Mercy street

I read in the news today of some women accused of prostitution who had been beheaded in Pakistan by Islamic militants.

When Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery, he said let him who is without sin cast the first stone. The crowd melted away. For they saw in the woman something of themselves, they had all been caught may be not so publicly as the woman they all deserved judgement, they all needed mercy.

Normally I presume that this encounter with Jesus was life changing for the woman. She met Jesus, she was shown mercy and she did leave her life of sin. However, the Bible does not cosily tell us how she gave up her sinful life and lived a saintly life from then on.

We think surely if people encountered the love of God, the mercy of God, then they would change - but that is not always the case. For we have encountered the mercy of God, and how much have we changed?

The truth about God's mercy is that it is based on unconditional love. Jesus showed love not because He was an optimist who thought that every individual who met Him would be changed, but because God shows mercy to sinners with His eyes open - and He gives us the opportunity to change.

Mercy is truly mercy, because it is not based on some certain formula that says mercy means change, mercy is shown to sinners that they might have the opportunity to change - but God knows that does not always happen. God shows us mercy as sinners, far off, dirty, gritty, sinful, and He loves us.

Our faith needs to have a gritty realism to it that faces the reality of life on earth. Jesus came he showed perfect love and yet we crucified Him. He showed mercy and forgave those who sinned against Him, and some were impacted and changed, but some went on to try and destroy His followers.

Some of our ideas of mercy are skewed by images of merciful gods that are not really that merciful. However the facts challenge this, God offers forgiveness and mercy to even those who crucify Him, and He knows full well that they are not all going to suddenly change. Some will, but many will not.

We need to face our own sinfulness, and then receive mercy and the church needs to become a place of mercy. We are called to offer mercy to the perishing - many of Jesus warns will continue to perish and some of whom will persecute us for giving them the good news.

The church needs to become a mercy street, and it is there the reward is - lend and don't expect to get it back. We will have our reward in heaven, mercy often does not get a reward on this earth.

As we are confronted by those whose need for mercy is particularly evident, we need always to remember, as Jesus reminded the crowd, that we are not the morally superior looking onto the inferior but that we are all sinners. We show mercy as people who have been shown mercy. Everyone needs mercy.