5th Sunday after Pentecost 06/15/08 Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8 Title: Compassion
5th Sunday after Pentecost
06/15/08
Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8
Title: Compassion
This past week I spent two days in Biloxi attending a summit on the relationship between pastors and those who are professional counselors. It was a great meeting with some of the best experts speaking on the subject of counseling.
There was one speaker that said the key to counseling those who were affected by horrific circumstances beyond their control was to have compassion. By the reaction of many of those present you would have thought that that was a brand new idea. I know, it is not, for I would say that most people that enter the mental health field or become pastors do so because of their compassion for people.
The problem is, that for too many in the field of mental health, whether a pastor or a counselor, they find that the compassion that drove them into the business of caring, has left them. It has left them, not because of a conscious decision, but because compassion for those they are caring about has drained them. So, to better serve their cliental they bury what got them into the business in the first place; their compassion for the hurting.
I am sharing this with you this morning for we see in our Gospel reading that what drove Jesus to do what he did was compassion for those he came into contact with. In Matthew 9:36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless.” In the Greek, the words are passive participles, that means that the harassing was not of their doing. It was being done to them and it was happening even as he saw them. The word translated “helpless” in English is in the Greek “prostrate” which to me is better, for it gives one a picture of laying flat out on the floor while being held there by outside forces.
That is how emotionally and spiritually stricken the people were that Jesus saw that day. After talking to people and hearing their stories about what happened during and still is happening after hurricane Katrina I sensed that what Matthew wrote so long ago is descriptive of people today. And not just those who went through the terrible tragedy of Katrina, but those who believe that they are living normal lives. They just do not know it yet.
Jesus had compassion and it drove him to action, not just to heal and comfort, but to die for those he had compassion for. Just what is compassion? Is it recognizing and feeling sorry for those who are hurting. Or is it more? Let us see what the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of compassion is, “Sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”
That definition accurately describes the word “compassion” as it is used in God’s Holy Word. You see, whenever the word compassion is used in God’s Word there is always an action that goes along with it; the relief of whatever suffering is going on. It is what Christianity is about, that is before Christians turned it over to the government to do. It is the care of those in need regardless of their circumstances. It is the love of Jesus. So are we to do then?
First and foremost we are to tell them of the love of Jesus. I say this, because I believe that you can make a good case for many of the problems people are facing have been caused by sin, blatant or otherwise. I used to think that there are just some people that have black clouds hanging over them. You know those of whom I am talking about; those who despite what appear to be their best efforts, have what we would say is bad luck.
As I thought back to those people that I knew, those who were suffering from what we normally call bad luck, were not suffering from bad luck at all, but from the effects of sin. Usually by the time I got through talking with them it became apparent that there was something going on in their lives that was not God pleasing.
There were things like trying to finagle the law, or a relationship. Sometimes there was just an unrepentant sin that caused the “black cloud” that hung over their lives.
Jesus saw that the problems the people were having, although it showed up in physical problems were not physical, but caused by sin, not just their sin, but the sin of others. He saw that and told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
You are probably thinking, “Here it comes when he is going to tell us we are to all go out into the world.” I could tell you that, for there is truth in what Jesus is saying, that is why I call you missionaries. However that is not the main thrust of the passage.
We get so uptight believing that God is telling us to go out into the mission field, which this passage does not say, that we miss the message of the passage. That message is found in verse 38 where Jesus says “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The word we translate “therefore” is an imperative, a command that would be better said as “beseech.” The word “send” is in the Greek “force out, to shove out sometime in the future,” those who are to help bring in his, that is God’s harvest.
What we miss is that what Jesus wants us to do, is to pray. God wants us to pray to him, so that he, not we, will move those he has already picked to go out to the emotionally harassed and spiritually helpless masses of the world telling them of the news of Jesus.
Who are those he sends out? Friday I read a story of a young mother who worked long hard hours to support her family. She loved her Lord and like Jesus, she had compassion. She did an amazing thing. She started praying through the daily paper.
Now I know that might sound silly, maybe even weird, but everyday that is what she did. This is how she did it. She started off praying to God that men and women would be sent out in the world to the lost so that those she read about would have what she had; peace and joy in the troubles of life. Then she read the obituaries and prayed for all the families. She then read the wedding announcements, praying or the newly married couples. As she read of accidents and disaster she prayed for all the people affected by them. As she read the political pages, she prayed that those in power would make God pleasing decisions as they governed. She prayed her way through the sports pages, dwelling on those stories where someone had been hurt, or cut from their position, or made bad decisions in their lives.
