5/19/2023 0 Comments Men with good pure hearts sermon![]() He would never say to his disciples, “Show them no mercy.” Jesus was the epitome of mercy. Instead, Jesus presented the truth as he perceived it, but never attempting to minimize the humanity of his enemies. Jesus would often spar with them orally, but he certainly never attacked them physically, nor were his words to them vicious or unkind, even though they could be very pointed. He ate meals with the scribes and Pharisees, who were among his most obvious and outspoken adversaries, and he took time in his itinerate ministry to converse with people he knew spoke ill of him. He had enemies, and he certainly knew it. Therefore, with a ringing command that echoes across the mountainside or through the jungle, the Good-Guy-Leader declares, “Show them no mercy.” The followers are only too happy to oblige, and major carnage ensues. Frequently we are told that the evil ones, whoever they are, have shown no mercy to those who represent goodness and truth. Thus I am always unhappy in a war movie or a western when the good guys are about to attack the bad guys. We are all a mixture of motives, positive and negative, noble and ignoble. No one, or at least no one I have ever known, is all bad or all good. That doesn’t seem to me to be an accurate depiction of anybody. ![]() One of the things I have never liked about many war movies or westerns is that far too often, the bad guys are really bad and the good guys are really good. This technicality probably doesn’t matter to you at all, but it violates my self-imposed sense of how this should all work out. In order to keep these sermons all within Lent, I am going to do two Beatitudes today, rather than just one. However, there are seven Sundays in Lent, including Easter, but there are eight Beatitudes. I started this sermon series on the Beatitudes on the first Sunday in Lent, and it shall end on Easter Sunday. BLESSED ARE… THE MERCIFUL & THE PURE IN HEART
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