"concern For The Suffering Of Others"

“Concern for the Suffering of Others”

Matthew 9:35-38

Last week I was reading a story from a mainstream news outlet about a young couple who moved to Los Angeles, California looking for fame and fortune but quickly found themselves homeless and destitute.

It was a moving story.

In any event, when addressing how the couple was able to survive during their darkest days the article mentioned, in a sort of off-hand way, that they were able to eat, obtain clothing and perform other necessities through the help of churches.

It would have been easy to miss that little morsel when reading the article, but there it was—just a brief mention—one sentence in an otherwise long story about a couple of lost and scared, harassed and helpless youth—but a mention non-the-less about how they were able to survive an otherwise insurmountable situation.

They survived because of the compassion of people who make up the Church of Jesus Christ—our brothers and sisters living 2,131 miles away from here.

If there is anything that should define the Church of Jesus Christ when comparing it to any other organization in the world—it is love, grace, and compassion put into action.

And that, of course, is because we have a Savior Who is filled with love, grace and compassion.

And He lived His life on earth putting it into action.

Before our Gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus has been busy healing lepers, curing the sick, driving out demons, healing the physically and mentally disabled, raising the dead, and healing the blind and the mute.

And that’s all in just two chapters.

And He does it all with His hands.

He touches everyone He comes in contact with: the dirty, the destitute, the delirious, the prostitutes, the marginalized--those considered unclean by the religious leaders of His day.

In doing so, Jesus is making Himself ritually unclean as He cleanses others.

And why does He do that?

(pause)

As we watch Jesus this morning He is going through “all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”

“When he saw the crowds,” we are told, Jesus “had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

This is one of my favorite passages in Scripture.

And the reason is that it shows us the heart of God.

Jesus saw people—human beings, like you and me, He saw their overwhelming need and He had compassion on them.

Compassion is a concern for the suffering of others.

But it even goes beyond that, it means to “suffer with.”

It means that someone else’s heartbreak becomes our heartbreak.

Another’s suffering becomes our suffering.

And true compassion changes the way we live.

It motivates us to try and relieve the suffering of those for whom we have compassion.

It is the ability to understand the emotional state of another person without necessarily feeling the same.

It is also good for us.

According to Dr. James Doty, Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University: “practicing compassion has a positive physiological effect on [our bodies].

It can lower blood pressure, boost [our] immune system and lesson our anxiety.”

Brain imaging shows that being compassionate stimulates the same pleasure centers associated with our drive for food, water and other necessities of life.

In a study by Elizabeth Dunn, at the University of British Columbia, participants were given a certain amount of money.

Half the participants were told to spend the money on themselves; the other half were told to spend the money on others.

At the end of the study, which was published in the academic journal called “Science,” participants who had spent money on others felt significantly happier than those who had spent the money on themselves.

Other studies show that practicing compassion can help fight disease and increase our lifespan.

One reason why compassion helps to boost our well-being is that it helps broaden our perspective beyond ourselves.

Research shows that depression and anxiety are linked to being focused on self, preoccupied with “me, myself and I.”

But when we do something for someone else that state of self-focus shifts to a state of other-focus.

As our attention shifts to helping another person, our mood lifts.

Rather than feeling blue, we may feel energized to help; and before we know it, we may even have gained some perspective on our own situation as well.

I think that practicing compassion is essential for our survival.

It’s funny, when I come home in an especially good mood—all psyched up, joking around and full of energy—Clair will say to me: “You had the Food Pantry today or You had a Food Pantry Meeting didn’t you?”

And, quite often, the answer is “Yes!”

I’d imagine most of you can relate.