Mercy

Well, it must be the vogue to open messages with a reference to a movie, and mine will as well today. A few years ago, a movie came out and many of you probably saw Saving Private Ryan. How many of you have seen that movie? Good. We have a point of reference already. For those of you that didn't, but for all of us, let me just set it briefly up. It's a World War II movie set in the opening scenes of the invasion of France, D-Day, 1944. And the story evolves around the story, the idea of a platoon of American soldiers who are sent on a special mission to save Private Ryan. Private James Ryan, who is at that moment the last surviving of, was it, five brothers, I believe, who entered the war. Four of them were killed in action. The War Department determined that the fifth one would not die to bring further grief upon his mother. And so he would be extracted from behind the lines after the invasion of France and sent back home. And so a platoon of American soldiers led by a captain who is played by Tom Hanks goes behind the lines in search of Private Ryan. They find him, and when they do, it sets up a the final scene, which is a battle with the Germans. And unfortunately, only two people live through the battle. Private Ryan and one other GI. The others who are sent to rescue him, all but one are killed.

And next to the last scene of the movie, as the Tom Hanks character, the captain, is dying in the arms of Private Ryan, he looks up to Private Ryan and the planes are flying over and the shells are still bursting. And he's dying, and with his last breath, he says two words to James Ryan. I will leave that scene for a moment, and we'll come back in a few minutes to it.

Because what he said is a lesson that I want to get to from the story and the episode in the Bible surrounding an individual that I think has a very important lesson for us.

If you will, please turn back to 1 Samuel 16.

1 Samuel 16. So you'll have to hold that thought.

Those of you that didn't see the movie, or those of you that did, you can't remember what was said.

1 Samuel 16. This is a story of King David, an episode in his life where, actually, 2 Samuel 16. I want to get to that. I told you 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 16. There is trouble and unrest in the kingdom of Israel. The king's son, Absalom, has engineered a rebellion.

Lots of family history and feelings flow together to cause Absalom to try to oust his father as the king. You know the story of Absalom. And he engineers a rebellion. David has been in Jerusalem as the king for a number of years. And when word comes that Absalom has raised an army and he's marching on Jerusalem, David and those loyal to him decide that they had better flee. And so when we come down to chapter 16 of 2 Samuel, we find David fleeing his palace, going out toward the east, up over the Mount of Olives, and beginning to head toward the Jordan and toward the east from Jerusalem in exile for this period of time to save his life and those who are loyal to him.

We pick up the story in verse 5 of 2 Samuel 16. When King David came to Bahurim, there was a man. Now this is kind of on the north slope, north side of the Mount of Olives, heading toward the Jordan River toward the east. And they met a man who was from the house family of the house of Saul.

I remember Saul was the king, the first king of Israel, whom David had replaced. And Saul had disqualified himself through circumstances. David replaced him. Actually, Saul was David's father-in-law. He had married Saul's daughter, Michael. And then David had to flee from Saul.

And there was a great deal of intrigue during that time. Eventually, Saul and his son Jonathan died in battle. David then united the tribes as the second king of Israel. And at this point in time, he is met by a man from the house of Saul, a relative, perhaps a distant relative of Saul. But nonetheless, someone who was from the same tribe of Benjamin, as Saul was. And so there's a connection. There was a traditional, loyalist connection that this man had with the house of Saul. The man's name was Shimei, we're told in verse 5. The son of Gera, and he came out to meet David, cursing continuously as he came.

This is quite a scene that is set up. Here's a man, at least of the same tribe as Saul, who obviously has certain loyalist tendencies toward Saul. And now David, who had in some people's minds usurped Saul, and was not really the legitimate king in some minds. This is years later. Keep in mind certain things die hard, especially when it comes to the story of leadership, in this case, the king of Israel.

And this man was cursing. Here now he saw an opportunity. David was running for his life. David was, they thought, being deposed. Yeah, he's getting what he deserved. And so Shimei comes out cursing David as he came. And he threw stones at David, verse 6, and that all the servants of King David, and all the people, and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

Now, the mighty men of David were kind of like his guard, his inner circle of soldiers who were his elite special ops, Delta force, Green Berets, whatever branch of the military you want to talk about, who were this elite force of troops. They were, these were the mighty men. You can read about them later in, I think, verse chapter 23, some of their exploits.

