Tag: christ’s ministry

What Does God Want? (John 11:1-45)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Raising of Lazarus, by Rembrandt, c.1632

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. (New International Version)

The Raising of Lazarus, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1890

Here’s a Captain Obvious observation:

what God wants, and what we want, is not always the same thing. 

Today’s Gospel story centers around a man named Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. The disciples were familiar with them since they were committed followers of Jesus. 

Their friend Lazarus became deathly ill. Christ and the disciples caught wind of it. Everyone believed Jesus could do something about this. But Jesus stayed put. He didn’t make a move to go to his sick friend. 

After a few days, Lazarus died. It was only then, that Jesus made his move.

The religious authorities in Jerusalem had it out for Jesus. But Jesus decided to go to Bethany and Jerusalem anyway. This made no sense to the disciples. Lazarus was lying dead in Bethany. Going there would put everyone at risk – which is why Thomas uttered the defeatist and dramatic statement, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Yet, they all went. And once they arrived, Christ and his disciples found the grieving sisters. Mary and Martha believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah who would come and save the people. They didn’t understand why Jesus stayed away and didn’t come sooner. 

If Jesus had been there, he could have healed Lazarus. He healed other people, so why not a friend and a brother?

The death of Lazarus seemed to be the end. No one was happy with how things shook-out. Lazarus died. The disciples’ plans were dead. Mary and Martha’s expectations died…

but death is exactly what it takes in to have resurrection.

There’s no such thing as a painless miracle. Death isn’t a pleasant affair. I have been with countless people at the end of life, and I will tell you that, although it’s possible for a death to be peaceful, it’s still ugly business. 

It’s also painful to watch carefully laid and prayed over plans die. It hurts to see a long sought after dream just go up in smoke and die. To see anything or anyone we deeply care about die is gut-wrenching. Yet, in order for a resurrection to occur, there must first be a death.

There cannot be a new life unless there’s an old one. 

Jesus did the impossible by raising Lazarus from death and giving him new life. And the resurrection of Lazarus pointed to an even greater truth: Christ’s own death and resurrection was coming, and it will change everything.

Whenever what we want dies, then we are in a position to ask: So, what does God want? 

God wanted something better than what everybody else wanted. By allowing ourselves to be consumed with what God wants, it turns out to be the very best thing for us, even if it does not quite jive with what I want.

Everyone’s expectations needed to die, along with Lazarus, for the resurrection to become reality. Only then did Jesus act by rising Lazarus from death.

Jesus pointed to himself as the one able to bring life to all that is dead among us. Sometimes:

  • dreams must die so that Jesus can resurrect them to new life, with outcomes far more glorious than you and I could ever imagine
  • plans have to be dead and buried before Jesus will breathe new life into them, making those plans so much more than they could ever have been in our hands.
  • ministries, even churches, need to be dead as a doorknob so that Jesus can resurrect them and give them new life, invigorated with spiritual resurrection power.

If we desire to see the miracle of resurrection, we must die to ourselves – take up our crosses and follow Jesus into the grave so that he can transform our lowly expectations into a glorious new existence. Death does not have the last word because Christ’s resurrection makes it possible for us to have new life. Again, I ask:

What does God want? God wants to raise the dead to life.

Do you believe this? Yes, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.

Follow the path of what God wants and watch what the Lord will do for you.

Dealing with Spiritual Blindness (John 9:1-41)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Coptic Church depiction of Jesus healing the man born blind

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

“Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Jesus said] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Some Pharisees, who were with him, heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (New International Version)

Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus by Johann Heinrich Stöver, 1861. St John’s Church, Hesse, Germany

Assuming Blindness

Behind everything we believe and talk about, there are pre-suppositions or assumptions. The disciples had an assumption about blindness: its sin – not just a result of living in a fallen world, but personal sin. That is, an individual sinner whom we can point the finger to. The disciples demonstrated they were just as blind as the physically blind man.

Jesus had a clear and concise response to that assumption: nobody is at fault here, nobody. Which, to me, begs the question:

Have you considered that your thoughts are subjective, not objective?

Too many people treat their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs as if they were pure gospel truth (which is probably why they feel justified in assuming they are always right and are arbiters of truth!). Reality check: You, nor I, have the corner on truth. Jesus is the truth, not anybody else.

Healing Blindness

Since Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, he has the power and authority to heal, making the blind to see. Sin wasn’t the issue; the true issue was an opportunity to showcase the gracious work of God. So, Jesus healed the man’s eyes so that he could see again. Healing is not a one-size-fits-all, which is why Jesus did something unique with the blind man, and then gave specific instructions on what to do.

Therefore, we must not assume that we know how a healing is supposed to happen. There’s no codifying a particular process or prayer in order to leverage God into performing one.

