Mercy is God’s love in action, reaching into our sin, suffering, and weakness to bring forgiveness, healing, and hope. The cross is the ultimate display of that mercy as a reminder to us all. God is righteous and mercy is the form that righteousness takes toward sinners.
In His Mercy, God has moved toward us in our time of need, fallen as we are in sin, not because we are worthy, but because in His Character, He is good and we know this from what is written in the book of Exodus.
When Moses asked God to show him His Glory, God said, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
Note here below that when God passed before Moses, He proclaimed His Character and put Mercy at the very top of the list:
Exodus 34:6-7
6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
And in Psalm 103:8-10:
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy
9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
This shows that God’s mercy is far greater than the impact of sin, which is only temporary. Instead of punishing us for our sins immediately, God forbears in hopes that we will change our minds and repent. God makes the reach of sin limited, but the reach of His mercy is limitless. While His justice deals truthfully with sin, His mercy overflows far beyond it.
All throughout Scripture, God’s people tell of His Mercy, His Salvation, and His Works because these three truths are inseparable. God’s mercy is where everything begins—His compassion moves Him toward sinners who cannot save themselves. That mercy leads to salvation as God through His works steps into our lives to rescue us, forgive us, and restore us.
This is why we learned last week in Sunday School that David in Psalm 71, the man delivered from a “legion of demons” in Mark 5 today, and countless others throughout the Bible cannot remain silent.
They tell what God has done because mercy found them, salvation changed them, and God’s works continued to sustain them. Telling becomes the natural overflow of a life touched by the mercy and salvation of God. How can it not for those who love God?
For Christians who commit a sin, God’s mercy in forbearance is a blessing while He allows their consciences in which His Natural Law resides to gently persuade them to repent.
But for the ungodly, it’s an excuse to continue in sin since God does not punish them right away and their consciences, hardened as it is by sin no longer has any sway over them and they become increasingly depraved in their minds.
Now, God’s mercy didn’t begin with Moses, Abraham or even Noah. It reaches all the way back into the Garden of Eden. When God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden, it wasn’t merely punishment — it was protection. Had they eaten from the Tree of Life after they sinned, they would have lived forever in a fallen state, trapped in their guilt with no hope of redemption. God blocked the way to the Tree of Life to ensure that death — and therefore the end of sin — would be possible. By removing them from the garden, God preserved the possibility of salvation. Even in judgment and the sentence of death, God’s Mercy was already at work in their lives.
We know that God showed David profound mercy, but mercy did not erase the consequences of sin. David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the arranged death of her husband, Uriah, were grievous sinful acts. Yet even then, God’s mercy shines through darkness— not by ignoring David’s sin, but by forgiving, restoring, and redeeming him.
In our reading of Psalm 71 last week, we read of David telling of God’s great works in his life and showing David mercy in this situation had to be at the top of the list. Not only did God forgive his sin but he restored David to a right relationship with Himself although David suffered the consequences of the sin for a time.
And by the time we get to the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly shows mercy to people who are broken, overlooked, or trapped in hopeless situations—and every time He does, the result is the same: those who receive mercy are called to tell others of what God has done for them.
This pattern of mercy and a command to tell others is shown in Mark 5:14–20 too where Jesus frees the man possessed by a legion of demons. After restoring him to his right mind, Jesus sends him home with a mission: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” The man obeys, and the entire region hears of God’s mercy through his testimony.
That which occurred in Mark 5 is not an isolated moment. The same rhythm of events appears repeatedly throughout Jesus’ ministry.
- When Jesus touched the leper in Mark 1, He didn’t just heal him—He restored his dignity. And the man could not keep silent about the mercy he received.
- When Jesus forgave and healed the paralytic lowered through the roof, the crowd glorified God, amazed at His mercy.
- When Jesus raised the widow’s son at Nain, the people proclaimed, “God has visited His people!”
- When He freed the woman bent over for eighteen years, the synagogue erupted in praise.
- When He cleansed the ten lepers, the one who returned fell at His feet and worshipped Jesus, overwhelmed by God’s mercy.
- When He restored blind Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus followed Him down the road, a living testimony of God’s mercy.
- Even Peter, who denied Jesus three times on the night of His arrest, was restored by mercy. The risen Christ met Peter in his failure and in mercy, forgave him and commissioned him to strengthen others. That same man who once crumbled under pressure became a pillar of the early church. Through God’s mercy, Peter—once broken and ashamed—became the “rock” on which Jesus began building His church.