These were the elite guard, and they were all around David. And the Shimei starts throwing stones at them. Shimei is kind of a one-man suicide mission that he was on at this point, but the story unfolds. We find it interesting. And all the people were there. Now, verse 7, Shimei said thus when he cursed, Come out, come out, you bloodthirsty man, you rogue. He's talking to David. Now, David was a bloodthirsty man or a bloody man in one sense. Remember, God wouldn't let him build a temple because he was a bloody man.

He was a warrior, warrior king. But he's being, having that thrown at him by this Shimei at this point, and he's being called a rogue, which if you look in your margin there, it says a worthless man.

And whatever that was in the original Hebrew, we would have certain terms in our English language today to express towards someone who we felt was worthless, and they would, you know, be in the realm of four-letter words, no doubt, to express his disgust toward David. You are a worthless man, you bloody, bloodthirsty individual. Shimei goes on in verse 8, he says, The LORD has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, and whose place you've reigned. Ah, there's the strong feeling. You are reigning in place of, meaning you're illegitimate. We have other terms for those. I won't use those today in mixed company. But this was a stream of feeling, not just of this one-man Shimei, but admittedly a minority feeling within Israel. But there were a number of people probably through the years, probably of the people of Benjamin who had been of the same tribe as Saul, who felt that their champion, Saul, his role had been usurped and taken by this upstart from Bethlehem, named David.

And so this is what's coming out in this diatribe here. And Shimei goes on and says, The LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son, so now you're caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man. So David is being accused of being an evil man, caught in his own evil, as if he were doing nothing each day of his reign, but spinning a web of deceit by his actions, his judgments, his administration, was full of evil. This is what he's being accused of. I mean, you could write whole chapters to fill in the details of what people probably thought David was really like and what he was doing and all of his administration by what is said here. He was evil. You're caught in it. God has exposed you for what you really are. This is what's being said to David by Shimei. Now verse 9, Abishai, who was one of the mighty men, probably his chief lieutenant, the son of Zoriah said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king? You can almost see Abishai starting to pull out his sword from his sheath as he's saying these words. Let me go over and take off his head.

It's all just like that. And he could have done it, and he would not have had a qualm of conscience, would have just wiped the blood off of his skirt, put the sword back away, turned and walked away without any pang of guilt whatsoever. But the king said in verse 10, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zoriah? In other words, it's an expression of saying, look, we're not on the same page here.

What are you talking about? Let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so? David is taking a step back from the situation. He's had to flee his palace. His son has mounted a rebellion against him. He's embarrassed. He's in shame. He's fleeing for his life. And he's beginning to think, maybe God has something at work in this for me to learn. This is what David is saying.

I'm not going to cut his head off. It may be that God is doing something here that none of us can see right now, and that God has inspired Shammai to come out this day. Verse 12, it may be, he says, that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day. So this is David's hope that somehow good will come out of this, but he has made a decision as the king not to execute Shammai.

So David and his men went along the road. They just continued on. And Shammai went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and kicked up dust.

This is one of the most comical scenes, if you really stop and think about it, in the Bible. Here's on a little hillside along the road this character called Shammai kicking up dust, throwing rocks, and cursing the king and his entourage. It's quite a comical scene.

He's far enough away that they can't just swing a sword at him. I guess they could have shot an arrow at him, but the decision has been made to spare his life. And they went on, all the people who were with him because they were weary, and they refreshed themselves there. This is, as I said, just a comical scene. I've read this many times and thought about this little... he must have been a scrawny little guy who had his moment and his son to curse the king.

Shammai, I call him, look at him as the Ernest T. Bass of the Old Testament.

How many of you know who Ernest T. Bass was? Those of us that had mispent youths watching the old Andy Griffith Show that ran back in the 60s, one of the characters was a character called Ernest T. Bass. He was kind of a hillbilly character who would come down out of the hills, and he was only in about three episodes. And the first one I think where he shows up, he wants to marry Charlene Darlin, Mr. Darlin's daughter. And he can't do it, of course. But he's a rock-thrower. As he says, he's the best rock-thrower in the county.