Investigating Blindness

The religious leaders always seem to have a problem about something. They, like the disciples, assumed sin was at the core of the man’s blindness. The leaders were befuddled that a sinner like Jesus (who doesn’t keep the Sabbath properly) could ever heal another sinner (a blind man). That’s a conundrum they couldn’t live with, and so, the questions kept getting heaped on the poor guy who was healed.

The religious leaders were trying to make sense out of what they thought was a nonsensical situation. It’s only nonsensical to them because they didn’t have any good sense to begin with. Their interaction with the healed man, and then with Jesus, only demonstrated their profound lack of awareness resulting in spiritual blindness.

Remaining in Blindness 

Many of the religious leaders, heretics in the early church, and spiritual phonies of today are not deliberately trying to deceive or lead others astray; they think they are doing the right thing when they are actually not. 

An eye-opening reality I discovered when I first studied church history is that the early heresies, condemned at church councils, were doctrines promoted by men who were not evil – they were just sincerely misguided. The heretics believed they were helping the church better understand the nature of God and Christ. However, they were unaware and blind to the actual nature of their teachings. 

Back when I wrote my master’s thesis in nineteenth century American Religious History, I read hundreds of sermons from southern preachers before the American Civil War. They had a “biblical” defense of Black chattel slavery. Many of them were influential pastors of large churches who led many people to Christ, that is, white people. Yet, at the same time, they were blind to how they slammed the door of God’s kingdom in the faces of Black folk, were complicit in slaveholder abuse, and fueled antagonisms between North and South.

Churches and Christians may be unaware and blind to how they keep people out of God’s kingdom by saying God’s grace is for all, and then avoid certain people; by having explicit written statements or rules that exclude people from service; or by binding people to human traditions and practices instead of Holy Scripture.

Our Eyes

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23, NIV)

In the ancient world, the eye represented what you fixed your gaze on, or what your focus was. In our culture, we could replace the word “eye” with the word “goal.” The word “body” represents the entirety of one’s life.  So, we might interpret Christ’s words in this way: 

A goal is the focus of a life. If your goals are good, your whole life will be full of proper focus. But if your goals are bad, your whole life will be full of blindness. If then, the focus within you is only really blindness, how great is that darkness!

If goals and dreams are toward earthly treasure, one will blindly move in that direction and have misplaced values. Today’s Gospel story portrays the need to be self-aware as individual Christians and as a church. We can choose to:

  1. Be open to new information
  2. Entertain the notion that you might be wrong
  3. Embrace a full range of knowing (head, heart, and gut)
  4. Allow the light of Christ to shine on every person and each situation
  5. Stick to your experience of others and events
  6. Consider how your words and actions affect others
  7. Keep accountable to others and ask for feedback

Monitoring ourselves and our own emotional landscape will help us to become aware of what’s happening inside us. And then, in turn, having our eyes opened enables us to truly see others and be aware of their needs.

The Word Is Life and Light (John 1:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

In the beginning was the Word
    and the Word was with God
    and the Word was God.
The Word was with God in the beginning.
Everything came into being through the Word,
    and without the Word
    nothing came into being.
What came into being
    through the Word was life,
    and the life was the light for all people.

The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.

A man named John was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.

The true light that shines on all people
    was coming into the world. (Common English Bible)

Jesus lives here. And that’s because he chose to – so that we might have an abundant life out in the bright sunshine of grace.

The Word has always been and always will be. The Word decided to show up on this earth in an unexpected way, to bring light, illumination, and awareness to a dark world and the shadowy places of our hearts.

Frankly, my friends, Jesus abides with your every dream about life and happiness, hope and fulfillment, purpose and direction, emotional healing and wholeness. Christ is for you, to experience a thriving and flourishing daily life. And what’s more:

To live the Christian life, to center your entire life totally and completely around the person and work of Jesus Christ, is an act of rebellion against all that is dark, unjust, and broken in this world.

Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest intellects in American history, was a pastor, theologian, and scholar. He insisted that the hope of humanity lies with turning to and dwelling with Jesus:

“Conversion to Jesus Christ is a great and glorious work of God’s power, at once changing the heart, and infusing life into the dead soul…. Jesus Christ is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper focus; and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.”

Jonathan Edwards

St. Augustine lived centuries ago. A big chunk of his life was apart from Christianity. He knew what it felt like to be without Jesus. Yet, after his conversion, life with Jesus was so compelling for Augustine, that his vigorous intellect and spiritual devotion were put to work, leaving an enormous footprint that can be found even today, in both the church and the academy.

