This year during Advent, New Hope Chapel will be focusing on the women of Jesus’ genealogy and their connection to the life and ministry of the Messiah.  These are from our readings during the worship service.

Imagine that your country is on the brink of war. Your nation’s future looks bleak. Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door, and two spies from the opposition ask you for help. What do you do? Do you side with national loyalty or try to save your skin?

That was Rahab’s dilemma, and as a native of Jericho, her city’s future looked grim. Israel, an enormous nomadic nation gathered just miles away, and the whole city of Jericho knew they had no chance against them. Rahab, a prostitute, was no stranger to opening her door to men. This time it was much different. This time, she played host to enemy spies.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, Rahab is referred to as the “Jericho Harlot;” however, she is also noted for her faith. As she told the spies, “I know that God – the Creator of the Heavens and Earth – has given this city to your hand.” How did she know that? Perhaps not only did she see the writing on the wall, but perhaps God Himself revealed something about His nature to her.

Israel owed much to Rahab’s mercy, and in return, they saved her and her family when they conquered Jericho. Rahab, after being incorporated into the people of Israel would later marry a man named Salmon, and they would have a son named Boaz.

Rahab is the second woman listed in Jesus’ genealogy, and it is a reminder to us of the power of God’s mercy. In Luke 7, Jesus explains that the one who is forgiven, loves much, but the one who is forgiven little, loves little. Perhaps this lesson can be applied to Rahab. In mercy, God revealed Himself to her. In mercy, Rahab spared the spies. And in mercy, Israel saved her and her family. Perhaps this lesson of mercy was emphasized in Rahab’s household – so much so, that when her son Boaz looked out his window one day to see a widow named Ruth picking grain in his field, he modeled his mother’s lesson and showed her great compassion.

In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, one of the main characters Portia gives the following monologue about mercy:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes…
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

As Jesus demonstrates over and over, mercy has a way of defusing hostility. Instead of anger, how often Jesus reaches out, even from the cross, and says, “You are forgiven.” He proves to us over and over never to count out God’s most common yet most amazing miracle – the power to transform hearts and lives through the gift of forgiveness. He is capable of taking an identity like “Jericho Harlot” and in His abundant mercy, offering a new name like “the merciful woman, the woman of faith, or the woman of Messiah’s line.”

Jesus is the God who perfectly demonstrates justice seasoned with mercy. Our salvation – our eternal life as well as the very air that we breathe to keep us physically alive is because of His mercy. May the Lord help us not to embrace the attitude or the position of self-righteousness. But rather, in everything we do, may we acknowledge that it is in Him and in His grace that we live, and move, and have our being.