And he throws rocks and breaks windows, Ernest T. does, and makes all kinds of mischief for Sheriff Andy and Deputy Barney. And then he runs off, and he's always kind of dancing and kicking himself up, you know, kicking his legs up and kind of kicking up dust like Shimii is doing, and always shouting, you've not seen the last of Ernest T. Bass, was one of his lines. And so when I read about Shimii, I think this is Ernest T. Bass, kicking up dust, throwing stones at the king at this particular moment, causing a scene. But David is extended to Shimii mercy. That's the point. And no more bloodshed at this point in time. Now, when you go along in the story, turn a few pages to chapter 19, the rebellion, the civil war is put down, Absalom is killed, and David is able to return to Jerusalem. Chapter 19 has David beginning to return to Jerusalem as king. Absalom has died in battle, and he's coming back from east of the Jordan River, and he's come down to the river, and he's going to cross over. And in verse 18 of chapter 19, we find that there's a ferry boat there, bringing the king and his household back across the river, which is an interesting story, thing to note, because if you go to Israel today and you look just about any point in the Jordan, especially where this area would be, the Jordan River is not much wider than from the front row here to the back row of this section. So you wouldn't need a ferry boat to get across the Jordan in some of those sections today, because irrigation and water usage has drained the Jordan from what it was during the time of King David. But it was big enough then that they had, you know, it was a big enough river to ferry the king and his household across to get them back toward Jerusalem. Shimei comes back on the scene because it tells us, Shimei, the son of Gerah, fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan. Now Shimei is still alive, the tide has turned, and now Shimei thinks his life is once again on the line. And he says to the king, do not let my Lord impute iniquity to me, or remember what wrong your servant did on the day that my Lord the king left Jerusalem, that the king should take it to heart. He's begging for mercy because now he knows that he could be killed now that the king is back in power. He goes on, for I your servant know that I have sinned, therefore here I am, the first to come today, he wanted that noted, of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my Lord the king. And so he makes up a plea for mercy. But here's Abishai again, the king's lieutenant. He answers and he says, shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord's anointed? He's pulling that sword out again. And David said, what do I have to do with you, you sons of Zerei, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel? Therefore the king said to Shimei, you'll not die, and the king swore to him. That's two. Two expressions of mercy to Shimei from David's own mouth. He could have been killed there. And under the terms and code of the day, nobody would have held the king guiltless. Abishai wouldn't have been tried as a war criminal. And under the code then, had David allowed him to cut his head off, which is what he wanted to do. This was how justice was dispensed in these types of situations. But David was returning as king. There had been enough bloodshed, and David was tempered many different ways by his experience, and he did not want this day of his return bloodied by the death of someone like Shimei.

You could imagine David looking at Shimei and the thoughts of his heart as not even worth the expenditure of one stroke of the sword, and whatever other feelings that would have come been aroused by it. This death would have meant nothing. Perhaps David recognized that God had been with him, as he had speculated on his going out, that God has allowed this for a reason, and that even allowing this man to curse me, there's something for me to learn about humility, about God, about my reign, my mistakes. And, you know, David, I don't know that David had second thoughts about himself and doubt, but he allowed the experience to teach him something.

This is a big lesson to learn from how David approached Shimei and not allowing him to be killed. He stepped back, took a deep breath, and allowed God to teach him, which is an important lesson for every one of us when we get into situations where we're uncomfortable, we're under stress, where we may even have the power to judge someone in a situation and, you know, fire them, or discipline them, or take something away from them. You know, whatever situation you're in, either as a parent, as an employer, or, you know, in any type of situation where you are supervising, working with people, and you're responsible for morale, for what gets done, there are times when we will be criticized because you're, you got your name on the door. You're the supervisor. You're the one with the responsibility, and you've made a decision.

And sometimes it may go well, and you'll still get criticism for it. Sometimes it may go wrong, and you will then really get criticism for it.

And you have to know that with that response, with that position comes responsibility. And part of the responsibility of leadership is to be in control of your emotions and your reactions, your words, your feelings, especially with people, to not let the moment and even someone's foolishness like Shimei was not a wise individual. Shimei had some problems, and yet David overlooked all of that for the moment and worked with them. You know, that reminds me of a story one of my pastor friends was telling me about.

