Loving, Caring Christians

Introduction – When the Heart Grows Numb

Our text comes from the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah stands amid the ruins of Jerusalem and cries,

> “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!

How like a widow is she who once was great among the nations…

All her people groan as they search for bread…

‘Look, O Lord, and consider, for I am despised. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?’”

Picture it – smoke rising from broken walls, toys of children scattered in the rubble, and the prophet weeping as people step around the devastation without a tear. They saw, but they didn’t feel. Their hearts had gone cold.

Jeremiah’s question is the same one the Holy Spirit still whispers to His people:

“Is it nothing to you?”

Is it nothing when a child goes to bed hungry?

Is it nothing when a neighbor’s marriage collapses?

Is it nothing when souls drift from Christ and no one notices?

The book of Lamentations is more than ancient history; it’s a mirror for our generation. We live surrounded by headlines and images of pain – and like those who walked past Jerusalem’s ruins, we risk becoming observers instead of intercessors.

So the proposition of this message is simple but searching:

> If we are children of God – if we claim to follow Jesus – then we must be loving, caring people.

Everything that follows turns on that one truth.

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I. THE WORLD IS FULL OF UNCARING HEARTS

It doesn’t take long to find them. Every newsfeed scrolls with stories of cruelty, neglect, and apathy. But the danger isn’t only “out there.” The greater danger is that indifference moves quietly into our hearts and takes up residence behind a smile.

Sometimes we stop caring because caring hurts. When we open our hearts to another’s pain, we feel their ache. So we build emotional armor. We call it “boundaries,” or “being realistic.” Yet Jeremiah’s voice cuts through every excuse: “Is it nothing to you?”

A Modern Scene

I once read about a woman who drowned in Lake Michigan while people on shore watched. They said the water was too cold. The rescue squad pulled her body from the waves, and their explanation was almost clinical: “The water was too cold.”

That phrase still chills me. Sometimes the water isn’t the only thing cold.

Why We Grow Numb

Part of our numbness is exposure. Viktor Frankl, survivor of Nazi concentration camps, wrote that when a person witnesses endless suffering, something inside begins to shut down: “You murder your emotions to survive.”

We scroll through famine, war, disaster, and eventually compassion fatigue sets in. We’ve cried all the tears we can cry. So we build distance. But the gospel calls us the opposite direction – to draw near, not withdraw.

Jesus never avoided pain. He walked straight toward lepers, outcasts, and crosses. The closer He came to suffering, the more love flowed through Him. To follow Him is to choose the same road.

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II. CARING COSTS SOMETHING

Caring is beautiful, but it is never cheap.

The Good Samaritan

Jesus told a story about a traveler who was beaten and left for dead. A priest and a Levite – religious men – passed by on the other side. They were on schedule. They had clean hands and full pockets. It cost them nothing to keep walking.

But a Samaritan stopped. He gave his time, his oil, his wine, his donkey, and his coins. It cost him his reputation – maybe his next appointment – but it bought another man’s life.

Only one character in that story is called good.

Love always carries a receipt. It will cost us time, comfort, convenience, sometimes reputation. But it’s the only currency that matters in the Kingdom.

Dawson Trotman

Many years ago, Dawson Trotman – founder of The Navigators – was boating on a lake when two young women fell overboard. He dove in, lifted one to safety, went back for the other, and never surfaced. Time Magazine later wrote: “He was always lifting somebody else up.”

That’s what it means to live like Christ. Sometimes caring costs everything. But whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake shall find it.

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III. WHEN GOOD PEOPLE DO NOTHING, EVIL GAINS GROUND

C. S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, imagines Satan telling a junior devil:

> “Don’t waste time making people bad. Just keep good people comfortable. If they do nothing, we’ll have all the help we need.”

It’s chilling how accurate that sounds in every generation. The devil doesn’t need us to hate – just to ignore.

William Wilberforce fought slavery in Parliament for decades. The first two votes failed. On the night of the third attempt – when victory was finally within reach – twelve supporters skipped the vote to attend a new comic opera in London. The bill lost 74 to 70. Twelve people’s apathy prolonged human misery for years.