Mercy When Justice Is Deserved

A few weeks back, the junior and senior Sunday school class was discussing the story of Philemon. Philemon was a good man, who most likely treated most of his slaves very well. Thus, when one of his slaves, Onesimus, ran away from him, Philemon—who neither mistreated nor hurt Onesimus unnecessarily—was justifiably frustrated and mad. Once found, a runaway slave was returned to his master who would normally scold and punish his slave as he saw fit. Yet, the letter to Philemon centered on Paul’s pleading on Onesimus’s behalf for Philemon’s mercy where justice was deserved. Philemon was fully justified if he punished Onesimus—that’s what was just—yet Paul entreats him to remember the mercy Philemon received when he received the gospel and treat Onesimus with likewise mercy.

Now read Genesis 50:15-26

Like Philemon, Joseph would have been fully justified if he had chosen to punish his brothers. His brothers sold him into slavery after all; you can’t do much worse than that. His brothers deserved punishment for their actions. Yet, instead of choosing to do what was just, Joseph chose mercy. He knew that he had the right to hurt his brothers as he was hurt (an eye for an eye) but he gave up this right in order to show compassion on his brothers—and by extension, the love and forgiveness of God.
So now we come back to the present. To you. To your specific situation. Have you recently been wronged? Maybe it was really (because most of the time it isn’t) ALL THEIR FAULT. Maybe you truly did absolutely nothing to deserve how your friend, family member, or acquaintance treated you. And you probably have a right to be mad and frustrated. But it is far too easy for us humans to jump to judgment. After all, who are we to judge? We make mistakes all the time; besides, God declares in the Bible that vengeance is His and His alone. Not yours, not mine. His. And before our human nature begins coming up with excuses about how we should STILL have the right to be mad at least, let us look no farther than the ultimate act of mercy: Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. After all, all of Genesis is simply a signpost pointing us to Jesus, is it not? And Joseph is just an example of the mercy that was to be for all humanity. Jesus—God Himself—deserved to punish humankind for our rebellion against our Creator, yet chose to embody humility in his humiliating death on the cross, to save us from our sins.

How can we not be moved? How can we still adamantly declare that we deserve to pay someone back for how they’ve wronged us, when, in fact, this passage, all of Genesis, the whole Bible even points us to the ultimate act of mercy? Forgive my Star Wars allusion, but honestly, let go of your hate. Pray that God will teach you to love as He has loved. And show His mercy and His desire for restoration to your friends today. Who is God putting on your heart that you need—I repeat, NEED—to forgive? I encourage you to prayerfully approach that person today with full forgiveness, keeping in mind that we have already all received the ultimate mercy ourselves.