Sometimes, you know, in a pastoral responsibility, you may have to tell someone, you may have to suspend them from services or actually disfellowship someone because of their sins or their causing division or whatever. And over my years of experience, I've had to do that from time to time, not all that often. It's part of the responsibility to keep order within the church. I remember a conversation some of us were having recently regarding an individual who was hurting himself more than he was hurting the congregation. Let's put it that way, by his approach, by his life. And this one minister was getting pressure from a certain element within the congregation. Well, you know, tell him to stay away or tell him not to come to church. And as I said, this individual was hurting himself more than he was hurting the church. You know, if the church is being truly hurt, the minister has to take action. But there are some situations where you have to recognize that people, they're not playing, as we might say, with a full deck. Life hasn't given them the full deck of cards. And it was the case with this individual, and the pastor was not wanting to discipline them. And a friend of mine who was there, we were three of us having this conversation, he says, yeah, he says, you know, I knew a situation that we had in the congregation years ago. And it was a lady who, again, was not, she had some mental challenges. And she was kind of a bag lady, if you will, in terms of just her approach. She just, she had some mental challenges. And she would be a little bit pesky here or there, and some of her attitudes and some of the things that they would say, but the ministry wouldn't put her out of the church or wouldn't tell her to stay away. And my friend said, look, we dealt with her, we tried to work with her, but had we told her not to come to church, she wouldn't even have understood what that meant. So you want to discipline somebody or whatever. And if they don't have everything that's necessary to even understand why you're doing it, you don't, you back off from that. And that's true with some people. You have to recognize where they're coming from. And in this case with David and Shimei, perhaps he saw something even there in how he was as the king, how Shimei was as a very foolish individual, and that nobody would have learned from this. The point is, you have to, as a leader, whatever leadership role you're in, treat very carefully the responsibility you have with people's livelihoods, their lives, as you work with them. And vice versa, if you ever find yourself the recipient of patience, forbearance, and mercy, like a Shimei, and maybe sometimes we've been Shimei's, we need to understand when we are given that mercy. And we need to appreciate that Well, David gave Shimei mercy twice in this story. But that's not the end of the story of Shimei in the life of David and in the Bible. If you turn over to 1 Kings, chapter 2, we find David on his deathbed. And once again, there was a little bit of a stir in the kingdom over the secession. And at Anijah, one of David's sons presumed to be king. That wasn't to be. Solomon was rightfully acknowledged and kind of made the heir apparent. And so in chapter 2 of 1 Kings, we find David giving some instructions. As the days of David drew near, verse 1, that he should die, he charged Solomon his son saying. And so here we find him passing on certain pieces of advice.

And he talks to him about Joab. And he mentions, you know, in verse 3, walk in God's commandments, keep his judgments, keep his law, and you'll prosper. Things will go well for you. So it's some fatherly advice he starts off with so that God will bless you and fulfill his promises to our family. But then in verse 5, he says, Moreover, you know also what Joab, the son of Zoriah, did to me. And he goes on to the story of Joab. We'll go into that here. But then he comes down to verse 8 and he says, And see, you have with you Shimei, the son of Gira, a Benjamite from Baharim, who cursed me with a malicious curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me into Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I'll not put you to death with the sword. David is not forgotten years later.

And so he says in verse 9, Now therefore do not hold him guiltless. Ah! Here's the marker being brought in. Don't hold him guiltless.

You're a wise man, as he says to Solomon, you'll know what to do to him.

Interesting instruction. When I read this, I'm reminded of that scene in the movie The Godfather where Don Corleone is passing on instructions to his son Michael when Michael's taking over the family business. And I'm not going to do my Don Corleone impression here, but for those of you that have seen the movie, you know that Michael's taking over and Don is passing on words of instruction as to how to establish himself as the head once he's gone. And he basically says, tells him, you'll know who the traitor is by, I think in that case, he'll arrange the meaning. Whoever arranges the meeting of the families, you'll know he's the traitor within the family.

