Edit — Compassion

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Body: Luke 10:25-37 Who in the community most needs the love of Jesus right now? Maybe the first name that came to mind was your own. Maybe the first name that came to mind was of a dear friend, or of an acquaintance, or of someone whose name you don’t know, but you can tell by the ways their eyes are a bit sunken, or the way their back droops, that all is not right, that very little is right. Maybe you expanded community, and gave it wider bounds, and you pictured in your head that person who is homeless, guarding their grocery cart, mumbling to themselves. Maybe you pictured someone in the news. Maybe you pictured a refugee, or a prisoner, or someone lying in a hospital bed. The truth is that there is always, always someone in our midst who needs the love of Jesus, and since Jesus isn’t immediately here, we become Jesus’ stand-ins. We save the world – or make it a little better – we change the world – one life at time, offering compassion when suffering shows up. Read Luke 10-25-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan Compassion, then, requires us to draw on something other than our instinct and impulse. It requires that we stop, and put on different glasses, and see a person or a situation differently. It requires that we acknowledge the presence of suffering that is the common thread of our humanity. And it requires that, frankly, we get over ourselves and our opinions and our self-righteousness. The opposite is true, too – lack of suffering can lead to a lack of compassion. Two psychologists from California ran several studies to see if social class affected a person’s ability and willingness to care about someone else. The results of all the studies led them to the same conclusion: social class does affect the ability and willingness to be compassionate. They concluded that wealth and abundance give a sense of freedom and independence from others. The less a person has to rely on someone else, the less that person will care about another. But we are called by God to a different way of living. The late Henri Nouwen reminds us, “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the 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 with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” I’m pretty good at thinking of ways other people can be compassionate. Maybe you share that gift with me. I think it’s pretty easy for us to look around at the world, or the neighborhood or the school or even here at church and watch people make choices that don’t appear to be based on love or care or concern. But that is not the point. The point is for us, as a faith community and as individuals, to constantly seek out ways to be compassionate. Will we get tired of it? Yes. For most of us, our first instinct is not to be compassionate. There is a biological urge to protect oneself and one’s resources. When you start practicing compassion, you realize you will never stop, because suffering is ever-present. It gets overwhelming. But perhaps it is as Mother Teresa described: “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” Maybe our compassion will, over time, begin to outweigh suffering. Real ministry shows compassion that flows from one heart to another. The story is told of General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, and the day Queen Victoria of England asked to meet with him. Because she had heard so many favorable things about his work in the slums, she asked him for the secret of his success. “Your Majesty,” he replied, “Some men have a passion for money. Some people have a passion for things. I have a passion for people.” (Source Unknown) Real ministry shows compassion that flows from one heart to another. It is true that the deepest theology ever written comes from the apostle Paul’s pen but his writings changed the world because they first touched the human heart. Many years ago, a survivor of a Nazi death camp wrote these embittered words: *"Here's to a world that did not care. To those who had eyes but would not see. To those who had ears but would not hear. To those who had voices but would not speak."* Let me ask you a number of questions: When it comes to the people around you, how well do you see? How well do you hear? Do you speak out on the behalf of others? Do you care about people who have been wounded by life and are hurting? Or do you have blinders on that limit the scope of your vision? These are the questions we must ask ourself this morning as we consider this part of Christian Character—Compassion. Our text this morning comes from perhaps the most well-known parable that Jesus ever told—The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Like every story that Jesus tells, he tells it within a context of something that is going on around him. The background for this parable is found just a few verses earlier in the chapter. Luke 10:25 *"And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"* A Jewish lawyer was one who would have been well-versed in the Old Testament Books of Moses and Jewish religious law. He knew the Jewish Bible backwards and forwards. He’s one smart man! The lawyer asks a reasonable question: *“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”* This guy is not interested in discovering truth. He is interested in having a debate. Jesus answers the question by pointing him back to the law: Luke 10:26-28 *"**Jesus replied, “What does the law**of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “You must love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will**live."* Jesus tells us in Matthew 22 that these two commandments—to love God with every fiber of your being, and to love your neighbor as yourself—are the two greatest commandments and that the whole law hangs on obeying them. But, the lawyer is not finished. The Bible says, in an effort to justify himself, he asks, “OK, just who is my neighbor?” He uses an old debating technique often used by one who is losing or afraid of losing the argument. He demands of Jesus; “Define your terms! What do you mean by ‘neighbor’?” And of course, the lawyer knows the answer to that question: His neighbors are people just like him. They’re people that he likes and who like him in return. They’re people who look like him, and think like him, and act like him, and worship the same God he does. With a smile of smug satisfaction—thinking he is about to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place—he asks the question, *“Who is my neighbor?”