Musing 172

The sermon at church this past Sunday covered Romans 1:18-32, and one of the things that struck me this week about the scripture passage (though the sermon was excellent, it’s not what has stuck in my mind) is that ruthlessness is one of the sins deserving of death.

While it sounds good to modern ears in context (after all, we’re all about mercy these days), I think it is surprising that unbelievers don’t often push back on Paul with “well, what about the imprecatory Psalms?” or “what about the command to wipe out the Canaanites?”

And while there are good questions there, what has stuck with me is “are we becoming a society that values mercilessness?”

It increasingly feels like, in our constant pursuit of money, we have become a cold and heartless society, becoming like the very money we worship. Whether it’s in the little things, like everything being monetized or being professionalized (when once it would’ve just been a ‘happy to help’ moment), or the rise of cancel culture and the ever heightening requirements of redemption arcs in fiction.

While no one factor feels overly burdensome (especially with the justifications we allow ourselves), when combined, it creates the feeling of a society waiting for one to fall while also providing every opportunity for a single mishap to bring destruction. Whether that mishap is a sudden financial hardship, an inappropriate joke that went from culturally acceptable, if risqué, to one that’s outright unacceptable, or something else, when society loses mercy, it eats itself from the inside as everyone “looks out for number one” and the love of many grows cold.

Which makes those moments when undeserved mercy is shown and immediately appreciated all the more impactful, especially in stories. For my generation, that moment was likely the moment in Avatar : The Last Airbender when Zuko reunites with his uncle after having betrayed him. And Iroh doesn’t chastise Zuko, but welcomes him with a hug and tears. I know at least for me .. . there may have been some tears forming.

But it points to a deeper reality. We know that mercy is a good thing, else such moments wouldn’t be touching. We want the acceptance that comes from forgiveness. But we also know there’s a cost to owning the pain of the hurt inflicted on us and loving that person anyway.

As a Christian, how do we navigate the need to see justice done while also not forgetting that mercy is something we should want to show? I don’t pretend to have a full answer, but I think one way is to recognize that mercy can only be understood in relationship to justice. A mercy divorced from judicial reality is a mercy that will only feed ego. True mercy points one away from the hurt done towards reconciliation and repudiation of sin. When that happens, we see growth, even if it’s faltering and struggling. Which is a hard hurdle to overcome, when we also hear our savior say to forgive “seventy times seven” times. Because having to forgive that often feels like it means we’d be constantly forgiving, despite their being no growth.

And that’s because we need constant forgiveness in our relationship with God. So we too ought to be constantly forgiving. And that hurts.