Mercy & Mercedes

His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

Walking(trying to walk) home from school with a Mercedes-Benz logo was not on our list that day. But it happened anyways.

How did it happen?

While admiring a black Mercedes-Benz C class parked right outside our school, we got a bit too close out of fascination. While we looked, I wanted to show my friend Jevin a cool feature I thought the car's standing logo had. I held it, tried to move it front and back. It didn't move. So, I applied a little more force. The next thing I remember is Jevin looking at me in absolute horror on seeing the Benz logo in my hands. "Oops. I didn't expect that. I was just trying to show you that we could move the standing logo!", I tried explaining. We couldn't think of leaving the precious emblem on the road and walking off. Hence, our instinct was to just put it into our pockets (my pocket) and walk off along with the other students coming out of the school. To cut the story short, a man who was seeing all this, stopped us, took us back to the school and made us march to the principal's office.

While we thought the situation couldn't get any worse, we came to know that the black Mercedes-Benz belonged to our own school principal. Also, we were accused of trying to steal the logo. After all, that would have been the conclusion made by anyone who'd have witnessed our act. Our parents were called to school, and we were allowed to go home that day. We weren't told what our punishment would be, but we knew there would definitely be one!

Since it was the weekend, I had enough time to rehearse saying how sorry I was about the incident (both to my father and the principal) and hoped against all odds that a Mercedes Benz logo wouldn't cost much. I knew that my mistake will have a huge cost(literally). I had to pay for it. How I wished that the 'debt' would be somehow waived off. That weekend, I waited for 'Mercy'.

The cost of Mercy

Timothy Keller writes: "Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer. If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn’t mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting forgiveness."1 Mistakes always cost, and hence, Mercy too, comes with a price. I still remember the day when the Principal called me to the office to tell me that they decided to let me go without paying any repairing cost.(Phew!) The repair work was done and a new logo appeared on the hood. The price was paid, but not by me. They paid the price, and I was shown mercy.

Fast forward 15 years, and I am working with a school in a village. I caught one of our KG students red-handed, after he made a small scratch on my car, which was not a Mercedes by the way, with a stone. For a minute, I was really furious, and as I was thinking of giving him an unforgettable punishment, the Mercedes logo came to mind. The child stood in front of me, seeking, begging and hoping for mercy. At that moment, I struggled to show mercy to him. I struggled to bear the cost of another's mistake and offer forgiveness. But God, in His grace, reminded me of the time I was shown mercy for a bigger mistake. And I was able to 'let him go'.

Merci - 'less'

That was a moment God used to expose my lack of mercy. After being shown mercy for a debt so big and unpayable, here I was struggling to show a fraction of mercy to a 7-year-old. I am not talking about the Mercedes logo, but about my whole life full of sins and mistakes, hurting God and breaking His laws. When I stood before Him, full of stains and shame, He showed mercy. He knew that I deserved it not one bit, but that I needed all of it. It cost me nothing, but to Him - everything. To show me mercy, God the Father didn't show any mercy to His Son Jesus while He cried out from the Cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?".(Matt 27:46)

It cost me nothing, but to Him - everything.

Having been shown this great mercy, we are asked to show the same mercy to the others around us. But don't we prefer to ponder on the wrong others did to us, over the forgiveness God offered to us? Wouldn't it be foolish and selfish if we don't extend the same mercy to others? Jesus commanded us, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."(Luke 6:36). Yet, when I'm asked to show mercy to my spouse, friends and family, I end up acting as if I am asked to show more mercy than what I was shown by God. He made it clear, - “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." (Matt 5:7)

We often read the parable of the unforgiving servant in condemnation towards his act of unforgiveness, while we have justifications for the unforgiveness we walk around with. Our proud hearts will deceive us to think we no longer need mercy from God and others. And in doing so, we reject the great mercies of God. God gives us freely, so we too may freely give. May we be so much like our Father, in showing mercy to a world that's so much in need of it. And we are not asked to do it with our own strength. We can be changed to become merciful, only when we draw from the streams of mercy freely flowing from our Father. The Saviour, even today calls people like you and me to Him, so that we find His mercies sufficient and satisfying - daily. Oh, Praise the Lord! "..For His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.."(Lam 3:22-23)

Reflections:

• Am I living my life with gratitude for what Christ did for me?

• Am I aware of my present need of His mercy? How am I seeking it on a daily basis?

• How do I feel when someone shows me mercy?

• Is there anyone I ought to extend mercy / forgiveness to, today?

1 - (“The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith”, p.32, Penguin)