Luke 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.
There lived in India a well-known poet named Tagore. One morning his servant was late coming to work. Tagore became more angry by the minute as he waited for him to arrive. Finally, the servant came in and began his duties. Tagore had already decided to fire him. He said, "Stop what you are doing and get out. You are fired." The man kept sweeping and said, "My little girl died last night."
This incident points up one of the great needs in the world today - the need for compassion. Compassion has been defined as "sorrow for the sufferings of another, with the urge to help." But, we have cheapened the word. When we hear the word "compassion," we really think of pity - and we hear such nauseating phrases as "pity the fool." Pity is not worth a plug nickle. It was pity that caused one man praying in the temple to say, self-righteously, "I am thankful I’m not like that man over there."
Compassion Defined
No, we do not need any more pity. We have had enough of that. What the world longs for is compassion. George Buttrick, in The Interpreter’s Bible, wrote that the word we translate as "compassion" is a much stronger word, meaning "the pain of love." That’s it. Compassion is the pain of love. Compassion means to suffer with another person. The word has a strong personal element. To have compassion means more than just feeling sorry for somebody. It means to get down where they are in the midst of their need and to suffer with them in the midst of their pain. When Noah Webster published An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828, he began his definition of compassion this way: “A suffering with another; painful sympathy.”
Painful sympathy.
I like that, but I find it very challenging.
We are a nation that is deeply divided. We disagree with each other and often we don’t trust each other. Across the political spectrum we are beginning to realize that what is wrong with America is moral and spiritual. I think people are beginning to see that it is going to take more than money to rebuild our cities and our homes, our families and marriages, and to preserve our children into the next generation.
We need a new birth of compassion.
As an illustration of this “painful sympathy,” Noah Webster quotes Luke 15:20, “His father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him." That verse is very significant because it shows us that compassion is more than just a feeling. It’s not just an emotion. It’s more than feeling sorry for people in trouble. Biblical compassion means that you see the problem, you are moved by the need, you go out to where the problem is, and you get your hands dirty trying to help one person after another get their problems solved and raise them up to a higher level of life.
We see this in a number of places in the life of Christ.
Matthew 14:14 tells us that Jesus had compassion on the great crowd following him so he healed the sick and then fed the 5000.
We need more “Painful Sympathy"
Matthew 15:32 says that Jesus felt the same compassion on another crowd and so fed the 4000.
When Jesus saw the two blind men of Jericho, Matthew 20:34 tells us that he was filled with compassion and healed them on the spot.
Mark 1:40-41 offers the most telling example of what compassion meant to our Lord Jesus.
“A leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
Here is the most shocking part of that text: Jesus touched a leper!
Jesus touched a leper!
In doing that, he broke all the customs and rules of that day. According to the Old Testament, if you had leprosy, you were unclean. People were so scared of lepers that they made them live in a colony away from the rest of society so they would not contaminate anyone else. But when Jesus saw the man with leprosy, he was so moved that he reached out and touched him.
Please understand something. For our Lord Jesus Christ, compassion was not a feeling; it was a commitment to get involved with hurting people. Real compassion is more than a feeling. Real compassion moves from feeling to action.
Compassion Illustrated
We are used to thinking of Jesus as the Son of God, and so he was. But I call to your attention what the Apostle Peter said in Acts 10:38 as his one-sentence summary of Jesus’ ministry:
“He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
How’s that for the earthly life of Christ?
"He went about doing good.”
We need a new birth of compassion.
Short, concise, right to the point.
Most of us would not react kindly if someone called us a “do-gooder,” but the original “do-gooder” was our Lord Jesus Christ.
One day a man came to see our Lord with a curious question:
“Who is my neighbor?"
In one sense, that question seems to answer itself. Just look around. Your neighbors are all around you. They live on your street, you go to school with them, you shop at the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, you drive the same streets they do, you work with your neighbors, and you see them when you go to church.
Your neighbors are all around you
Simple answer, or so it would seem. But buried within it is a deeper theological question. All the Jews knew that God commanded his people to love him with a whole heart. But Leviticus 19:18 adds an important application:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
If loving God is hard, loving your neighbor is equally hard but in a different way, especially when you add those last two words, “as yourself.” So the question comes, “Who is my neighbor?” In answer to this important question, Jesus told a story that we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).
