By: Elizabeth Haarberg

Have Mercy

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

It’s so easy to become defensive when someone is hitting us with comments that hurt, especially if it feels like an attack, insult, diminishing, or questions our decisions. How we respond next will determine our emotional outcome from the experience.

A quote from one of my favorite books, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, has changed my view on receiving painful comments. In the book, a character is accusing the holy elder that he is not really holy but just wants to appear that way.

“You save your souls here, eating cabbage, and think you are the righteous. You eat a gudgeon a day, and you think you bribe God with gudgeon.” The elder immediately bows down to the accuser’s feet in humility. In this scene the elder is using the comment to create more humility in himself and allowing himself to feel the persecution in the name of growth.

After seeing how it is possible to know a comment is false but not to defend myself, I am allowing myself to grow through accusation and persecution. Defending ourselves is not wrong, but I want to grow in a way that I become more like Christ, which means sometimes letting the words ‘crack’ me open to allow myself to become more like Jesus.

“The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.” Luke 23:10 English Standard Version

Jesus had mercy on those that accused him. He models how to handle ourselves in regards to people who attempt to tear us down.

“And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'” Luke 23:34 English Standard Version

This is a different way of responding than the world tells us and it’s hard! The world says we need to find a voice, but Jesus did not always speak when accused and he forgave the accusers. There were times He didn’t answer or defend himself.

The spiritual walk is not linear and there is no formula. But there are opportunities to do the hard things that create growth in us. Discernment is important in knowing when to speak and when to be quiet.

 ^“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.'” John 5:19-20 English Standard Version

If we want to be like Jesus, we listen and model what the Father is doing. With that, we will see greater things and we will be amazed by all He does.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado