Reflection for the Second Sunday in Lent
By the Rev’d. Allison K. Dean
Listen to this reflection here.
(Find last week’s reflection here)
The collect for the Second Sunday in Lent reads,
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Most weeks I try to do reasonably comprehensive reflections, considering multiple parts of the collect. But this week I want us to sit with, and consider the nature and role of mercy, which the collect tells us is part of God’s character: O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy…
Mercy is closely related to grace, but it is nonetheless distinct. Mercy is when God withholds punishment or judgment that is deserved. When we sin it is mercy which spares us from consequences that might otherwise ensue. This understanding of mercy is reflected throughout the biblical witness:
Psalm 103:8-10 says, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. He will not always accuse us, nor will he keep his anger for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.”
Micah 7:18-19 “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing mercy. He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
Titus 3:5 “[God] saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
In the face of even the most serious transgressions God still has mercy, because that is who he is.
2 Samuel 11 & 12 gives the account of the grave sin of David, King of Israel. David, who should have been in battle alongside his men, was on his roof, saw Bathsheba bathing, and decided he had to have her. When David learned that Bathsheba was pregnant, he orchestrated a scheme to have the child passed off as the child of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. When that plan didn’t work, he manoeuvred to have Uriah killed in battle so that he could marry Bathsheba.
God then sent the prophet Nathan to bring judgement on David. He declared that the sword would never depart from David’s house; trouble would arise from within his house; someone else would take his wives; the child born of his sin would die. Yet, because David acknowledged his sin (12:13) God had mercy on him. The mercy – withholding of punishment – in all of this is that David himself did not die, though he surely deserved it for what he had done. And though he would have many troubles, he would also see his lineage continue through his son Solomon.
What we see in the story of David is that having mercy does not mean God accepts sin. What it means is that he understands that without mercy we would be consumed. Without some withholding of punishment and consequence we would all be utterly destroyed. And so, God balances justice (the penalty for sin) with mercy to preserve us.
This work of balancing justice and mercy found its ultimate expression in the cross of Christ. Scripture tells us that “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and justice demanded that the price be paid. The price was paid, but not by us. In mercy, God sent his own son to pay it. Jesus bore the judgment that humanity deserved – “…he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).
My challenge for us this week is to consider how we might balance justice and mercy in our own lives. Do we make room for mercy? Or are we determined that the most severe punishments should be meted out to every person for every offence? Does our attitude toward mercy change when we need it for ourselves?
Mercy is not weakness, nor is it the absence of justice. It is a recognition that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).
Jesus said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:31, 36).