“The Imperative of Compassion”
Matthew 9:35-10:8
Allen Huff
Jonesborough Presbyterian Church
6/18/17
Listen again
to Matthew 9:36. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because
they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
When Jesus sees the crowds, when he
gazes at them, listens to them, when he physically, emotionally, and spiritually
enters their “harassed and helpless” world, he has “compassion for them.” In The Message, that line reads, “his heart
broke.”
Matthew 9:36
doesn’t just chronicle one moment in Jesus’ life. It reveals the very heart of
God. To me, that one particular verse is For
God so loved the world…, I have come that you might have life…, and Father
forgive them all rolled into one.
Jesus reveals
that God’s heart overflows with compassion for the Creation. Compassion means to suffer with. True compassion permeates
and surrounds suffering. And that’s what Jesus does. It’s who he is as God
Incarnate. In Jesus of Nazareth, God enters the nitty-gritty of the Creation,
the dullness, the joy, the suffering – all of it – just to say, I see you. I love you. And I am always with
you, in your suffering as well as your celebration.
Now, the
compassion of God in Christ has a caveat. And that caveat does nothing at all
to limit or diminish grace. Indeed, that caveat invites us to experience and to
participate in the fullness of God’s grace.
After looking
at all these folks who suffer, whose needs for healing and hope far outweigh
their resources and abilities, Jesus speaks to his disciples. And I would
paraphrase is comment this way:
The
time is at hand! There is deep readiness in the world to see and hear what God
is revealing. But right now, there aren’t enough folks who are driven by
compassion. Too many are motivated by greed and fear. They’re driven by a
desire to conquer and control. The wealthy and powerful of the world view
suffering as weakness, so they thoughtlessly overlook and abuse those who
suffer. So, pray with me, says Jesus.
Let’s ask God to send people of compassion into the world to be with those who
suffer, to feed them, to clothe them, to heal them, to cry and to laugh with
them, to love them.
Maybe the
disciples see it coming. Maybe they don’t. But when Jesus asks them to pray for
laborers in the harvest, he expects them to do more than sit still and shut
their eyes while they “have a prayer.” Disciples don’t just pray for help.
Disciples don’t just entertain thoughts about how much need exists. Disciples
are those who live as answers to
those prayers. That’s the caveat. When Jesus tells the disciples to pray for
laborers, he is calling them into the harvest. He is challenging them to
embrace the knee-buckling burden of discipleship by going out and embodying God’s
compassion and Love for the Creation.
At the end of
the Prayers of the People, I often ask
God to help us not only to acknowledge people and situations in need of prayer,
but to go and be with those folks, to enter those situations personally. Sure, we
often pray for people who are far away, for people already well-attended by
family, or for situations beyond our immediate influence. The extent of our
involvement in many of those individual lives and wider circumstances is often
limited. But remember the historical Jesus. He lived in one very specific and
long-ago place. Given his temporal limitations, he did all he could possibly do.
As Jesus’ disciples, we are the expansion of those limits. As people shaped by
the gifts of Easter and Pentecost, we have the authority of Jesus’ fearless
compassion and his eternal Spirit. His work is God’s work. So, our work is his
work.
A North
Carolina friend of mine recently shared the story of a brief encounter she had
while sitting in a waiting room. In that waiting room, a talking head on TV delivered
a news report. A woman sitting next to my friend became agitated, even angry.
She began to talk with my friend. The two quickly realized that they had very different
political opinions.
“Maybe we
should pick another subject,” my friend said. The other woman agreed. They
talked about kids and grandkids, instead. In that conversation, my friend
learned that this woman had a grandson who had been killed in a car accident.
Just one year ago. On the day he graduated from high school.
My friend said
that the conversation “ended with a hug.”
“I know this doesn’t address
political differences,” she said, “but it certainly made us both feel better
toward one another.”
Isn’t that the point? To see a
human being and not an opinion?
More and more
in our culture, we are nurturing and even depending on a kind of pathological
need to win, to be “right,” to gain some ideological upper hand. In an age of
suspicion and vengeance, when meeting someone for the first time, we tend to wonder,
“What are this person’s political views? What’s his or her theology?” A
relationship that begins with those questions has the chance of becoming a
friendship only if the two people discover that they’re on the same side of
some aisle.
When relationships start with the
humanizing question, “What’s your story?”, they can begin with compassion and
understanding. Even if it’s one-sided, the people involved have a greater
chance to move toward gratitude and generosity and away from judgment and competition.
I think that’s
what discipleship is all about. Jesus calls and empowers us to be instigators
of compassion. That means taking the initiative to be people of grace with and
for the people around us. That’s not easy. It takes practice. It takes
discipline to live according to the ways and means of grace. That’s why people
who do so are called disciples. They
practice the disciplines of compassion, patience, forgiveness, justice,
gratitude, and generosity.
It sounds
strange, but when Jesus sends his disciples out, he tells then not to go to the
Gentiles or Samaritans. “Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he
says. I hear Jesus saying not to venture too far from home – not just yet. Speak first to those who share
your history, who speak your faith language. Practice with them. Some of them
may even join you in spreading compassion.
Friends, a “harassed
and helpless” creation cries out for disciplined, heart-broken voices. Suffering
and compassion are being dismissed as weaknesses to be exploited by those who
hold power, and by those who are fearful of and angry at those who do. Jesus is
calling us to be different, to live in our particular place and time according
to the imperative of compassion. It really doesn’t matter what side of an aisle
we’re on. Wherever we are, disciples are called to be guided not by platforms
and party lines, but by empathic Love for all humankind and for the earth
itself.
Whenever we feel pressured to act
without compassion, or to justify words that tear down rather than build up, as
disciples of Jesus, we must acknowledge that we are being tempted to follow
something other than Jesus. We must learn the humbling discipline of sucking up
our pride, of reining in our egos, of resisting the craving for any victory that
comes at the expense of Love.
“The kingdom of heaven has come
near,” says Jesus. For the sake of
others, live in God’s kingdom of compassion. If you do, you will find fellow
travelers to keep you company, to keep you motivated.
And
if you don’t – if we don’t – who will?
