The Way of Jesus

Part 2: The Way of Mercy

In week two of our series, The Way of Jesus, we looked at Luke 15, where Jesus told three parables. The first parable is about a shepherd that goes searching for a lost sheep, leaving ninety-nine others behind. When he finds the sheep, he calls all his neighbors to rejoice with him. In the second parable, a woman has ten coins and loses one. When she finds the missing coin, she invites her friends to come celebrate with her. The last parable tells the story of a son who demands his inheritance, leaves his family, and squanders everything. When he returns with nothing, his father runs to meet him and throws a party in his honor. All three stories push against our natural instincts of what is right and fair. No one in these stories got what they deserved – and that’s the point. Jesus is building a church, not of people who have gotten it right, but of people who have gotten it wrong and have received his mercy. The world will not change by being well informed or through understanding the consequences of their actions. The world will change through people who have experienced God. In order to offer mercy to a hurting world, we must first be recipients of that same mercy.