And it's the father passing on wisdom and instructions to the son to establish the family business. That's what David is doing to Solomon. There's a little bit of family business that hasn't yet been finished. Joab is one, Shimei is the other. And so he says to him, you're a wise man, you'll know what to do. But bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.

That's an interesting statement that he says to him.

He's basically saying, don't let him die at peace in his bed. That's kind of his wish, but he leaves it up to Solomon to handle it. So he leaves it open. He says, it's an unfinished piece of business. Well, down in verse 36, Solomon gets around to Shimei.

Verse 36, he calls for him and he says, build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there. And do not go out from there anywhere. Don't go out. You build this house, and he's basically putting him under house arrest. Everything but the collar around his leg.

You build this house, but you stay there. Don't go back to your home. Don't go on vacation to the Mediterranean coast. No spring breaks for you. He says, it will be on the day that you go out and cross the brook, Kidron, which was basically just in the middle of the Kidron Valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. Not a very long distance. That was the boundary. The day you go out and cross the Kidron brook, know for certain you shall surly die. Your blood shall be on your own head. So he's under house arrest. And Shimei, who again probably was thinking, well, I got off again. This is the third time he was given mercy. Now by the Son, by Solomon. He agrees to it in verse 38. He says, the saying is good. As my Lord, the King has said, so your servant will do.

So what happened is Shimei had an agreement put in front of him, a written agreement.

Build a house, stay in that house, don't go across the Kidron Valley. This is the boundaries of your incarceration. And it's all spelled out there. And Shimei says, give me a pen, I'll sign it, and I'll agree to it. And he does. He agrees to the terms. So he dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

It happened at the end of three years that two slaves of Shimei ran away to Achish, the son of Makah, king of Gath. And they said to Shimei, look, your slaves are in Gath.

So Shimei has two slaves, two servants, two employees, who run away. Now why would a slave run away from his master?

Pretty bad working conditions.

Beatings that sun up every morning, reduced rations. No bonus at the end of the year.

Shimei was a bad employer, a bad master. And he mistreated. He abused these two servants. And they finally got to a point where they said, look, any alternative is better than staying here. And so they took off. I sometimes think of Shimei as, if he is the earnest tea bass of the Old Testament, he's a short scrawny little guy who has to abuse people, one way or the other, with words or even physically, to assert his position.

And there are people that are like that. They abuse people. Because sometimes even their size, because of their inferiority, their emotional immaturity. And these two servants said, they're not going to take this anymore. And they took off. And this was a blow for Shimei. He couldn't deal with it. This was a blow to his prestige, to his image, to his sense of security. And he probably flew into a wrath and he forgot what he had agreed to in the terms of his incarceration. Or he perhaps thought three years, you know, the king's forgot about it, or the king's not going to know. I can zip down to Gath, find my servants and get back. Nobody will know that I'm gone. But so he arose, saddled his donkey, went to Akish to get his slaves, and he brought them from Gath. But Solomon had his, what, secret police, spies. He was an astute ruler. And he was told by his intelligence agents that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back. I would imagine that Shimei didn't know that his neighbor was on the payroll of the king and was told to report any comings and goings of Shimei.

And his neighbor just trotted right up the hill to the king's palace, gave a report, the king found out about it. And so Shimei gets back, the king sends a delegation, calls him.

Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, no, for certain that on the day you go out and travel anywhere, you shall surely die?

And you said to me, the word I've heard is good. Maybe Solomon's putting that little piece of paper that was the agreement right up in front of him, the Shimei, and reminds him and shows him where he had signed on the dotted line. He says, Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the commandment that I gave you? The king said, moreover, to Shimei, You know, as your heart acknowledges, all the wickedness that you did to my father, David, therefore the Lord will return your wickedness on your own head. But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehiyedah, and he went out and struck him down. And he died. Thus the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

You could argue as to the merits of this action, as to whether or not Solomon should have extended for a fourth time mercy to this individual. But this was, as I say, the code of the day was a bit different. There was an agreement, and there had to be a form of capital punishment in this case, but that's what happened. And we're told that the kingdom was established. Now, the life of one man named Shimei did not hold the balance of the kingdom in his hands. That killing of Shimei didn't necessarily seal Solomon's whole over the kingdom.