Jesus said there once was a man on the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho. Thieves fell upon him, beat him, stripped him, robbed him, and left him for dead. And before too long a priest, a minister of God, came by, saw the poor man lying there, and the priest walked on the other side so he wouldn’t have to get involved. He had to get to the temple. A few minutes later a Levite came by, a theologian, a Doctor of Theology, a student of God’s word, a man who was supposed to know the character of God. When that Levite saw the poor man lying by the side of the road, he crossed to the other side so he wouldn’t have to bother with him. He was already late for his weekly Torah discussion group.
Soon after that came a Samaritan. When Jesus says that, he was talking about a despised group. The Jews hated the Samaritans. They would never say anything good about them. But Jesus said this half-breed, hated Samaritan came along and saw that poor man lying there. When he found out that he was still alive, he took his wine and poured it on his wounds. He dressed his wounds, picked the man up, put him on his donkey, took him up to the inn, paid the proprietor, stayed the night with the man, and the next morning he took money out of his own pocket, gave it to the inn keeper saying, “If there is more, I’ll settle the bill when I come back later.”
Let me make two observations about this story. First, what this Samaritan did was truly above and beyond normal human obligations. Today if we saw a beaten man lying by the road, we would first call 911 and then do what we could while we waited for help to arrive. But there were no EMTs on the treacherous road winding through the mountains from Jerusalem down to Jericho. If this man were to survive, the Samaritan would have to take the whole burden on himself.
Either he got involved or the man died.
There were no other options.
Seen in that light, many of us might have hesitated. After all, we’ve got things to do, places to go, people to see. I don’t know anyone who isn’t busy these days. The demands of life lie heavily on all of us.
In order to be compassionate, at the very least, we need to be sensitive to the suffering of others. Some people's hearts have become hardened. A number of years ago a television company ran an investigation into the allegation that certain ambulance companies would not transport apparently poor people to hospitals without payment up front. The television production team called an ambulance company and asked them to send a team to a staged emergency. When the ambulance team arrived, they found a shabbily dressed middle-aged man lying on the floor of an apartment, his eyes closed, writhing in pain, gasping desperately for air. The driver and attendant looked on impassively. "He's gotta have 38 bucks, or we don't take him," one of them snapped to the stricken man's roommate. Pointing to two one-dollar bills on the kitchen table, the roommate pleaded: "That's all I can find. But he's got a job, and he's good for the money." This wasn't good enough for the ambulance team. Visibly annoyed, the attendants helped the roommate prop the victim in a kitchen chair. Then they departed, but not before one of them pocketed the two dollars from the table.1 Those who are so hardened to the suffering of another certainly invite our contempt.
Fortunately, most people are capable of more compassion than that. Mencius, a Chinese philosopher who lived several hundred years before Christ, and was eager to show that there is good in everyone, said, "All people have a capacity for compassion. If people see a child about to fall into a well, they will, without exception, experience a feeling of alarm and distress. This is not because they know the child's parents, nor out of desire for praise ... nor out of dislike for the bad reputation that would ensue if they did not go to the rescue. From this we may conclude that without compassion one would not be a human being." Mencius was right to say that compassion is a component of true humanity, but alas, recent wars have shown us that there are also those who would as soon throw a child into a well as to pull one out. Some people are so self-occupied that they don't even notice those who are suffering.
The word "compassion" means to "suffer with." Throughout his ministry, Jesus involved himself in the sufferings of others. Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, and taught the ignorant. He put his hand out and touched lepers. Even Sunday school children know the shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept," which reminds us that Jesus not only saw, but entered into the sorrows of others.
So why did the Samaritan get involved when the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side?
It’s not a matter of busyness nor is it a matter of preparation. I suppose one could argue that his background as an outcast made him more likely to respond to human need. That’s possible, and it may in fact be true, but Jesus does not stress that point.
The priest had no idea that morning about the man by the side of the road.
Neither did the Levite.
Neither did the Samaritan.
All we know is that his compassion moved him to action. At that particular moment, this particular Samaritan saw this particular man robbed, beaten and left for dead, and he decided to get involved. We need not ask what he would have done if he had seen 10 men lying by the road or if he had seen 100 men robbed, beaten, and left for dead.
He cared enough to help the man he actually did see. That’s all that matters.
No One Can Do It All
There is a second point to notice. The Samaritan could not have known what he was getting himself into. I’ve already noted that few of us would have done what he did. But don’t miss the point. When he saw this man by the road, he evidently didn’t do a mental calculation and say, “I’m going to end up paying for this man’s hotel bill.” That would come somewhere down the road. As a practical matter, he couldn’t have known what was required. The only decision he had to make was, “Should I get involved or should I pass by on the other side of the road?"
