In times of trial like our current coronavirus pandemic, one of the truths that most strengthens me is not just God’s sovereignty but God’s compassion towards those who suffer. Though my mind may not be able to grasp the reason for God allowing this pandemic, my brain can grasp the overwhelming proof of God’s compassionate nature in Scripture. This episode zooms in to view that evidence and in so doing seeks empower us to lead the way in our homes and churches in expressing that same compassion to the hurting, frightened, needy people who are all around us.
The, apostle, John, was Jesus’ closest friend. John later realized that his friendship with Jesus not only let him get to know Jesus; it let him get to know… GOD. John would later write, No one has ever seen God; but God, the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known (John 1:18). Whenever we wonder what God is really like, we need only look at Jesus. So, here are some video clips of Jesus:
Mark 1:41-42. And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” clean.” Moved with COMPASSION, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
This incident reveals something to us about Jesus’ heart. Jesus “was filled with compassion.” The Greek word is SPLANCHNIZOMAI, which means, to be moved as to one’s inwards (splanchna), to be inwardly moved with compassion. We might say, “Jesus responded viscerally to the leper’s plight; it was gut-wrenching for him.”
Let’s zoom in even more. Webster defines compassion as, tender sorrow for one in distress or misery along with an urgent desire to give aid. I can’t speak for others, but this characteristic of Jesus powerfully draws me to him. No matter what the cause of my distress or misery, Jesus feels that pain as if it were a gut punch to him! And there is a lot of spiritual, emotional, and physical distress out there these days.
1. There is spiritual distress.
- not understanding why God allows so much suffering through COVID 19
- not understanding unanswered prayers
- not understanding why the gospel and Christianity don’t seem to be prevailing in the world around us, when Scripture talks so much about the kingdom spreading through the power of the resurrection
- the spiritual distress of failing Christ so often
2. There is emotional distress brought on by:
- singleness and social distancing
- cabin fever
- so much uncertainty about the future
- financial pressure from bills
- the fear of getting, or our loved ones getting, the coronavirus
- not doing what we were created to do--work
3. There is physical distress caused by:
- increasing physical frailty
- physical aches and pains that we must just live with
- diseases including COVID 19, and possible death
Jesus is my Great High Priest, who not only sympathizes with my weaknesses; his compassion means that he is inwardly moved by MY distress. That fact draws me to him! Let’s continue with some quick video clips of that compassion in action.
Luke 7:12-14. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had COMPASSION on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
Mark 6:34. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had COMPASSION on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
Matt 20:29-34. And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” Moved with COMPASSION, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.
Matt 14:13-14. Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt COMPASSION for them and healed their sick.
In this last example, it appears that Jesus tried to get away by himself to process his thinking and feelings about the execution of his cousin, John the Baptizer. Who knows how this trauma impacted him emotionally, as he must have thought of his future death at the hands of Rome? Yet, tirelessly compassionate, Jesus felt the distress of the sick and stopped to heal them. God, himself, has come in the flesh and revealed to us what He is really like. What we see is not a God whose eternal vision looks right past our human suffering. To the contrary, he not only notices our pain; he is inwardly moved with compassion by our distress—even though that very distress was caused by our races’ revolt against his authority. He may not always remove our distress, allowing it only long enough to build our character—but what a joy to know that God’s gut reaction to us, whenever we are in pain is tender sorrow over our distress. He always feels our hurt with us.
CALLED TO BE COMPASSIONATE, GODLY MEN
The same Greek word that describes Jesus’ compassion, SPLANCHNIZOMAI, is also used in Jesus’ teaching about what it means to love our neighbors. This fact is striking to me because this Greek word that means “being inwardly moved with compassion” is about FEELINGS—which men are notoriously bad at. It is not politically correct to say it, but there is a big difference between estrogen and testosterone, and testosterone is not exactly known for producing compassion! Yet, there is no denying that Christ-like compassion begins with FEELING inwardly moved by another’s distress. Let’s look at the classic teaching of Jesus on loving our neighbor because we feel compassion. .
But he (the lawyer), desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he HAD COMPASSION. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37).
A Danger To Avoid
The lawyer who asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor” was asking the wrong question. If he were sincere, he would have asked, not, "Who Is My Neighbor," but “How do I love my neighbor?” The lawyer’s question was an attempt to limit his responsibility to love. Jesus saw the hard-hearted, selfish attitude of the lawyer, so he held up a mirror for the lawyer to see himself in two examples of uncaring, self-centered preoccupation, the priest and the Levite.