Who knows how that was looked at? That was no doubt quite a story that was known among the people and certainly among the ruling elite of the nation. They knew about Shimei, and this was used as an object lesson in many, many ways. But he met his end. He didn't live up to his end of the agreement. Three measures of mercy were extended to this man. What did we learn from this story? Why go through this story this morning? What do we want to take away?

Well, number one, you and I will face unjust criticism. That is just part of life. David was criticized by Shimei, and it puts you in memory of what we are told back in 1 Peter, chapter 4. 1 Peter, chapter 4.

Where Peter writes, Beloved, do not think it is strange concerning the fiery trials, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you.

But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

To the degree that we take part in Christ's suffering, we're taking part in something that is good from a spiritual point of view. He says in verse 11, 14, if you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you. That's a blessing. If shame, criticism is brought upon you because of the name of Christ, because of your stand and walk as a Christian, which means because you're doing right. He goes on to say, in verse 15, He says, none of you suffers a murderer, thief, evildoer, or busybody in other people's matters.

If you suffer for those, you do that. That's just. I mean, you're getting what you deserve.

But back in verse 14, He says, if you're reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Stop and think about that for a moment. Verse 14, if we suffer for being a Christian, that's a blessing because of the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us. The Spirit of glory and God is involved in the working of that situation. David was cursed by shimmy eye in an unjust way.

Just one way to look at it. And David had the sense to back away from it and to learn from it, to not let it get out of hand. Going back to verse 14, He says, on their part, He's blasphemed, and on your part, He's glorified. Down to verse 16, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

If you suffer as a Christian, in a sense, David suffered for righteousness sake.

You will face, and I will face, unjust criticism. We have to know how to manage it, handle it, just as David did. Point number two, arm yourself, therefore, with a thick skin. A thick skin. Be able to take it.

Point number three, mercy, when it is given, is unmerited. And it is for all.

Mercy, in its truest sense, is unmerited pardon.

Shimei was granted mercy three times. He didn't merit it, but it was given to him.

So understand that if you're on the giving end of mercy, it doesn't have to be deserved for you to be able to give it, and hopefully, the person receiving it benefits from it.

At the very least, you hope that you, as a supervisor, as a parent, your reign, your kingdom, will be established in righteousness because you're able to do that. But mercy, by its very nature, is unmerited. It is given in the hope that someone will benefit from it. We are all recipients of God's mercy, unmerited because of our sins.

So that leads to the fourth point. When you receive it, when you receive mercy, recognize it and use it well. Shimei didn't use it well. He received it three times.

He didn't use it well. We see from his handling of his servants and his attitude that he probably thought, boy, you know, David, he's a weak man. He interpreted mercy as weakness, which a warped, distorted mind can do. Who knows what went through his mind? But he didn't use it. It didn't produce a changed heart. When you receive mercy, recognize it and use it well. Shimei didn't, and eventually it cost him. It all caught up to him.

Which brings us back to the scene from the movie, Saving Private Ryan.

When we left Private James Ryan, he was watching and hearing the last words of the captain, who had led his platoon of men behind the lines to find him, to bring him out, and all but one of them now lay dead in the streets of this bombed-out, burned-out village.

And the captain, played by Tom Hanks, looks up into the face of Private Ryan, played by Matt Damon, and he says this to him, James earned this, earned this.

Men had died in this fictional story for Private James Ryan to be saved.

And the captain, who was not going to be able to go back to his home in Pennsylvania, where he was a school teacher of English, he was not going to be able to go back to his wife. And he looks up and he says, earned this. And if you remember the movie, it dissolves into the face of an older man who's kneeling at a white cross in the American cemetery at Normandy.

And it's the grave of the captain. And the old man is Private Ryan, now grown old and making a pilgrimage to the scene with his family. And tears are in his eyes and he turns to his wife and he asks, have I been a good man? Have I been a good man? His question in the story that has nagged him for years, did I earn this? Did I earn this? When we are given mercy, make sure we earn it. Make sure that we come to the point where we use it wisely in our life. For our life, those of others around us, and certainly for the glory of God.

It's an important lesson. It's valuable. It's a good one to learn as we deal with each other and deal with God.