Have mercy!

Some of you know that expression from the sitcom “Full House.” Whenever Uncle Jesse kissed his wife, he would exclaim with delight, “Have mercy!”

What he meant was, he was overcome with passion, overwhelmed with desire for his beloved Becky.

The phrase has also been used to express frustration. When something doesn’t go your way, and you don’t see a way out, you can shout in aggravation, “Have mercy!”

That’s like saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” or “Oh, come on!”

Whether in delight or frustration, the phrase is full of exclamation, passion, vim, and vigor!

Christians use the phrase another way. To have mercy in the gospels translated in Greek to “eleos,” which meant to show kindness or goodwill to someone miserable or afflicted with a desire to relieve their pain. We would call that feeling we get when encountering someone in need “empathy.”[1]But we would call the impetus or desire to act upon that empathy, our “passionate urge,” our responsiveness, our sense of “responsibility.” The word literally means to have both compassion and active loyalty to the well-being of a fellow human, no matter whether they are of your culture, tradition, ideology, or background.It’s not only a feeling, it’s a responsibility. Our feelings first engage us. But then those same feelings implore us to “respond” to the needs and pain of our fellow human beings.

The Hebrew equivalent held even more important meaning. Although the New Testament was written in Greek, the lingua franca of the time, Jesus’ primary theological and scriptural language was Hebrew. This makes looking at the Greek equivalent vitally important. Hebrew nearly always holds broader and deeper connotations than its Greek counterpart. In this case, the most likely cognate is the Hebrew word “chanan.”[2]

Chanan is a beautiful word that in most of scripture is used for the saving grace that God bestows upon us, the same grace Noah found for example in God’s eyes in Genesis 6:8. The word acknowledges the beauty and value of the person it is bestowed upon. The Hebrew meaning not only stands for compassion or mercy but includes connotations involving “stooping in kindness toward another,” “showing favor toward someone,” “providing protection on someone’s behalf,” or bestowing redemption upon someone.”[3] Eleos or chanan then in the gospel context indicates a kind of “covenant love,” a loyalty to God’s covenant and our relationship with God that implores us to extend that same love and loyalty to another human being, particularly one in need or pain. To show eleos or chanan is to commit to a relationship with someone that goes “beyond” rule of law or cultural/societal expectations.

I call it “transcendent compassion,” compassion that extends beyond the norm of our friends, acquaintances, cultural expectations or peer groups. The grace or mercy that we show in chanan or covenantal compassion extends beyond simple pity or empathy. It includes action, the desire to love not only with the strength of God but with the active and purposeful passion of God. That means, we don’t merely act as we might like to be treated or in a way that is minimally helpful, but we act in a way that we like God to treat us –with over the top, transcendent mercy and grace, with undeserved, unprovoked, unexpected, uncompromising active compassion.

Understanding this simple word that we translate as “mercy” is hugely important to seeing the depth of the story Jesus tells the legal experts in our scripture for today. They are asking him about what is required by Jewish law. But he is answering them as to what is expected by God’s covenantal loyalty and mercy. As always, when confronted with legalities, Jesus always answers instead relationally! Not only relationally, but with an active and purposeful example.

Jesus isn’t merely interested in a theoretical, theological answer. Jesus is interested in showing people how to “live out” God’s covenantal love in the midst of community, society, nation, and world. For Jesus, legalities without compassionate action are only a bunch of empty words. Paul would call them meaningless “clanging symbols.” To love is always a verb, always purposeful, powerful, active, and passionate, always longing to relieve the suffering of others, always compelled to act without thought to self, consequence, or expectation.

In Jesus’ story, the one we call “The Good Samaritan,” the legal expert wanted a simple, legal answer. Instead, Jesus provided him an active, livable story. In fact, even at the end of the interaction, when the legal expert replies in answer to Jesus’ question of who was a neighbor and says, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him,” Jesus challenges his answer with “Go and do likewise.”

Transcendent compassion is not merely empathy for someone, not merely a feeling of compassion. Even the Priest and Levite may have felt simple compassion for the man by the side of the road. But their hearts didn’t ache. They weren’t “compelled” into compassionate action. But the Samaritan, we learn in the story, is “moved with compassion.” His heart is motivated in a way that leaves him no choice but to act.

What did that look like?

He bandaged his wounds.

He tended them with oil and wine.

He placed the wounded man on his donkey.

He took him to an inn.

He took care of him there all night.

The next day, he used two full days of his own wages and paid the innkeeper to continue to take care of him until he returned from his trip, at which time he promised to pay any additional costs.

How many of you would do that?

I celebrate when someone pays forward a cup of coffee or opens a car door!

This isn’t ordinary compassion. This is over-the-top, extraordinary, transcendent compassion! Mercy like you’ve never imagined!

In a world in which people often watch someone being beaten and discarded and turn and walk the other way or run to close their own draperies so they don’t have to become involved, what would this look like in our world today?

Would you go up to someone you don’t know on the street, someone from a different culture or race or background, pick them up and put them into your car, bandage them as best you could, drive them to the hospital and pay for their stay with your own money, promising to pay any additional bills?

I know some of you would do that for your own friends, for your grandchildren, for your son or daughter, or even perhaps for someone in your congregation. But what about a stranger?

That’s transcendent compassion.

Jesus knows how hard this is for us. He knows how impossible it is for us to love like he does, to love like God does. But he challenges us just the same –not to be perfect, but to strive always to be guided by the love of God who shows us infinite, over-the-top mercy, undeserved salvation, unexpected compassion, and unconditional grace in real, tangible ways.

The more we allow God to guide us and to become the primary relationship in our lives, the more we will react just as this man did –with transcendent compassion. For that is how God’s kingdom flourishes here on earth –as in heaven.

And that’s amazing grace!

Have mercy!

Can you all say it with me?

Have mercy!

[1] See Strongs Greek 1656.

[2]See Strongs Hebrew 2603. See also Jeff Benner, “The Meaning of Grace from a Hebrew Perspective, Ancient Hebrew Research Center,https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/studies-words/meaning-of-grace-from-a-hebrew-perspective.htm. The word chanan also appears in Aramaic and Arabic.

[3] Benner.