“Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
Romans 2:4
Salvation is all about mercy.
I am convinced that it is God’s mercy which attracts us to him. Any ol’ god – – Allah, Shiva, Zeus – – can pound and pulverize us tiny humans, it takes nothing to squash an ant! But it is Jehovah God alone who offers sinful human beings another chance to be made right, and have a relationship, through the gift of his Son. This is what compels worship. I am drawn to him not because of his omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence; but it is his mercy which secures my love.
According to “The New Century Dictionary”, a massive bounded 1927 book that is resting heavy on my desk, mercy is “Compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one’s power; clemency, leniencey born out of compassion and pity.” This is why I love God. Let me explain…
Star Fleet Academy & Mercy
Two weeks ago a new television show came out on Paramount+ named “Star Fleet Academy.” It is another installment in the Star Trek Universe that centers on a group of young Star Fleet cadets and explores their crazy Gen Z hi-jinks. Some pop-culture commentators say it is 90210 in outer space. I want to use this show to contrast the modern culture’s view of mercy with the biblical view, and I believe this is where so many have gone wrong.
And as a result, this is why no one respects or fears the Holy God anymore.
According to the first episode of Star Fleet Academy, the main character, Caleb Mir began his life on the wrong side of the inter-galactic tracks. His mother conspired with an evil villian to kill a Star Fleet commander because she was hungry and desperate for food. As a result of this crime, she was convicted of murder and had her 5-year-old son, Caleb, taken away from her to be put under the care of the Federation while she went to prison. The Federation is the interstellar governing authority.
The judge who was assigned the case, Nahla Ake, seperated the mother from child, and she felt terrible for making such a harsh ruling. Somehow the young lad escaped from the Federation’s hold, and for the next 15 years the judge was on a search looking for the young boy. Well as it turns out, this boy became an out of control criminal who also happened to be a computer genuis. By age 21, he had recorded a number of outstanding warrants with the Federation, until finally, his wayward ways caught up to him, and he was put in jail.
This is where the plot gets very interesting.
Nahla Ake, now a Chancellor of the Star Fleet Academy, got news of his incarceration and instead of wanting to see Caleb punished, she offered him a chance – a fresh start with a clean slate – to become a new recruit at Star Fleet Academy. Star Fleet Academy would be comparable to our West Point Academy, a military school for the best of the best. Not only was he not to be punished, but instead, promoted to one of the highest opportunities ever offered a young man.
What was her reason for such a kind and generous offer to a serial convict? Mercy, right?
According to the script, (1) Nahla wanted to make up for what she considered to be a past injustice. As she said in the show, “You should never seperate a mother from child.” (Hmm, I wonder if that is related to any of our current immigration policies?) (2) She believes that deep-down, Caleb was a “good person” and his rebellious behavior was nothing but a “mask” that was hiding his excellence of character. Instead of focusing on his waywardness, mercy gave Caleb another chance to show the world just how exceptionally smart and capable he was.
The judge sees mercy as a the only way to triumph over injustice. So the show then details how this act of mercy is proved right as Caleb became the best of the best. It is not undeserved kindness, but rather a kindness that was too-little too-late. It was actually a much deserved kindness, or a payment that was meant to repair the original breach. That should change the heart of a wayward soul, right?
Isn’t this what Christianity is all about? Finally getting what we, good people, so rightly deserve!
This portrayal of mercy is so close, but oh so far – eternity far – from what real mercy is about! And I believe it is this “error in understanding” concerning mercy why very few people really see the need for salvation. It is why apathy and entitlement seem to be the main character quality of people these days!
The Roots of Biblical Mercy
In the worldview of the writers of Star Fleet Academy, Caleb by nature is “good.” It was the harsh rules and judgments of the Federation’s patriarchal civilization that drove the tender lad to rebel. The female judge, who is clearly kindhearted, compassionate, and properly empathetic, is rightly convinced in the writer’s mind that when a boy is seperated from his mother his anger and rebellion is justified. Who wouldn’t want to rebel when they are treated so unjustly? As Jack Black says in the “School of Rock”, you need to “stick it to the man!”
All it takes to get someone back on the right path of life is empathy and another chance. Caleb is not a rebel, but a victim. And victim’s are justified in their waywardness. That is why incarceration should never be for punitive purposes, but rather restorative. If we would all just learn to show more kindness, people will change. Right? Isn’t that how mercy works?
No. According to the Bible, mercy only works after guilt is established.
There is a story in the book of Matthew 19:16-26, about a very impressive young man. He is known as the rich young ruler, who looks incredibly good from the outside. If you met him today, you would say, “This guy is going somewhere.” He asks Jesus this question, “What good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus responds with a rather harsh and cryptic answer:
“Why are you asking me about good? There is only one who is good.”
Wait, wait, wait! There is only one who is good? What does Jesus mean by this? Well, according to the testimony of all biblical writers, from Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, to Paul, “The heart of man is decietful above all things, and desperately wicked.” “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Meaning, everyone born into this world is “broken, sinful, and depraved.” We all start off “guilty as charged.”
As one writer said, “God’s economy has this one truth for everyone: for little children and adults, for black and white, rich and poor, Western, African, and Asian, members of learned acedemies and residents of mental hospitals. God’s truth is one size fits all!”
If we don’t understand this starting point, we have no chance to grasp the beauty of mercy. Mercy is not just a nice gesture of empathy from a kind lady; mercy is release from an eternal dungeon that was fashioned for me because it was well deserved! Sometimes guilt needs to simmer and saturate a heart if forgiveness is going to actually land. Or as Jesus says in Luke 7:47, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Or as he says in Matthew 9:12, ““It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”
No One is Sick Anymore
When people look for excuses for why they are the way they are, they no longer have any need to feel guilt. “The devil made me do it.” “I deserve better than this.” “My parents did this to me.” “My brother threw me into the pit. (Oops, skip that).” “I am owed.” No one thinks they are sick anymore, just victimized. And a person won’t reach out for a cure, in this case mercy, when they don’t think they need it.
Look around these days: Are people thankful or demanding? Are people humble or proud? Do people demand equal treatment of the good others get, inclusion in all the benefits others have. Or the biggest question of all, “Do you see people tremble before God anymore?”
People will not show respect to authority if they believe the strictness, or the punitive demands, are unwarrented. If you were to watch any modern show these days people are “cynical, sarcastic, and cool.” The “main actor syndrome” is everywhere, people will post their photos for all the world to see because they matter most. Who needs a doctor when you are as great as I am? Or worse, “All we need is a therapist who can tell me again how I don’t deserve to be treated so badly.”
Did Jesus deserve the cross? Then why did he willingly allow it? Because he knew I deserved it. He knew you deserved it. What Jesus revealed in this one act was mercy, real mercy.
“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:32)
