COMPASSION
Read time: 7.5 minutes
Scripture is the unfolding revelation of God’s self to us — to the degree we can understand.
It begins with teaching Abraham: “No Human Sacrifice!”
“The Law” gives us Correct Practice.
The Prophets pull us beyond The Law to the Justice of caring for others.
Wisdom Books tell that what we do is important, but also challenge us with the essence of faith: a wise, compassionate, and tender heart — the “why” of “what” we do.
Still, humanity’s question returns over and over again: “Who is God?”.
Descriptors of God range from a “blast furnace” (Malachi, Isaiah, Deuteronomy) to a chicken (Matthew, Luke), but ultimately find their completion not in descriptions, but in the living person of Jesus, God-incarnate. Yet, we struggle to understand.
Our “misguidance” is that we do all we can to define God and what God wants of us, all the while saying that God is too big to understand. The countless number of “separate Christian denominations” attest to our various “understandings” of an unfathomable God. Sadly, our certainty in our understanding leads us to condemn others who disagree.
God is not something to be “understood” as much as God is to be experienced.
1John 4: 8,16 says, “God is love” — Jesus demonstrates that love is a verb.
As James 2:18 says in addressing the old argument of faith vs. deeds, “…So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith.” — and the line following that startled me decades ago, “You believe in the one God — that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear.”
To say God is love is a true statement, but it is a veiled concept.
Perhaps another more descriptive and approachable word is… compassion.
Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect”, honestly terrifies me and I suspect many others as well. It sends us down a path of “make no mistake / succumb to no weakness / God punishes failure”.
The original Greek word translated in Matthew as “perfect” is “teleios”. It connotes maturity or completeness rather than sinless perfection which misses the concept of a journey toward wholeness and purpose.
Its parallel passage, Luke 6:36, highlights the heart of the message and is more achievable: Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Teleios can also be translated as “Be ‘compassionate’ as your Father in heaven is compassionate” — to grow and model ourselves on the example of Jesus.
Love is a verb; compassion is a stronger verb.
Compassion without action is simple pity. Compassion is closer to empathy than to pity, but that falls short as well.
Fr. Greg Boyle said, “Compassion is a circle where no one is left out.” It is social, communal, universal. It treats others not as strangers and a distraction from our goals, but as brothers and sisters that we have an obligation to. Our “personal salvation” is achieved communally.
Jesus said He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17). Jesus orders the greatest Commandments: To love God…, and to love our brothers and sisters…, (Matt 22:36-40). Love-demonstrated, fulfills the Law and risks breaking none.
God is love. Is not love-in-action, compassion?
Jesus said, “…No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Read literally, it clearly means being a “Christian” & believing Jesus is the Son of God.
Looking through the divinity of the Son of God into who Jesus was… is it not compassion? — lived, taught, demonstrated, never deviated from even through to a violent death, and then past it in a glorious resurrection.
Jesus even gives away the one question that’s on the Final Exam — and as if giving us the question wasn’t enough, He gives us the answer by way of two examples.
Matt 7:21-23 “It is not anyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father… When the day comes many will say… ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them… ‘I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers!’”
Matthew 25:31-46, spells it out: “‘…For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.’ Then the upright will say to him… ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you…or thirsty… or a stranger… or in prison?’ And the King will answer, ‘In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.’”
Similarly Jesus calls out those who did nothing, and they also asked, “…when did we…?” — Jesus reply’s “…in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.”
Then the parable of the Good Samaritan broadens the scope beyond our “tribe” showing us who our “neighbour” is — the observant “religious” cast a wide birth around the injured man; it was a Samaritan, essentially a non-believer, who helped.
“Nobody gets to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor!” *
Jesus’ message is a gospel of communal care. The root of our Jewish religious heritage has always emphasized communal salvation.
It is not about correct theology, or what we believe, what church/how often we attend, or the words we use.
* Quote attributed to James Forbes, an interdenominational pastor in New York City.