It’s easy to be good to people who are good to us.
It’s so natural that it’s expected. It’s just assumed that’s what we’ll do. To the point that we instinctively call out someone who isn’t good to people who are good to them.
“That’s how you thank him? After all he’s done for you?” “She couldn’t have been kinder to you and look what you did to her!”
It makes perfect sense. We should be good to people who are good to us. But there’s a subtle danger in all of this.
That – without really meaning to – we’ll drift into being good to people, only because they’re good to us. Only if we’re getting something out of it. That we’ll be good to people, but only because we want something from them.
That we’ll treat them like vending machines.
By the way, if you’re looking for a way to isolate yourself from people? And from God? This works. Extremely well.
It’s the point that Jesus is making in today’s Gospel. When He says, “If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned them.”
So what does it mean? Sacrifices are a classic feature of ancient religions – a transaction system. If you wanted your god to do something, you made a sacrifice.
The point Jesus is making is that’s not the relationship that God wants to have with them. As their insert-sacrifice-get-stuff vending machine.
You want to have a real relationship with God? Start with the right foundation for that relationship. Start with mercy.
But understand this – mercy is unearned. Mercy is not about merit. Or about who deserves it and who doesn’t. Mercy is a gift.
God doesn’t need anything. So if we’re going to give mercy, we’re going to have to give mercy to someone else.
Someone who hasn’t earned it. Someone who doesn’t deserve it.
Otherwise it isn’t mercy.
Here’s the odd thing about mercy. When we give mercy to someone else, we start to see ourselves in them. We see how much we take for granted.
What we think of as ours? What we think of as what we deserve? It’s really just God’s mercy poured out on us.
Understanding that we don’t deserve any of it?
It’s the only way to lose the vending machine mindset.
And the only sure foundation for a real relationship. With God or anyone else.
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