Jesus was born to bring mercy BECAUSE WE NEED IT.
I did a word study this morning on the word for mercy used in the new testament. The word is ELOS and it means: kindness or concern for someone in SERIOUS NEED; giving help to the WRETCHED; relieving the MISERABLE. It carries with it the intense physical sensation of your “heart being torn” when gazing on the plight of another.
This is not where my head goes to when I think about mercy. I think about lessening a prison sentence for a first time offender, letting Sydney off the hook when she’s done a chore inadequately, being “cut a break”. God’s mercy is God giving us a break.
And not that it’s a bad thing. But that is not what this means.
Jesus didn’t come to give us a break.
Jesus came because His heart was being torn out by our need from relief from the pain of sin in this world.
It’s much closer to accurate to think about what it’s like to watch the Sarah McLaughlin ASPCA commercials... the way you want to leap through the TV and care for all of those lost and devastated pups.
That is a much closer picture of what it means to say God came to bring mercy.
I may very well need a break sometimes, but I need that so much more.
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