I get to stand in His presence and be blameless. 

The best part of all? Once you have experienced God’s mercy, you get the privilege of sharing it with others.   

Can you think of a time in your life when mercy was shown to you? I got in BIG trouble once as a teenager, and instead of getting grounded, I was shown mercy by my parents. That experience had a profound impact on me. 

God’s mercy has an even greater effect on us when we truly come to grips with all that the cross has spared us from. Try to remember some specific times in your life when you’ve been shown mercy, then ask God to help you become a vessel of His mercy to others.