The Inconvenience of Mercy (from the Daily Office Matt 20:29-34)

               Jesus’ work tends to thrive in social awkwardness.  This makes sense: the mores of the Kingdom are different than mores of society in any age or location.  Today we hear Jesus is walking and two blind men hear of his approach and start yelling “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  The crowd tries to hush them up.  Please take note the crowd has just heard “whoever wants to the greatest among you must be your servant” now wants to silent these blind men who need mercy.  It is what “we” do. "We" who want order and peace and proper religion.  We want to admire Jesus from afar, or want to be close to Jesus all by ourselves.  “The crowd sternly ordered them to be silent; but they shouted even more loudly.” I can picture the scene vividly, including the rolling of the eyes and the looks of disgust, asking “why won’t they just go away?”

Once Jesus hears them, he stops walking and calls them over, and asks a peculiar question: “What do you want me to do for you?”  This is not the only time he asks this question, but I always find this question odd: I mean clearly he sees their blind!  Why ask?!?  I think this says a lot about how we should approach being merciful or helpful.  Jesus demands the interaction, the partnership, the dialogue.  He is not some lofty king throwing bread to the ground to the homeless children while expecting their thanks;  he is not some rich church donating turkeys to the local soup kitchen they never work (and expecting thanks), but he is initiating a real engagement.  Jesus gives all people the dignity to say what they want and need: "What do you need? How do you want me to help?  "  We too should follow the example of our Lord.  Instead of assuming what “they” need, instead of trying to quickly resolve “their” issue so we can be on our way with our gold star of piety, we really need to engage those who seek help out of desperation.  Jesus of course heals them, and then they follow him.  They don’t go away, they stick around, and as far as we can tell Jesus certainly welcomes it.  A part of Jesus’ mercy is the continual relationship, the continual inclusion and welcome after the healing has been completed; we should follow this example too.

The cry of the poor, the needy, the destitute, the oppressed, those seeking justice is extremely inconvenient in our world of fast-paced trendy disconnection.  And we as a Church are certainly not immune from this aspect of our society.  The comforting fact is that apparently “they” have always been inconvenient to those seeking to follow Jesus, and yet in this story Jesus is paying more attention to them than to the crowd; Intimacy is more important than fame. In Jesus we see God revealed, and what we see here is a particular attention to those who cry for mercy.  And when we look at the crowds we see ourselves; seeking to keep them quiet, to “shush” them, to ignore them “Why won’t they just go away?”  What we see in this story is that mercy is awkward, it is inconvenient, but it is the Way of Our Lord.  And the crowd murmured uncomfortably, “Thanks be to God.”