Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of October 9, 2022
The Lord’s Mercy is Conditional Luke 17:11-14 “As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee. ‘ As he entered into a certain village, ten men who were lepers met him, who stood at a distance. They lifted up their voices, saying, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!' When he saw them, he said to them, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' As they went, they were cleansed. " There is an artifact in history which captured the imagination of nearly all nations on Earth, including the XXth Century Fox film-studio in California, and it is the Ark of the Covenant. It went missing. It had two profound part. The chest itself and its covering lid. Some think that the most important keepsakes were kept inside of the chest, like the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, a full pot of the Manna, which were given as food in the desert, and the famous rod of Aaron, which becoming a serpent swallowed all the other serpents in front of the Pharaoh, and had other miraculous properties as well. Whatever was in the chest, one thing should be certain, that God was not inside the chest as a keepsake treasure of the chest. It is impossible to think that any chest may limit God in any ways. The chest was made of acacia wood, covered with golden plates, however the closing lid was made of pure gold in its entirety. It can be significant that it looks like that the covering lid has its own purpose beside safely closing the chest, having the same width and breadth with the ark beneath, being 2.5 cubits long and 1.5 cubits wide. On the top of the lid, at the two ends of the ark-cover, two cherubim of beaten gold were placed, as it is written in the first Book of Samuel, chapter 4, that "So the people sent to Shiloh; and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, who sits [above] the cherubim (...) When the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again." The Cherubim faced each other and their wings spread toward each other, and the wings formed a visible throne for the Lord, which throne was called the Mercy Seat. Thus, by technical terms, the throne was designed to be outside the chest. Nonetheless, it should be also clear, that although the Lord God would not sit on any man-made throne, but somehow God's presence was invoked wherever the Ark was taken, as it is also written in the Book of Numbers, chapter seven, in the last verse, that " When Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, then Moses heard the Voice speaking to him from above the Mercy Seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim: and the Lord spoke to Moses." Albeit the Hebrew, the Greek and the Latin terms used to call the Mercy Seat, as a little bit closer to the term of atonement, especially sacrificial atonement, and they agree with each other, but at this time the English wording of Mercy Seat is worth to be meditated on a bit. It means that the Lord’s voice, which is also a description of a phenomenon (Bat Kol in Hebrew), used to talk to Moses from the Mercy Seat. Indeed the Lord proclaimed clearly that God is the God of mercy and compassion as it is written in the Book of Exodus, chapter 33, that Moses ask the Lord that, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” However, even from this short declaration is clear, that first of all, God is the ultimate judge, no one can influence God’s rulings and decisions, and on the other hand this conversation happened on the Mount Sinai, during the very giving of the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. Thus, we may understand that the Lord is perfectly merciful, but not unconditionally. There are certain conditions, which must be present in order to experience the mercy of God in its full development. The condition of the mercy of God is that humans must keep the commandments and the ordinances of God. As it is in the Ten Commandments, that people listen, for “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” It is like a little bit similar to the traffic rules in life. The rules are clear. If everybody abide the law and obeying the rules, lives are saved, health is preserved, highway safety is kept, the flow of traffic is mostly not disrupted, mental integrity and the peace of the public is not disturbed by road rage or other criminal behaviors. Just imagine the opposite, when the participants do not obey the rules, defy the traffic lights and the traffic signs, driving through the red lights and the stop signs, they do not respect any speed limit, neither the residential area warnings, they do not pay attention to playing children or the elderly using a walker or people sitting in a wheeled chair, they yield to no one, yielding to nothing, does not matter of it is a construction zone or a dead end road of a non-finished bridge, etc. In this case of non-compliance, not only that deadly collisions can not be avoided, often losing lives of innocent people, as well, but chaos will be constantly prevailing, public transportation will be lagging, supply trucks will be blocked, emergency cars will be slowed, firetrucks, police, the CAA help trucks can not respond in time. The society as a whole will sink into the pit of disorganization and a merciless cruel state of all chaos imaginable. The universal mercy in the society will be missing, not because the traffic rules were not right, not because the traffic rules were not adequate, not authentic enough, not benevolent, not straightforward, not easy to understand, not applicable, not feasible, but because the traffic rules were not followed, they were not respected, they were not appreciated, they were not obeyed, they were not kept in mind and in the heart, which is the opposite what the First Psalm says, that “Blessed is the one whose delight is in the Lord’s law, meditating on the Law day and night. That one will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever that one does shall prosper.” (free q.) Although the mercy of the Lord is clearly conditional, it depends on our obeying of the commandments, including the reciprocal one, where Jesus taught that “You be merciful, even as your Father in Heaven is merciful.”, nonetheless and otherwise, the Lord’s mercy is a constant, almighty power, it never ceases, never pauses, never ends, it is everywhere and omnipresent with equal strength throughout time and space. The Lord’s mercy is the Lord’s presence itself, carrying the bliss of life, the forgiveness of sins, the promises of the Redemption and Salvation. It was visibly pointed at by the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the covenant, it is visible seen in the abundance of the divine providence in the Universe, and it will be visible in the prophesied Kingdom of the Returned Christ according to the merciful and compassionate will of God, by the enlightening Holy Spirit, Amen.