Peter fall and rise shows that if we stumble or fail, God in His mercy restores us again and again. His mercy is not a one‑time gift but an ongoing expression of His steadfast love. Even God’s Salvation is an act of mercy because once we are saved, it’s God’s mercy that sustains us.
In every one of these stories—and especially in Peter’s—mercy leads to witness. Each person who received mercy became a teller of what God had done. And it was through this witness, through ordinary people speaking of extraordinary mercy, that the fledgling church began and grew with remarkable power. The early church was built not on programs or strategies or catchy phrases or just in helping those in need but on transformed lives boldly telling of God’s mercy, salvation, and His mighty works in their lives.
It is a truth that mercy received becomes mercy told. Those who encounter Jesus cannot remain silent. They speak, they praise, they follow, they testify. And this is exactly what happens in Mark 5: the man who had been bound in darkness by demons is now sent as a messenger of light. His story becomes the pathway through which others learn of God’s mercy.
This is the heart of our calling as believers. We are not just recipients of mercy—we are tellers of God’s mercy. Like the man in Mark 5, like the leper, like Bartimaeus, like the widow’s neighbors and even Peter, we are sent to declare what the Lord has done for us through His mercy.
God’s mercy is not meant to be hidden; it is meant to be shared so that others may hear, believe, and find the same hope we have found in Christ.
However, there’s another sad and tragic lesson for us in this story in the Gospel of Mark that we should think about too: The reaction of the townspeople to the loss of their swine herd.
Let’s read our Scripture to see how the townspeople reacted to Jesus’ act of mercy to the demon-possessed man and then we’ll try to understand why.
Mark 5:14-20
14 The swineherds fled and told it in the town and in the surrounding country, and the people went to see what had happened.
15 They came to Jesus and saw the man who had had the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were frightened.
16 Those who had seen it told what had happened to the man controlled by demons and to the pigs;
17 and the people began begging Jesus to leave their district.
18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized begged him to be allowed to go with him.
19 But Jesus would not permit it. Instead, he said to him, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much the LORD in his mercy has done for you.”
20 He went off and began proclaiming in the Ten Towns how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.
Imagine the scene in Mark 5. A man who had been tormented by demons—so many that they called themselves “Legion”—is suddenly sitting calmly, clothed, and in his right mind. Just moments before, he was living among tombs, feared by everyone, chained but breaking free, crying out day and night. His life was chaos, his soul in bondage. But then Jesus came. With a word of authority, He cast out the demons, and God’s Mercy transformed this man completely.
The herdsmen ran to tell the town what had happened, and the people came to see for themselves. They found the man sitting peacefully at Jesus’ feet. Mercy had done what no chain, no guard, no human effort could do. Yet instead of rejoicing and giving God glory, the townspeople were afraid and they asked Jesus to leave.
Why did the towns people ask Jesus to leave their district?
Sometimes God’s mercy unsettles people—it challenges their comfort, their control, their way of life. No doubt, God’s mercy revealed the condition of the heart of the townspeople and what they valued most.
The townspeople could only see the cost. The deliverance of the demon‑possessed man meant the loss of two thousand pigs — a staggering economic blow — and instead of giving glory to God for the miracle done right in front of them, they recoiled from Jesus because His mercy disrupted their comfort and threatened their livelihood. Their wealth mattered more to them than the restoration of a human soul.
Yet even in their rejection, Jesus did not abandon them. When He sent the healed man home, He sent him to those very people as a living testimony of God’s mercy. The same community that begged Jesus to leave became the first audience to hear the good news from the lips of the demon-possessed man they once feared.
What a wonderful, patient, merciful God we have and One who keeps pursuing even those who push Him away!
What we should remember is that when God shows mercy out of His compassion, when He delivers us, when He forgives us, we are called to tell others. Our testimony may not be polished, but it is powerful. The man’s story was simple: “I was bound, but Jesus set me free.” That’s the heart of telling of God’s mercy.
And for us, we can tell of the same thing: “I was bound by my sins but Jesus set me free”.
Each of us has a story of God’s mercy. Maybe it’s forgiveness of sin, healing in a time of need, or comfort in grief. Whatever it is, Jesus calls us to share it in hope that it brings salvation to more and more people.
When we go home to our friends, to our community, let’s tell them of the great things that the Lord has done for us through His Mercy.
We can all point to that old rugged cross and testify that “I was bound by many sins but Jesus stayed on that cross to set me free.” AMEN