The Compassionate Life

Proper 11B; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56; St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 7/19/2015 

Jim Melnyk “The Compassionate Life”

Two weeks ago, prior to getting sidetracked by King Herod’s butchery of John the Baptist, we might recall Jesus sending his disciples out to the neighboring towns to preach, teach, and heal.  Apparently they come back excited – “Jesus, you’ll never believe all that we did and taught!  It was fantastic!”  They also come back to what sounds like a thriving ministry with people coming and going all over the place, and they feel exhausted – well, at least they’re looking tired enough that Jesus’ heart goes out to them, and he calls them away to a deserted place to rest, to hopefully get something to eat in peace, and to pray.

But there seems to be no rest for the weary in a world beset with poverty, illness, abusive kings, and occupying armies.  Before Jesus and his crew can even reach land there is a multitude of people waiting for them – and they have brought with them many who were sick and in need of healing of one kind or another.

Mark tells us that “as [Jesus] went ashore, he saw [the] great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (6:34).  And it’s easy for us to lose the power of what Mark is telling us about Jesus.  We get sidetracked about the sheep – we always love hearing about the sheep – and we miss what sounds like one simple little word: compassion.

The key concept in this passage from Mark – and the concept behind the passage in Jeremiah as well – is compassion.  Moreover, those who created our lectionary schedule for today frame the compassionate response by Jesus over and against the actions of the king and his functionaries in the days of Jeremiah, leading up to and including the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile. 

In other words, what we have today is a comparison of what it means to show compassion versus leadership which models a complete absence of compassion.  And in the days of Jeremiah, as well as the days of Jesus, it is usually the kings and their appointees – those in power – who fail the test of compassion.

But what do we mean by the word compassion, and why is it so central to how Mark understands Jesus?  Why is compassion so important in how we understand what’s going on in Jeremiah?  Compassion literally means “suffering with.”  Some define it as “feeling with,” but that definition is a bit wanting.  Compassion is more than simply “feeling with” someone – it’s more than a pat on the back and a caring, gentle “there, there.”  And it certainly has nothing to do with a “pick yourself up by your own bootstraps” or “there but for the grace of God go I” sort of mindset.  Compassion is less an emotion than it is an act tied to an emotion.  Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, although they are related.  Compassion includes a desire for action – a desire to enter into another person's place of suffering and help lead them out.

Compassion is “not only the capacity to be moved by the pain or joy of another; compassion also denotes an important source of the energy we need to respond – to right a wrong when we can, [it] not only [entails] motivation but movement” (Sally Purvis, The Dictionary of Feminist Theologies, 1996).  Compassion is relational – it involves mutuality.  Brother Vryhof of The Society of St. John the Evangelist puts it in terms of relationship.  He writes, “God does not stand outside our pain but within it, as a Companion, holding us in his arms and sharing in our grief and loss. Indeed, God has shared our suffering and knows our grief. We are not alone” (Brother, Give Us A Word, 7/15/2015). 

And so when it comes to today’s lessons we begin to realize we’re not really talking about shepherds and sheep in either Jeremiah or Mark.  We are talking about political and religious leaders who either lack compassion or who have compassion for the people.  As shepherds care for their sheep – feed them, guide them, guard them, the political and religious leaders of Israel are called to do the same for the people – they are charged with the well-being of the nation – the whole nation. 

But some shepherds have no sense of compassion – they are either looking out for themselves, or acting out of fear.  The shepherds charged with caring for Israel – both those referred to by Jeremiah and shepherds like King Herod – don’t suffer with those they are called to serve, nor do they challenge or change the systems of the day in order to alleviate the causes of suffering.  Rather, they actually participate in creating the systems that are abusive – they are actually part of the reason for the suffering!  Their lack of caring is one of the major themes addressed by the prophets throughout the Old Testament.

Jesus, on the other hand, is called the Good Shepherd, and he has compassion for those who have experienced little or no compassion in their lives.  One thing we learn about Jesus in the gospels is this: Whenever Jesus is said to be filled with compassion for anyone, that “compassion always results in concrete action: The leper is cleansed, the blind men are healed, the demoniac is exorcised, and the widow's son is raised from the dead. When Jesus has compassion for the crowd, he heals some of them, and the hungry are fed” (Dennis MacDonald, Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word, 7/15/2015, paraphrased).  There are no litmus tests – no credentialing – no “You’re not from around here, are you?” or “Do you believe what we all believe?” sorts of questions.  We come to understand the ultimate act of compassion on God’s part when we look to Jesus on the cross.  It is only then that we begin to realize the depth of what “suffering with” means in the heart of God.

At best, the danger we face as modern day Christians is mistaking sympathy or pity for compassion.  We feel bad about folks who have to work for poverty level wages, or who deal with abusive labor practices.  We hurt for people who find themselves in abusive relationships.  We feel rightfully uncomfortable when we see racism or sexism acted out in our community.  But we do little to change the systemic problems that cause that suffering.

At worst, the danger we face as modern day Christians is mistaking a heavy hand toward those in need as compassion thinking “It’s their own fault.  Therefore it’s not my problem.”  Compassion doesn’t cause suffering, nor does it leave someone in the midst of their suffering to figure it out for themselves. 

And while compassion does involves sympathy – the human ability to understand and to share the feelings of other human beings, even experiencing the same feelings within one’s own being, it also involves beneficence – that is, active well-doing on the part of the compassionate person (James F. Childress, The Westminster Dictionary of Ethics, 1986).  Compassion is getting down in the muddy, thorn-infested ditch with a person and helping them find a way out. 

Perhaps the question we have to ask ourselves has something to do with how we model the compassion that Jesus lived.  Jesus proclaimed a gospel of wholeness.  Jesus fed those who were hungry – whether that hunger resided in their spirits or in their bellies.  Jesus touched people and brought healing.  Jesus called for systems to change in ways that would recognize and honor the image of God in all people. 

What are the implications of modeling our own understandings and expressions of compassion upon Jesus’ compassion?

·         Modeling the compassion he showed for the disciples who needed rest,

·         Modeling the compassion he showed for the crowd who needed healing and who needed to be fed,

·         Even modeling the compassion he showed for those who conspired in his death and nailed him to a cross?  “Father, forgive them….”

How would modeling such compassion change the face of our communities?  Our nation and the world?

Where are we being called to show compassion in our families?  Where are we being called to show compassion in our communities? Where are we being called to show compassion in the wider world around us – a world that might not know that we at St. Paul’s even exist? 

Where are we feeling tempted to say, “there, there” and quickly turn away?  Where are we tempted to say, “take care of it yourself, it’s not my problem?”  I suspect it’s the places that make us feel the most uncomfortable that might actually be beckoning to us – calling for us to model the compassion of Christ in our lives. 

As Jesus came ashore he saw the great crowd: women and men, old and young, fellow Jews as well as gentiles, wealthy and poor, sick and whole; and Jesus had compassion for them all.  We look all around us.  We look at the person in the next pew.  We look at our families, our friends and our neighbors.  We look beyond the doors of this place of worship and we see the stranger among us: women and men, old and young, fellow Christians as well as people of other faiths, wealthy and poor, sick and whole, the many nationalities that comprise our communities; and we – we have compassion for…?