* He should have quit while he was ahead! It is at this point that Jesus tells a story that leaves the lawyer—and everyone else in the crowd amazed: *“A**Jewish**man w**as traveling**from Jerusalem to Jericho . . . “* What does the parable teach us about compassion? We cannot ignore a hurting World! This poem appeared in Dimension Magazine some years ago: I need a truer vision, Lord. A vision filled with Thee. To see the needy world again. With eyes willing to see. A world where people are hurting. And hungry every day, A world that’s ready and waiting. To hear what You would say. I need a wider vision, Lord, A vision filled with Thee. To see that lonely woman, down the street from me. The teenager that’s all mixed up, The child who’s been abused, The day-to-day cares in my neighborhood. Lord, I want to be used. Give me a new vision, Lord. A vision filled with Thee. To see the world and my neighborhood, As Your eyes would see. Help me use my gifts, dear Lord, in ways that glorify You, To act with loving kindness, Toward those with a different view. A truer, wider, new vision Lord. That’s what I need, To carry out your commands, in word and thought and deed. We are surrounded in our culture by wounded travelers. Everywhere you look, people are plagued with hardship, despair and discouragement - some are struck with injuries or illnesses that debilitate them and cause physical pain - some are dealing with the stigma and scars of emotional pain from a divorce, abuse, or abortion - some are living in the darkness of addiction and the inability to cope with certain temptations - some live in spiritual confusion The mission of the church—and that translates into the mission of believers—is to reach out with hope to a hurting world. With infinite love and compassion our Lord understood the human predicament. Jesus had deep empathy for people; he saw their needs he saw their weaknesses he saw their desires and he saw their hurts Jesus was concerned about people. Every miracle he performed, He did so because he saw a need in some person’s life. His concern was always to uplift and never to tear down, to heal and never hurt. This is what the church today needs to emulate and model. We must develop a heart of compassion. Compassion is hard because it requires us to go with others to the place where they are weak, and vulnerable, and lonely, and broken—the places we don’t want to be. A farmer was out plowing his fields one spring morning. The spring thaw had just occurred and there were many muddy areas in the field. In one particularly wet place the tractor became stuck in the mud. The harder the farmer tried, the deeper he buried his tractor. Finally, he walked over to his neighbors to ask for help. “Orlo,” he said, “Can ya help me out? My tractor’s stuck in the mud.” The neighbor went over and looked at the situation. He shook his head, and said, ‘It doesn't look good, but I tell you what. I'll give it a try pulling you out. But if we don't get it out, I'll come sit in the mud with ya!’" Sometimes compassion is just sitting in the mud with someone. The third man to come upon the injured traveler was a Samaritan. At the very mention of the word, you would have undoubtedly heard the crowd that Jesus was speaking to gasp! All good Jews knew that Samaritans were the bad guys. The Samaritan is the truly merciful person of the story. - he had a compassionate heart, a helping hand, and unlimited concern - he gave up personal comfort, physical energy, and valuable time Most of us measure our degree of compassion by what it will cost us. We quickly compute in our minds the cost-to-caring ratio and if the cost is too high we’ll choose not to get involved. This is what the priest and Levite did. However, they lost far more by their neglect than the Samaritan did by his concern. They lost the opportunity to become better men and good stewards of what God had given them. They could have been a good influence in a bad world, but they chose to fold their arms complacently, smile benignly, and say somewhat sarcastically, *“Ask me if I care!”* Jesus Christ sets the model for active compassion for us to follow. - *“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”* (Matthew 9:36, NIV84) This must be our attitude as we look upon a society of helpless and hurting people. Practical love is love that goes into the world and finds people where people are in life. Practical love goes the extra mile with no hesitation. Practical love goes into the world where the rubber meets the road. Practical love can take many forms and appear in many different ways: - practical love is seen in the soup kitchen as food is given to the hungry - practical love is shown when we enter the hospital room of the sick - practical love is revealed when we weep with those who have just lost a loved one - practical love is shown when we sit in the mud with a friend who is stuck The Samaritan had no compelling interest in this stranger. There was no logical reason for a Samaritan to stop and help a Jew. Jews hated Samaritans and Samaritans pretty much reciprocated by hating Jews back. Here then, is the central point of the parable ... It is not *“Who is my neighbor”?* It is *”To whom can I show compassion?”* If you’re going to develop a heart of compassion, you too will have to show sympathy, be supportive, and sometimes even sacrificial with your time and resources. The dictionary meaning of compassion is a *"feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by suffering or misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain or remove its cause"* Compassion was a significant part of Jesus’ ministry. It must be a significant part of ours. An anonymous author once penned these words: - I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and discussed my hunger. - I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release. - I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. - I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health. - I was homeless and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. - I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me. - You seem so close to God; but I am still very hungry, and lonely, and cold. Now finishing up with the words of Jesus: vv. 36-37 *“**Now which**of these three would you say was a neighbor of the man who was attacked by the bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the sam**e.”**s*

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