Mysterious Mercy

I just learned about the “royal prerogative of mercy,” while following up on what is probably an apocryphal preacher’s story about Queen Elizabeth (the first) granting mercy to her would-be assassin. Even in present-day English monarchy and the members of the British commonwealth, there is a right reserved for the person on the throne or some designated official in commonwealth countries to grant a pardon solely on the basis of mercy. It’s somewhat like a presidential pardon in our country.

The apocryphal story has Elizabeth wanting to attach some conditions to the pardon. When the prisoner pointed out that mercy by definition has no conditions, she granted him an unconditional pardon and he became a loyal subject. The implication is that such mercy is much like God’s.

In our text for this week, Luke 1:57-80, mercy has a starring role. First, in verse 58, Elizabeth’s relatives remark that God’s gift to her of a son in her old age is “his great mercy.” Then, near the end of Zechariah’s song of praise in verse 78, he declares, “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us.”

That legend about Queen Elizabeth had mercy transforming a traitor into a devoted servant. In seeing Elizabeth and Zechariah’s experience of God’s mercy in giving them a child transformed into deep and beautiful praise, we see that God’s merciful forgiveness of our sins (verse 77) transforms us into His devoted servants and worshipers.

And God’s mercy truly received transforms us in another way. We cannot truly and fully worship God for His mercy without learning to be merciful ourselves. So let our seeking of full worship this Advent guide us into greater willingness to offer mercy to those around us.