Time To Pivot 2: Honoring God By Living Radical Mercy

Radical Mercy

"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the Law and the Prophets."

(Matthew 7:12, NRSVUE)

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Skimming the dross to refine the ethics.

When the Dalai Lama was asked whether or not as a Buddhist he believed in original sin he replied; " no, but for reasons I don't understand humans do seem to take the easiest path" 

 

I dare say Jesus had the same understanding about humanity. His challenge was to take the ethical teachings of the Jewish Law and Prophets and refine them down to a simple teaching that absolutely could not be twisted to fit the wants of the hearer. 

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...for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Jesus took thousands of years of Jewish religion, philosophy, theology, poetry and refined it down to one simple perfect command.  

 

He didn't say do this if they're nice to you. He didn't stipulate do this only for family. No, he made the commandment universal.

 

No wiggle room, no exceptions, just one simple, pure, dross-removed brilliant diamond of wisdom. 

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 The takeaway.

With this one simple command to the Jewish people, Jesus turned their ethical world upside down. No longer did their behavior depend on how others treated them. 

 

Jesus told the Jewish people that the way to honor God's Radical Mercy was to show the same Radical Mercy to everyone they met.

 

Sadly, neither the Jewish people who were the original recipients of this teaching, nor those who would come to be called Christians took it very seriously. This teaching was honored more in thought than in deed in both Judaism and Christianity.

 

Imagine if you can how different our world would be if this teaching of Jesus was taken seriously and applied, pardon the expression ~ religiously. 

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In the next post.

I'll be exploring just how different our world could be if the Radical Mercy that Jesus proclaimed would actually be lived within our world. 

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Brian
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