[Twenty-Fourth in a series of posts on church words] Encore Post: After Jesus was baptized and tempted by the devil, he went from town to town, mostly in Galilee, near the Sea of Galilee. He preached, taught and healed the sick. The longer he did this, the more people came to see him. What he saw moved him deeply. He had compassion on them. They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. So he sent seventy disciples out to care for them. (Matthew 9:35-38)
The English words compassion and sympathy are very similar in meaning. Compassion is from Latin and sympathy from Greek. Both are from words that mean “to suffer with.” The word used for compassion by the Gospels and St. Paul is σπλαγχνίζομαι (splagchnizomai — a feeling of sorrow over the suffering of others that comes from deep inside [literally the liver, stomach, heart, etc. moves with concern] Compassion is a feeling that moves you to action. You just can’t watch such suffering and not do something.
True compassion begins with God himself. When God finished creating the world, he looked at everything he made and he called it all “very good.” He knows what life was like for Adam and Eve before they sinned and what life would have been like for us if sin never existed. He knew how sin would ruin everything. He warned them, “In the day you eat of it, you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) It is no surprise, then, that he became very angry when Adam and Eve fell. Death colors everything in our world. Sickness and suffering are the beginning of death in our lives as it seeks to tighten its grip on us.
So God, in his love, shares our pain at the effects of sin in our lives. In the person of Jesus, he experienced all of its effects and died to break its power over us. The Holy Spirit suffers along with us, praying for us even when we cannot pray. (Romans 8:23-26) One day, Jesus will return to bring an end to sin, death and the power of the devil forever.
God, in his compassion, does not wait for the end of time to help and to save. Today, he calls on us to be compassionate, as he is compassionate. He sends us to where people need his presence and his help. He especially sends pastors with his gifts and spirit and deaconesses to meet the physical needs of people. We are then, his heart to suffer with others, his hands to care for them and his feet to go where others will not go. Through us he shows his own self-description: the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abound in faithful love.
Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog
The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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