Reflecting upon his life, and all he had experienced and accomplished, Augustine uttered this simple prayer to God:

“You have made us for yourself, Lord Jesus, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

St. Augustine

Arguably, Christianity’s greatest convert was the Apostle Paul. Once a vehement opponent to Christ and Christ’s followers, Paul had a dramatic encounter that left him completely undone. He gave his life to Jesus and became Christianity’s most influential missionary. Here is a smattering of his thoughts on Jesus:

Though he [Christ] was in the form of God,
        he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
        by taking the form of a slave
        and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
        he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
        even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8, CEB)

His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy… For God has rescued us from the dark power of Satan and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who forgives our sins and sets us free. (Colossians 1:11, 13, CEV)

Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. (Philippians 3:8-9, CEV)

We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise… Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. (Romans 5:2, 6, MSG)

Jesus is the One who fills our hearts with love, delivers our wayward souls from emptiness, and sets our feet on the solid rock of faith and hope in God. The love of God is found in Jesus. And Jesus so closely identifies with us, that we enjoy God’s peace and healing in our lives. Not just personal transformation, but systemic change in institutions and corporations, families and neighborhoods, is possible in Christ. 

To live for Jesus is an act of subversion against all that is evil, dark, and unjust. Imagine a world where love rules, not hate; where creativity and faith abound, and are not squelched; and, hope, not hurt, fuels progress into a bright future. It is a world where the light of Jesus brings life.

“I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.”

Jesus (John 8:12, CEV)

The God who said, “Out of darkness the light shall shine!” is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God’s glory shining in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6, GNT)

I am grateful that God so loved the world, loved me and loved you, that he gave his one and only Son – the Sun of Righteousness for our benefit so that we might have life.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

On Mercy and Against Condemnation (John 7:53-8:11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The woman caught in adultery, by Chinese artist He Qi

[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]

Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (New International Version)

“Do you ever wonder what the greatest gift is that has ever been given? It is this: mercy. If you wonder what this means, practice mercy and your questions will fade. Live into mercy and you will become what you love. For love unites us in our loving, not in our being. So give yourself to love and love yourself in giving. The rest will follow of its own.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328, C.E.)

Mercy is scandalous. I wish it weren’t. It seems crazy that this is the case. But here we are, living in an unmerciful world. And even more absurd is that many religious leaders want nothing to do with mercy. The leaders in Christ’s day were trying to get Jesus to depart from his normal routines of grace so that he would appear fickle, unsteady, and weak.

The religious leaders got together and decided to put a woman forward who was clearly a sinner, caught in the act. What to do with her? they asked Jesus. They were, of course, trying to trap him. On the one hand, if Jesus didn’t condemn her, the leaders could say Christ was not upholding the Law. And, on the other hand, if Christ acquiesced in killing the adulterous woman, then the leaders could say that Jesus was inconsistent and unreliable.

The response of Jesus was to stoop down and say nothing. I believe Christ was demonstrating how utterly unworthy the religious leaders were to be heard on the subject. I don’t think there’s anything to conjecture about writing in the sand. It was like taking the physical posture of turning his back on them or putting up a hand, as if he isn’t going to watch the silly circus scene that’s happening.

Jesus wasn’t about to be deterred from his ministry of mercy, from preaching grace, and from hobnobbing with “sinners.” But, since the religious leaders kept up their questioning like a pack of obnoxious yippee dogs, Jesus straightened up and decided to deal with this unmerciful display happening in front of him.

He simply stated that if they want judgment, not mercy, then the one who is without any sin ought to throw the first stone to kill the woman and execute judgment upon her. If innocence is so all-fired important, then it will take an innocent person to punish the guilty.

Whoever accuses another person ought to first look in the mirror to see if there is any innocence reflecting back. And the stark truth is that any old Tom, Dick, or Harry is not qualified to level judgment on another and condemn them. Christ is unmasking the hypocrite who flatter themselves with the supposed high ground of their innocence.

In reality, they are excessively severe and harsh, spiritual felons who have no right to censure others. There is a place for loving correction and appropriate judgment. However, there is never a place in the kingdom of God for eliminating mercy and punishing others with either our hands or our tongues.

Although the wicked and hypocritical religious leaders intended to entrap Jesus by their unholy shenanigans, the tables were quickly turned and their true shame was exposed for what it is – being so darned unmerciful and unloving. Their own guilt is proved by walking away from the scene.

No one has the right to be a jerk. And it is definitely not okay for any person, of all things, to tempt Jesus Christ! And yet, too many religious folk through the centuries have done just that.

None of this means that sin is okay and we can do whatever we want. No, Christ calls us to go and sin no more. Mercy frees us to do just that. Mercy is the key which unlocks the door of freedom and allows us to leave one room for another, to arise from the dark basement of disobedience and despair and enter the bright living room of forgiveness, grace, and life.

Let us then imbibe mercy as the elixir of life – because it is. The world cannot survive without mercy.

We are not the arbiters of who can or cannot have mercy. God said:

“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Exodus 33:19, NIV)

The Lord has always been characterized as merciful:

Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
    for they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth
    and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
    for you, Lord, are good. (Psalm 25:6-7, NIV)

Mercy is of high value to God, who said:

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Hosea 6:6, NIV

Because God is merciful, the Lord calls people to show mercy, as well:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, NIV)

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’” (Matthew 18:32-33, NIV)

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:12-13, NIV)

May the gracious and almighty God have mercy on you and forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.