I suspect that 99% of us who read this parable are confident that unlike the priest and Levite, WE would have stopped to help. That may be because we don’t know what Jesus’ hearers knew about the Jerusalem-Jericho road, which was notoriously dangerous. It was extremely steep, virtually uninhabited, and contained sharp bends marked by limestone cliffs and gulleys on both sides. Travelers were easy prey for thieves. Furthermore, bandits were in the habit of using decoys. One of their number would act the part of a wounded man. And when some unsuspecting traveler would stoop over him, the others would rush upon him and overpower him. The truth is that it was easy to just assume the man was dead and not risk stopping to find out—especially for a priest and Levite, who were forbidden from touching a dead body. Dr. Kistemaker, in his book, The Parables of Jesus, explains:
The priest and presumably Levite were on their way home from temple service in Jerusalem. By law, they were not allowed to touch a corpse. Should they transgress the injunction, they would inconvenience themselves socially (by being unclean), financially (by paying burial costs), and professionally (by being barred from priestly and Levitical services).
The priest and Levite demonstrate two opposites of having compassion. They are: 1) self-preoccupation—being so self-absorbed that we don’t notice the needs of others, and 2) being hard hearted—we notice but just don’t care enough to do anything. God convicted me severely of both this past Wednesday—concerning my brothers and sisters in Christ who are in New York City. (I live in MD so NYC is closer than Washington State, CA, or New Orleans.) I saw the image of a refrigerator semi at the loading dock of a hospital in Queens where dead bodies from the coronavirus we being stacked because the morgue was full. Of course, my wife and I have been praying for the country about the virus. But I thought, “How can you be satisfied to throw up a few prayers—a few minutes a day—when your brothers and sisters are working 16 hour days as nurses and doctors, putting their lives at risk while some of their loved ones are dying? How can you NOT BE INTERCEDING for them much, much more? That night I downloaded a list of all of our denomination’s churches in the NY Metro area and prayed for their elders and members, and the pastors and pastor’s wives by name--just something small from my life that God used as a striking revelation to me of my self-absorption. How easy, unlike Jesus, to look right past the distress and misery of so many others. Compassion is tender sorrow for one in distress or misery along with an urgent desire to give aid.
An Example To Follow
The example of the Good Samaritan’s compassion is well worth hours of meditation. Here are just three take-aways.
1) We must have compassion even when another’s suffering might be his own fault. It is just a parable, but the traveler in the story was likely foolhardy and reckless. People in Jesus day seldom attempted to travel the Jerusalem to Jericho road alone, especially if they were carrying goods or valuables. How easy it might have been for the priest or Levite to think, “This fool got what he deserved," and quote Prov 10:21 to himself, Fools die for lack of sense. We are not called to enable dysfunctional behavior, or rescue others from the painful consequences of bad choices. But Christians, above all others, must be full of mercy—giving unmerited compassion to anyone in our path who suffers.
2) Compassion can never be limited to “insiders.” The fact that a Samaritan was the hero of the story was not lost on Jesus’ Jewish audience. By making the Samaritan, the one who kept the moral law, Jesus deliberately provoked the xenophobic anger of his fellow Jews. NT scholar, Simon Kistemaker, writes:
The Jew lived in a circular world: at the center was himself surrounded by his immediate relatives, then his kinsmen, and finally the circle of all those who claimed Jewish descent and who were converts to Judaism. The word, neighbor, has a reciprocal meaning: he is a brother to me and I to him. Thus, the circle is one of self-interest…. The lines were carefully drawn to ensure the well-being of those who were inside and to deny help from those who were outside (The Parables of Jesus).
Today’s Christians, especially those who are part of the majority culture, must strenuously press each other to be compassionate to their particular culture’s outsiders. Kistemaker continues: The parable is not a story of someone who did a good deed as if he were a member of the Boy Scouts. It is an indictment against anyone who has raised protective barriers in order to live a sheltered life. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is a command that reaches out beyond the circle of friends and fellow Christians we meet on a regular basis. It is a call to show mercy to all the unfortunate people lying beside the Jericho road of human life.
3) Compassion starts with FEELINGS but results in ACTION. I said earlier that two opposites of compassion are self-preoccupation and hard-heartedness. A third opposite, I would call self-deception, i.e. thinking you are compassionate because you ache for other people in pain but not actually DOING anything about it when you have the chance. No doubt the priest and Levite felt a pang of pity for the bleeding man as they passed him by. In contrast, the Samaritan is a case study in how true compassion results in actual, costly, practical assistance when possible; not merely feeling sorry for another. What a picture of Christ-like compassion in action.
During this difficult pandemic, may we men keep filling our emotional tanks with Jesus’ compassion for our distress of every kind and renew our commitment to lead our homes and churches well with compassionate hearts—both feeling the distress of those around us and doing what we can about it.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
1. How does thinking about Jesus’ compassionate nature affect your walk w/ him?
2. How can you avoid the opposite of compassion—being so preoccupied with ourselves that we walk right past hurting people?
3. What can you learn about compassion from the practical steps the Samaritan took to care for the wounded traveler.