She prayed, fervently prayed, every day and in doing so, without her even realizing it, became one of those she was praying for Jesus to send out into the mission field. She never went to the poor side of town, or to a foreign country, but she became a missionary to those she came into contact with, as she asked God to work in the hearts and lives of those she read about each day.
What she was doing is the essence of compassion. For compassion is not merely a feeling generated in response to the observed suffering of another, but a burning desire deep within her to act on their behalf in the name of Jesus, exactly what Jesus did on behalf of God the Father.
What about us, we who are gathered here this morning worshiping our Lord? Do we have compassion as defined by God? Are we ready to act on that compassion? Abraham Hescehl once wrote, “A religious person is one who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.”
Compassion leads to urgency in one’s prayer life. Compassion drives out self-centered thoughts out of one’s prayer life. Compassion fuels one’s prayer life.
Jesus has compassion for you and he wants to give you what you need the most; peace between God the Father, for he knows that is the only way you can become fully human. He desires your prayers, not because he needs them, but because he knows that an active prayer life is good for you.
Maybe you have never really developed an active prayer life and just do not know how to start. Maybe you are pretty self sufficient and don’t really have a desire to develop a life of prayer. Let me suggest some things that might help you get started, to see the importance of prayer.
First of all recognize your complete unworthiness before God. You are, just as I am completely unworthy of God’s forgiveness.
Secondly, know that because of Jesus, birth, obedient life, death, and resurrection that, even as you, just as I am, sit here a sinful human being, you can now stand before God free of condemnation.
Thirdly, just start talking to God. Don’t be embarrassed or afraid to pray, even if you have terribly neglected your prayers or just prayed some prayer without thinking about what you are praying. God loves you. He has compassion for you.
God does not require a certain form of prayer, or certain number of prayers each day. He wants you to pray continuously, that is, he wants you to live your life in such a way that you are always in communion with God. And above all, rest in his forgiveness. Amen.
06/15/08
Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8
Title: Compassion
This past week I spent two days in Biloxi attending a summit on the relationship between pastors and those who are professional counselors. It was a great meeting with some of the best experts speaking on the subject of counseling.
There was one speaker that said the key to counseling those who were affected by horrific circumstances beyond their control was to have compassion. By the reaction of many of those present you would have thought that that was a brand new idea. I know, it is not, for I would say that most people that enter the mental health field or become pastors do so because of their compassion for people.
The problem is, that for too many in the field of mental health, whether a pastor or a counselor, they find that the compassion that drove them into the business of caring, has left them. It has left them, not because of a conscious decision, but because compassion for those they are caring about has drained them. So, to better serve their cliental they bury what got them into the business in the first place; their compassion for the hurting.
I am sharing this with you this morning for we see in our Gospel reading that what drove Jesus to do what he did was compassion for those he came into contact with. In Matthew 9:36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless.” In the Greek, the words are passive participles, that means that the harassing was not of their doing. It was being done to them and it was happening even as he saw them. The word translated “helpless” in English is in the Greek “prostrate” which to me is better, for it gives one a picture of laying flat out on the floor while being held there by outside forces.
That is how emotionally and spiritually stricken the people were that Jesus saw that day. After talking to people and hearing their stories about what happened during and still is happening after hurricane Katrina I sensed that what Matthew wrote so long ago is descriptive of people today. And not just those who went through the terrible tragedy of Katrina, but those who believe that they are living normal lives. They just do not know it yet.
Jesus had compassion and it drove him to action, not just to heal and comfort, but to die for those he had compassion for. Just what is compassion? Is it recognizing and feeling sorry for those who are hurting. Or is it more? Let us see what the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of compassion is, “Sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”
That definition accurately describes the word “compassion” as it is used in God’s Holy Word. You see, whenever the word compassion is used in God’s Word there is always an action that goes along with it; the relief of whatever suffering is going on. It is what Christianity is about, that is before Christians turned it over to the government to do. It is the care of those in need regardless of their circumstances. It is the love of Jesus. So are we to do then?
