Mercy for All
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
August 14, 2011
Mercy for All
Romans 11:1-5
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’ But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
Romans 11:25-32
So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters,I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written,
‘Out of Zion will come the Deliverer;
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’
‘And this is my covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.’
As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
‘Out of Zion will come the Deliverer;
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’
‘And this is my covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.’
As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
So who “done” it? That was the question. The year was 1900 and the New York City police wanted to know who dun it and why they had done it. Now at first the death was reported as from natural causes which would not have seemed out of the ordinary. After all William Marsh Rice was 74 years old and it was just 1900. But there seemed to be something amiss. Rice’s Houston lawyer, whose name you will recognize, James Baker, yes the father of the James A. Baker, became suspicious. He was suspicious because Rice had been in excellent health and the people around Rice in New York wanted his body cremated almost immediately. In addition and perhaps of greatest importance was the fact that Rice was worth more than four million dollars and had no legitimate heirs. Baker therefore encouraged the New York police to investigate further. And as they did it was discovered that Rice had been murdered. The only two questions were then, who did it and why did they do it?
Now that I have wetted your appetite for mysteries it is time for us to look at another true life mystery, this one coming from our morning’s text in Romans. And it is a real who done it. The mystery is, who convinced most of the Jewish people not to follow Jesus of Nazareth as messiah? It is a mystery because if the Jewish people had been waiting a messiah and God sent one then why did only a small handful of God’s people follow? There were lots of suspects. It could have been the Pharisees who convinced people that the law and not Jesus was the way to God. It could have been the Sadducees who convinced people that they needed the Temple more than they needed Jesus. It could have been the political authorities who did not want people following some messiah who might challenge Caesar for control of the Empire. In other words this is as Paul puts it, a mystery.
Fortunately for you and me, Paul tells us who done it. The culprit? The culprit is God. That’s right God did it. As Paul writes in verse 25, “So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon the part of Israel…” I realize that such a statement may appear to be a bit cryptic. So let me explain. Whenever the scriptures mention the concept of hardening it means God is doing the hardening. And when God hardens a heart it means that God is not taking someone who is for something one minute and suddenly changes their mind for them to be against that same thing. In other words most of Israel was not for Jesus one minute and then God changed them so they were against Jesus the next. Hardening is what God does when God takes an existing disposition and ratchets it up. In other words most of Israel was not ready to follow a crucified and risen messiah. This messiah did not meet their expectations. God merely takes that inclination and helps it run its natural course. So God hardened the hearts of Israel against God’s liberating agent Jesus just as God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart against God’s liberating agent Moses.
Now that we know who did it then we need to understand why it was done. What was God’s motive? Fortunately Paul tells us this as well. God’s motive was to show mercy to all. Again Paul, “So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon the part of Israel, until the full number of Gentiles has come in.” In other words God desired that the chosen people be expanded far beyond the bounds of biological Israel. God had always desired that the chosen people be as many as the sands are upon the sea shore and as many as the stars in the sky. Israel was supposed to be, in the words of Isaiah, “a light to the nations.” They were to show forth God’s love, grace and compassion to all of creation in order that creation might be transformed. Unfortunately, for any number of reasons Israel chose not be that light to the nations. Therefore God, in God’s infinite love and care for creation, hardened their hearts in order that the invitation to be the light of the world would be given to the Gentiles. God’s redemptive family would therefore become as many as the sand upon the shore and the stars in heaven.
The solution to this mystery, of who convinced Israel to move away from following Jesus, unfortunately raises another mystery. This second mystery is, what about all of those whose hearts have been hardened? Are they somehow lost? Fortunately for us Paul unveils the answer to this mystery as well. In verse eleven he writes, “I ask then has God rejected his people? By no means.” In verse twenty-six he writes, “And so all Israel will be saved.” In verse 28 he writes again, “As regards the gospel they are enemies of God; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” Where Paul is going with this is that God’s desire is not to choose some for salvation and others for damnation. God’s desire is to have mercy on all. Just as God had mercy on the Gentiles when they went astray so God will have mercy on Israel after they had gone astray. And Paul did not invent this concept of the mercy of God. From the very beginning of God’s work with humanity God had desired the renewal and restoration of all of God’s creation. We read that in Isaiah. We read it in the Gospels where we are told that God so loved the whole world. As Paul puts it, “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that God might be merciful to all.”
What this means for us is that we, the church, are not a replacement chosen people as if God got tired of Israel and chose a new people. We are instead as Paul puts it in the middle of this chapter, merely wild olive branches grafted into the original branch. Jews and Gentiles then are one people of God called to be a light to the nations. We are called and chosen for the same purpose. We are called and chosen to be God’s reconciling agents in the world. Thus we are to set aside any pride we may have because we believe in the Christ and they do not. God’s hardening is only for a time and not forever and God’s mercy is for all.
We return then in the end to our original mystery concerning the death of Mr. William Marsh Rice. Who did it? I know it is a cliché but yes, the butler did it. Mr. Rice’s butler and a lawyer acquaintance conspired to kill Rice in his sleep and write a fake will leaving almost all of his fortune to themselves. They were tried and convicted. So what happened to Mr. Rice’s millions? Most of it went to found an institute of higher education called, Rice Institute which has become Rice University. And until the late 1960s his fortune allowed persons, including my mother and her sister, to attend Rice for free. Mr. Rice then had accumulated a fortune whose intent was not to benefit one or two individuals, or even a small select group of people. His fortune was intended to benefit thousands upon thousands regardless of their ability to pay, which it has. The same is true for the amazing mercy of God. It is not intended for a small select group of people. It is intended for all of humanity; for the entire world. The challenge for us then is to live as children of a merciful God. It is to demonstrate that mercy in all that we say and do. The challenge I leave you with this week then is this: How does God’s mercy toward me make a difference in how I treat others? How does God’s mercy toward me, make a difference in how I live, work and care for others?
