Does it ever bother you when someone doesn’t seem to get the justice they deserve?  When your teacher gives mercy to a classmate, and lets them off the hook, when you think a just punishment should have been given? 

William Shakespeare, in The Merchant of Venice, prods us to think differently about mercy, when speaking about kings, he writes:

His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd 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. Therefore, [ ]
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

We all need justice seasoned with a bit of mercy.  When we forget that, we become a bit like the rather ugly aristocrat who was having his portrait painted, and instructed the artist, “Now, do me justice,” to which the honest painter replied, “Sir, what you require is not justice but mercy.”