I remember once hearing the word "empathy" defined as "sympathy, but a lot more of it." In the same light, as we continue on our journey through Lent 2007, I want to ask you a very simple question: What is the meaning of the word, Compassion?
I went on line to see if I could find a definition which would fit in with this topic which I wanted to discuss with you this evening. I found one site that had a number of responses. Each individual whose response(s) were listed held varying degrees of familiarity. One such piece was by a Henri Nouwen, and as I read it, I knew I had found the definition I needed. Let me share with you what I found:
"The word compassion is derived from the Latin. The verb
'pati' is 'to suffer', and 'cum' means 'with,' giving a literal translation 'TO SUFFER WITH.'
He goes on to explain: "Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears.
"Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable and powerless with the powerless.
"Compassion is not a bending towards the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy, or pity, for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home
there." End quote.
Think about it. Does this not describe to the very letter of the word exactly what Jesus did? Jesus went down to the people, right down to the level at which they lived, and it was there that he ministered to them.
The Gospel lesson read earlier is probably the most often emembered story of Jesus showing compassion upon the people who clamored to hear him. Jesus had just learned of the death of John the Baptist. He goes down to the sea, and climbs into a boat and heads out for a deserted place to be by himself. Undoubtedly, he was feeling some pain at the death of his kinsman. But the people learned of his whereabouts, and arrive there ahead of him. When he arrives, and sees the crowd of people, even though he is in pain, turns to the people who hurting even more. He has compassion on them and heals their sick. When night begins to fall, and the disciples begin to encourage him to send the people away to find food for themselves, he places that responsibility right back upon the disciples. "You give them something to eat," he tells the disciples. Complaining that they have but five loaves and two fish among them, Jesus commands them to bring them to him. Then he has the people sit down on the grass, and taking the loaves and the fish, Jesus looks up towards the heavens, blesses the loaves, and after braking them, gives them to the disciples to give to the people. And
everyone there had enough to eat, while twelve baskets of leftovers were collected. And those who were filled at that meal were more than five thousand in number.
More often we are led to think of this story as one of the miracles performed by Jesus while he lived on earth. And that may be so. But I would encourage you to look beyond the act, and see what it was that Jesus actually did. In his own pain, he came to the people in their need; hr came to them in their pain, and ministered to them in their midst. He did not call them to him, he went into their midst. They would have been satisfied to hear him speak to them from the boat, but he did more. He got out of the boat, he mingled with them, he touched them, he felt their need, their pain, and in so doing, was able to reach out with the spirit of God and heal their sick. And when nourishment became their need, he satisfied their hunger.
Think about any of the miracle stories, and look beyond the miracle to what the underlying need was that prompted Jesus' response. The nobleman who pleads for the life of his son; the man in the synagogue with the withered hand; the centurion's servant; the women with the issue of blood; In every case, it was the pain, the suffering, the loss, the loneliness of the individuals to which Jesus responded. He allowed himself to become vulnerable to the their lives, to sense and feel what they felt, and then used the love of God within him to lessen their need.
Yet, on the other hand, it was not just the poor common folk for whom he had compassion. Last week Pastor Scott dealt with the topic of Boldness, Righteousness. One of the passages to which he made reference was that passage in which Jesus goes into the temple, and in a rather harsh and critical act, drove out the profiteers whose only purpose in being there was to get rich off of the people. They were not there to provide for the needs of those who had come pay homage to go and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Yes, they may have had the necessary "required offerings" that the law called for to sell to the worshipers to be offered as sacrifices, but these "business men" were not there for the purpose of providing these offertory gifts, but for personal gain. Jesus' approach, though it is looked upon as a violent reaction toward the sellers, it was but meeting them at the level at which they were living, and reminding them that there was something better, and more important, than personal gain. The act may have seemed abusive; in reality, it was an act of compassion. It was an act of compassion because Jesus stooped for that solitary moment to their level. And by so doing, began the cleansing and rebuilding of the house of his father.
As members of the Church of Jesus the Christ, are we not called the followers of this very same Christ? Are we not instructed in our personal ministry to emulate him? Are we not to take that same spirit of Christ and let it live in us and guide us in all that we do? Then it calls for a major change in each of us. We need to stop looking at others through our eyes, and see them as they see themselves. We need to stop looking upon the pain of others, and begin taking that pain upon ourselves so that we can begin to help them overcome that pain. We have to stop ignoring the loneliness of others, and begin feeling that loneliness so that we can bear with them in that loneliness in order to relieve it. We need to allow ourselves to be come vulnerable to all the suffering of the world, to take it upon ourselves, literally, so that we can begin the journey toward recovery and unity of spirit. We need to become filled with the compassion of Christ, for we, like all others, are just as much in need of being given compassion.
The compassion of Christ is not just for the few; it is not given out only to the just and the right or powerful; indeed, its more freely poured out upon those who are struggling and weak and sinful. That is why he had died on the cross for us; that through his taking upon himself our very nature, he could then free us from our guilt and make us whole.
Amen.