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| Source: goarch.org |
As a fine exegetical supplement to Fr. Paul's homily from Sunday (Lk. 6:21-36), I am sharing this, prepared by our parishioner Kevin Rains. There is a good deal to assimilate here!
The text and its root (Luke 6:36 / Exodus 34:6)
- Luke 6:36 — "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" — echoes Exodus 34:6's "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious..."
- That revelation comes immediately after the golden calf - Israel's worst act of unfaithfulness. God names himself merciful before any sacrifice or repentance restores the relationship. Mercy as self-disclosed nature, not a reward for good behavior.
- Jewish tradition calls Exodus 34:6-7 the "Thirteen Attributes of Mercy" — the most quoted verse about God's character in the Hebrew Bible, reused nearly verbatim in crisis after crisis (Nehemiah 9, Joel 2, Jonah 4).
The Greek word
- The beautiful, feminine tone of this passage: (Luke's word) translates Hebrew rachum, which shares its root with rechem - womb. This is visceral, maternal mercy, not a judge's clemency.
- Ginesthe ("be") is a present imperative — "keep becoming," not a single decision. Mercy is a direction like St Gregory of Nyssa talks about as an ann infinite joirney into God , not a state we ever arrive at.
- Oiktirmōn appears only twice in the whole NT: Luke 6:36 and James 5:11 ("the Lord is compassionate and merciful" — after Job's endurance).
The non-transactional nature of God (vv. 32-35)
- "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same." God is kind "to the ungrateful and the evil" (v. 35).
- The real test of mercy is never the easy case - it's the person who hasn't earned it.
Liturgical enactment
- "Lord, have mercy" is sung/spoken roughly 30-40 times in a single Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom - were basically rehearsing Exodus 34
- The Eucharist itself enacts v. 35 — given to the ungrateful before worthiness is proven.
- Confession follows Moses' own pattern (Exod 34:8-9) — mercy declared first is what makes repentance possible.
Patristic witness (catena bible app)
- Cyril of Alexandria (on Luke 6:35-36): compassion is an attribute of the divine nature; this virtue restores us to the form of God.
- Clement of Alexandria: uses homoiōsis ("assimilation to God") for what mercy produces.
- Worth noting honestly: no Father explicitly equates Luke's "merciful" with Matthew's "perfect" (5:48) but several converge independently on the same destination (likeness to God). Those passages taken together seem to suggest that becoming perfect equates to becoming ever more merciful
Justice connection - since I’m on this justice learning experience in Alabama right now this seem poignant
- Mishpat (justice) and hesed (mercy) are paired constantly in the OT - never opposites. Micah 6:8: "do justice, and love kindness/mercy."
- Deuteronomy 10:18-19 - God "executes justice for the fatherless and the widow," grounded in Israel's own memory of being shown mercy in Egypt. (Also Isaiah 1.17, James 1 fro these categories of widows and orphans)
- Jesus defines "neighbor" in the Good Samaritan not as a legal category but as "the one who showed mercy" (Luke 10:37).
- Acts 6 (the diaconate) and St. Basil's Basiliad (4th c., among history's first hospitals) show the Church turning mercy into institution, not just sentiment.