We rarely know what compassion will demand of us. Which is why we ought not to be overly calculating before we get involved. Sometimes the help we give will be brief and easy to do. Other times we will discover that the demands are long-lasting and heavy to bear.
Most of the time we can’t do it all by ourselves. Even in this story, the Samaritan didn’t stick around and try to nurse the man back to health himself. He left him in the care of the innkeeper and then went on his way.
No one can do it all, and no one is being asked to do it all.
But we can all do something.
So we come to the end of the story Jesus told, which actually ends in a question and then a simple commannd.
“Which of these was the true neighbor to the man in need?”
The priest?
The Levite?
The Samaritan?
I just smiled as I wrote that because it’s not a trick question. It’s as if Jesus is saying to a group of schoolchildren, “If you know the answer, just shout it out.”
Even the kids know the answer to this one.
Even the kids know the answer to this one
Tell this story to children anywhere in the world, and hands will go up all over the room.
"It’s the Samaritan!”
Good answer.
Then comes the simple application: “Go and do likewise.”
You see, in the story Jesus told, the real question is not, “Who is my neighbor?” but rather “Whose neighbor will I be to those I meet today?" The onus is always on me, not on those in need. In the story Jesus told, it’s not about the man in need. It’s about those who had a chance to help and didn’t, and the one man who did what he could even though he could have walked away.
Compassion Applied
Following Christ is one way to nurture that characteristic. Flannery O'Connor, the insightful Roman Catholic writer, lifted up the Christian dimension when she wrote: "You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people's sufferings and not your own." The beginning of compassion involves becoming aware of the suffering of others.
But it is not enough simply to see the suffering of others, we need to feel it. It is possible to see suffering, but not to feel it. Dewitt Jones tells about a photographer who walked down the street one day and came upon a man who was choking. "What a picture," he thought. "This says it all: A man, alone, in need. What a message!" He fumbled for his camera and light meter until the poor fellow who was choking realized that help was not forthcoming. He grabbed the photographer's arm and gasped, "I'm turning blue!" "That's all right," said the photographer, patting the fellow's hand, "I'm shooting color film." Just noticing suffering isn't enough.
Compassion is not something you talk about. Compassion is something you do. If you want your neighborhood to be changed, get involved. Your neighborhood could be changed, but you have to do it the hard way, the slow way, the quiet way, the unseen, difficult way. But in God’s economy, that’s the only way it works.
Let me give you three words of application:
1) We need to pray aggressively.
A few years ago a prominent Christian magazine published an article called “Rediscovering Prayer.” It should strike all of us as ironic whenever the church “rediscovers” prayer.
How did we lose prayer so that now we need to “rediscover” it?
History tells us that every revival has been preceded by fervent, united praying among believers. The spiritual and moral decay in our culture has brought us to a point of desperation and now our desperation has become our greatest ally. When we become desperate enough, we will seek the Lord.
My question is, are you desperate enough to start praying?
Will you pray for your spouse?
Will you stand in the gap for your children?
Will you seek God’s face for your pastor?
Will you pray earnestly for your friends?
Will you bring your neighbors before the Lord?
Will you pray for missionaries around the world?
Will you lift up the leaders of your government?
“Jesus told you to come and help"
Thank God for an army of Christians around the world who without fanfare or publicity, without any desire to be known abroad, are sacrificing and reaching out and touching the hurting people around them. We need to have more people praying aggressively because we’re living in a sea of hurting people.
2) We need to be radically personal.
But it is not enough simply to feel the pain of others, we also need to act to relieve it. In Albert Camus' novel, The Fall, an established, impeccable French lawyer has his world totally under control until one night when he hears the cry of a drowning woman and he turns away. Years later, ruined by his failure to act, he winds up reliving the experience in an Amsterdam bar: "Please tell me what happened to you on the SeineRiver that night, and how you managed never to risk your life," he says to himself. "(Go ahead), utter the words that for years have never ceased echoing through my nights ... 'O young woman, throw yourself into the water again so that I may have a second chance of saving both of us!' " When we fail to act in behalf of someone in distress, something inside of us knows, and will not let us forget, for we have been less than God intends us to be.