First and foremost we are to tell them of the love of Jesus. I say this, because I believe that you can make a good case for many of the problems people are facing have been caused by sin, blatant or otherwise. I used to think that there are just some people that have black clouds hanging over them. You know those of whom I am talking about; those who despite what appear to be their best efforts, have what we would say is bad luck.
As I thought back to those people that I knew, those who were suffering from what we normally call bad luck, were not suffering from bad luck at all, but from the effects of sin. Usually by the time I got through talking with them it became apparent that there was something going on in their lives that was not God pleasing.
There were things like trying to finagle the law, or a relationship. Sometimes there was just an unrepentant sin that caused the “black cloud” that hung over their lives.
Jesus saw that the problems the people were having, although it showed up in physical problems were not physical, but caused by sin, not just their sin, but the sin of others. He saw that and told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
You are probably thinking, “Here it comes when he is going to tell us we are to all go out into the world.” I could tell you that, for there is truth in what Jesus is saying, that is why I call you missionaries. However that is not the main thrust of the passage.
We get so uptight believing that God is telling us to go out into the mission field, which this passage does not say, that we miss the message of the passage. That message is found in verse 38 where Jesus says “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The word we translate “therefore” is an imperative, a command that would be better said as “beseech.” The word “send” is in the Greek “force out, to shove out sometime in the future,” those who are to help bring in his, that is God’s harvest.
What we miss is that what Jesus wants us to do, is to pray. God wants us to pray to him, so that he, not we, will move those he has already picked to go out to the emotionally harassed and spiritually helpless masses of the world telling them of the news of Jesus.
Who are those he sends out? Friday I read a story of a young mother who worked long hard hours to support her family. She loved her Lord and like Jesus, she had compassion. She did an amazing thing. She started praying through the daily paper.
Now I know that might sound silly, maybe even weird, but everyday that is what she did. This is how she did it. She started off praying to God that men and women would be sent out in the world to the lost so that those she read about would have what she had; peace and joy in the troubles of life. Then she read the obituaries and prayed for all the families. She then read the wedding announcements, praying or the newly married couples. As she read of accidents and disaster she prayed for all the people affected by them. As she read the political pages, she prayed that those in power would make God pleasing decisions as they governed. She prayed her way through the sports pages, dwelling on those stories where someone had been hurt, or cut from their position, or made bad decisions in their lives.
She prayed, fervently prayed, every day and in doing so, without her even realizing it, became one of those she was praying for Jesus to send out into the mission field. She never went to the poor side of town, or to a foreign country, but she became a missionary to those she came into contact with, as she asked God to work in the hearts and lives of those she read about each day.
What she was doing is the essence of compassion. For compassion is not merely a feeling generated in response to the observed suffering of another, but a burning desire deep within her to act on their behalf in the name of Jesus, exactly what Jesus did on behalf of God the Father.
What about us, we who are gathered here this morning worshiping our Lord? Do we have compassion as defined by God? Are we ready to act on that compassion? Abraham Hescehl once wrote, “A religious person is one who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.”
Compassion leads to urgency in one’s prayer life. Compassion drives out self-centered thoughts out of one’s prayer life. Compassion fuels one’s prayer life.
Jesus has compassion for you and he wants to give you what you need the most; peace between God the Father, for he knows that is the only way you can become fully human. He desires your prayers, not because he needs them, but because he knows that an active prayer life is good for you.
Maybe you have never really developed an active prayer life and just do not know how to start. Maybe you are pretty self sufficient and don’t really have a desire to develop a life of prayer. Let me suggest some things that might help you get started, to see the importance of prayer.
First of all recognize your complete unworthiness before God. You are, just as I am completely unworthy of God’s forgiveness.
Secondly, know that because of Jesus, birth, obedient life, death, and resurrection that, even as you, just as I am, sit here a sinful human being, you can now stand before God free of condemnation.
Thirdly, just start talking to God. Don’t be embarrassed or afraid to pray, even if you have terribly neglected your prayers or just prayed some prayer without thinking about what you are praying. God loves you. He has compassion for you.
God does not require a certain form of prayer, or certain number of prayers each day. He wants you to pray continuously, that is, he wants you to live your life in such a way that you are always in communion with God. And above all, rest in his forgiveness. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 4:15 PM
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