The shortest of all the Beatitudes and perhaps the most difficult!

Many commentaries seem to ignore this Beatitude passing without comment from the fourth about righteousness to the sixth about purity of heart, either because they consider it of small importance or, as is more likely, because it is too difficult to become involved!  At its simplest it is an observation about cause and effect.  But in the Sermon on the Mount it moves from an observation to a command.  "Be you therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful!"  Luke 6:36.

Basically the Beatitude is about toleration, merciful thinking towards the opinions of others.  Jesus commended toleration concerning the man who cast out demons in His name, though the man was not even one of the disciples.  "And John said `Master, we saw one casting out devils in Your Name and we forbade him!'   And Jesus said `Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us!'"  Luke 9:49.

Then immediately following this He rebukes His disciples for their lack of tolerance towards the hostile Samaritans.  "He turned and rebuked them and said  `You know not what manner of spirit you are of!'"  Luke 9:55.

Tolerance is akin to forgiveness, and the words `Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy' can prove as conditional as `Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us'.

But within the concept of being merciful in our thinking so that we see the views of others is the danger of compromising with things we feel deeply are wrong!

On the one hand Paul writing to the Romans urges them to agree to differ.  "If it is possible as much as lies within you live peaceably with all men."  Romans 12:17.

As did Paul and Barnabas in their own personal dispute.  "And the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from another.  And so Barnabas took Mark.  And Paul chose Silas."  Acts 15:19.

But sometimes the problem is too great for compromise as in the case of Paul and Peter.  "When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to his face because he was to be blamed!"  Galations 2:11.

This was an impossible no win no compromise situation for Peter had back-tracked on his commitment to eat with Gentile Christians because of pressure from Jerusalem.  The love feast had no division.  Master ate with slave, often the only decent meal a slave had all week.  Peter was now prepared to divide this fellowship right down the centre.  Paul could see no room for compromise of any kind and his contention with Peter was extreme.  To such an extent that there is no record in Scripture that Paul and Peter were ever reconciled!

It is always difficult when Godly men contend against Godly men and both are convinced that they are right and the other is wrong!  The proverbial hard place against the rock!  Cromwell wrote to the Assembly of the Church of Scotland and begged them  "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ to think it possible you may be mistaken!"
 

As earnest Christians we are often on this horns of a dilemma - people who know little about the situation often speak glibly claiming that the things that divide us are less important than the things that unite us!

But some of the things that do divide us are very important and cannot be so easily swept under the carpet in some pretence that they do not exist!

Membership of a united church would mean sharing membership with those who worship Mary and pray to saints, with gay Bishops, with people who reject the truth of the miracles, who do not believe that Christ rose from the dead, and such as deny His divinity saying He is but the first-born of all creation.  By which time my own tolerance would have stretched beyond breaking point!

It is not only interesting, but singularly important that the story of the unmerciful servant follows IMMEDIATELY after the teaching about forgiveness being not "seven times, but seventy times seven".  As though it was a counter balance.  The command is verse 22!  The story is verse 23!

"And when a certain king began to reckon one was brought to him who owed him a thousand talents.  But the lord had compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt.  Matthew 18:23.

"But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred pence, and took him by the throat saying `Pay me what you owe!'"  Matthew 18:28.

By this part of the story our sympathies are with the poor lad thrust into prison, and we feel that the other servant has only got his come-uppings when his lord sends for him!

"Then his lord, after he had called him, said to him `O you wicked servant.  I forgave you all that debt because you asked me!  Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant even as I had pity on you?  And his lord was wroth and delivered him into the hands of the tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him."  Matthew 18: 32-34.

Justice has indeed been done and our human patience has run out of team anyway.

The most surprising part of the parable is its conclusion.

"So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also to you...!"  Matthew 18:25.

The teaching of this parable appears to suggest that even with God there is a point where principle over-rides tolerance!

For God who forgives offers no forgiveness to the unforgiving!

We seem to have turned a full circle, and the dilemma of the parable of the unforgiving servant may prove a key to understanding the complexities of the fifth Beatitude!

The Beatitude is certainly much more difficult than might be thought at first glance, and we may find some help in the words attributed to Reinhold Biebuhr  "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;  the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Or, to put it another way in the context of our thinking, "God grant me the serenity to compromise on the things that do not really matter, the courage to stand up for the things that I believe are vitally important - and the wisdom to know the difference!"

So that, in being merciful we might ourselves receive mercy