Too often, we are content simply to talk about a situation rather than to do something about it. In a book titled Get Out There And Reap! Guin Ream Tuckett chronicles the activities of a character named Marsha, who is a forward-thinking Christian in a stodgy, tradition-bound church. One time, quite by accident, she influenced her junior high Sunday school class to challenge the status quo. They talked about an upcoming church dinner. Marsha observed that there was always an abundance of food at such gatherings. She casually remarked what a witness it would be to share their abundance with others. On the evening of the next church supper, the tables were filled with food as usual. During the pre-meal prayer, a loud noise erupted as two dozen disheveled teenagers of all sizes, colors, and appearances rumbled down the stairs. A boy from the junior high class, Jason, went running up to the young people and greeted them enthusiastically. Jason's father worked at the local youth social center. Jason and the class had taken Marsha's words to heart and invited all the kids from the social center. These newcomers were kids who didn't have healthy family structures, and paid little attention to table manners. But they were enthusiastic about the church program, and they gratefully shoveled down food as though they had never had a full meal in their lives. The church members were shocked, and many stared accusingly at Marsha throughout the evening. At the next meeting of the class, Marsha scolded her students for not warning her of the grand scheme. Then she realized where the problem lay. "That's the trouble with you kids," she said. "You take your religion seriously!" Then she realized what she was saying. She and the older church members had been content simply to talk about hungry people. The kids had acted.2
Writing about another time and place, Leo Tolstoy said, "I beheld the misery, cold, hunger, humiliation of thousands of my fellow human beings ... I feel, and can never cease to feel, myself a partaker in a crime which is constantly being committed, so long as I have extra food while others have none, so long as I have two coats while there exists one person without any ... I must seek in my heart at every moment, with meekness and humility, some opportunity for doing the job Christ wants done." The job Christ wants done. He set the course; we are to do the rowing.
When World War II ended, the members of a church in Frankfurt, Germany, began reconstructing their bombed-out sanctuary. One of the main objects to be restored was a statue of Christ that had been sorely broken apart. All the pieces were found except the hands. After long debate, the congregation decided to leave the figure without hands. Under it they inscribed the words: "Christ has no hands but our hands." The job that Christ wants done still involves compassion. We are the ones called upon to show it.
3) We need to begin this week.
May I suggest one simple step of application? Many of us would like a personal ministry, but we don’t know where to begin. There are people in your life who need the help only you can give. Some of them need a word of encouragement, and you are the only one who can give them that word. Some of them are staggering beneath a heavy load, and you are the only one who can lift that burden from their shoulders. Some of them are about to quit, and you are the only one who can keep them in the race. Some of them have been hit with an incredible string of trials, and you are the only one who can help them keep going.
Ask God to give you Missionary Eyes
Those people are all around you. Your only problem is that you don’t see them. Pray that God will give you Missionary Eyes. Those are eyes that see the real needs of the people you meet. Pray that God will bring at least one person across your path who needs the help only you can give. That’s a prayer God will answer, for there are folks all around you who are just barely making it. You see them where you work, and you live next door to them. Your children go to school with their children. They are out there waiting for someone to give them help. God has helped us for a purpose: that we might take what we have received and share it with those who desperately need it.
Conclusion
How do you change the world? Not through programs and not even through preaching done at a distance. You change the world one heart at a time, one life at a time. Compassion that isn’t personal isn’t compassion. God help us to be men and women of compassion, to reach out and touch a hurting world in Jesus’ name.
In his book The Human Comedy, William Saroyan noted: "Unless a man has pity, he is inhuman and not yet truly a man, for out of pity comes the balm which heals. Only good men weep. If a man has not yet wept at the world's pain, he is less than the dirt he walks upon, because dirt will nourish seed, root, stalk, leaf, and flower, but the spirit of a man without pity is barren and will bring forth nothing...." Good people feel the pain of others, and they weep.
Will Rogers was known for his laughter, but he also knew how to weep. One day he was entertaining at the Milton H. Berry Institute in Los Angeles, a hospital that specialized in rehabilitating polio victims and people with spinal cord injuries and other extreme physical handicaps. Very soon, Rogers had everybody laughing, even patients who were paralyzed; but then he suddenly left the platform and went to the restroom. Milton Berry followed him to make sure he was all right. When he opened the door, he saw Will Rogers leaning against the wall sobbing like a child over the tragic situations he was seeing. Berry closed the door, and in a few moments Rogers appeared back on the platform as jovial as ever. Christians are called to a ministry of compassion, and if we are faithful to it, it will cause us to weep with those who weep.
