“Heart of Compassion”『憐憫的心』

太9:35-38, 5/22/2005【Translated by Victor Lin, 中文/卯思興牧師】

~^.^~~☆~^.^~~☆~^.^~~☆★★ ~^.^~~☆ ☆~^.^

An old pastor, who was about to retire, giving his last sermon, said that, “Today’s Christians will not be able to win this world for Christ.” Everybody curiously asked “Why?” The old pastor said that, “I have been a Pastor for 45 years and see that today’s church lack two things: One is sincerity, the other is compassion.”

●Jesus’ special life characteristic: sincerity, compassion

From today scripture reading, we see that Jesus’ life exhibited two very important special characteristics: that is sincerity and compassion. “Compassion” is composed from two Latin words “together” and “suffering”. Compassion is to suffer hardships together with another person, putting oneself in another person’s shoe in sympathy. Therefore, its meaning is suffer through hardships caused by other people’s misfortune and crisis together with them.

We must clearly separate that “compassion” is not equal to “pitying”. Pitying only sympathizes with the misery of another person; but compassion is “sympathy plus action”. Using the Good Samaritan story as an analogy, the priest and the Levite did not pity (or sympathize) with the person who was hurt, but Samaritan not only has pity but also compassion (sympathy+motion) in his heart. Compassion caused the Samaritan to stop, to go forward, to pour oil and wine on that person’s wound, to carry the person on his own donkey, to take the person to be looked after at the inn, and finally to pay for his stay (Luke 10:25-37)

Today we read from the Bible, Matthews 9:35, that tells us: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” This passage has four actions that express compassion: walks, teaches, preaching, healing, in a single passage has four verbs, indicated Jesus has intensely compassion the heart, because compassion is the sympathy plus action. The phrase “went through all the towns, cities and villages” explains the out-pouring power of Jesus’ compassion. Matthews 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Here it says “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them”. Let us think about this phrase: when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. We and Jesus are in the same situation that everyday we see very many people, some we know, some we do not know but when we see these people, how does our heart respond? The Bible says that Jesus saw and had compassion in his heart, and followed through with acts of kindness. What about us? Ask the Lord to pardon us that although we possibly saw, we had no feeling.

●What does Moody see?

In 1870, God brought up a very famous Evangelist called Moody (Dwight Lyman Moody，1837-1899) who preached in various crusades and was able to lead tens of thousands of people to believe in Jesus. Once on an invitation, Moody traveled to preach in London. Several pastors had deep reservations because they knew that Moody has received only six years of education, has little knowledge, and spoke with crude words, but how could he lead so many people to believe in Jesus. Certainly Moody has his secrets. These pastors reached an agreement to go to the hotel where Moody was staying to visit him. They spoke with a questioning tone: “Mr. Moody, please tell us what is the secret of power in your preaching?” Moody opened his hotel room window, saying to these pastors that, “Please look outside and tell me what you see?” A pastor said that “I see a park and some children are playing in the park.” Another pastor said that “I also see the park. Besides the children, there are also some old people taking a walk.” They curiously asked Moody: “What do you want us to look at? What do you see yourself?” Moody proceeded to the window to look outside, all of a sudden tear started flow from his eyes. These pastors, affected by serious mood, curiously asked “Mr. Moody, what did you see?” Moody said “I see a great amount of London residents like a flock of sheep without a Sheppard, living in darkness without hope, heading toward hell. Before I came, I have already prayed for the people in this area for several years, this is the secret of my preaching.” Moody really sees what Lord Jesus see. God used him to preach to hundreds of million of people, he also established the Moody theological seminary to train and develop people of talent.

●Compassion: a heart that enables us to approach God

A heart of compassion can propel us do very many things that we would normally not have done, stimulating us to face the difficulty which we cannot normally face. A heart of compassion is the heart of God, a heart of compassion is the heart of Christ, a heart of compassion is the heart of Holy Spirit, a heart of compassion is a heart of action, and a heart of compassion is full of sincerity. Compassion is a sacred attribute. When we have compassion, we enable ourselves to approach God.

Philosopher Aristotle in his “Rhetoric” describes compassion in this way: “Compassion is the understanding that the humanity have that oneself and others will have similar misfortunes, this kind of misfortune can occur anytime to us or to people whom we love. This misfortune will cause us to feel enormous pain, resulting in a kind of shared painful feeling, which is the feelings of compassion.” French thinkers Jean-Jacques Rousseau said: “Compassion is a kind of innate feeling, that keep in control an individual’s intense self-love to help continuation of all living things in this world. This kind of compassion in people causes us to help endure hardships without hesitation.” How ordinary people display greatness is by how much compassion they show to the misfortunate people, affairs, and matters. Jesus said that, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthews 5:7)

●Compassion looks at people through God’s eye

A compassionate heart looks at people through God’s eye. John Wesley said that, “Compassion is a person who has been born-again and sees the world and people through God’s eyes.” Under God’s grace and not under God’s grace certainly have a difference. What is the difference? The before and after difference is that your points of view of world will be changed. Today’s scripture passage says that when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus sees these people’s needs. Brothers and sisters if we say that we believe in Christ and say that we are follower of Lord Jesus, if we do not view the world from God’s perspective and do not use God’s eye to see our neighbors, to look at our colleagues, to look at our co-laborers, or to regard our brothers and sisters, then we do not understand what is “compassion”.

Christian faith emphasizes a faith that is active and a faith that shows devotion to duty. From the beginning of this year, we have used Chinese and Taiwanese, and also English [during service]. Some people told me “Pastor! Each week there is Chinese translation but the church population has not increased very much. Every fourth week we use English but youths also have not increased. What is the use?” Yes, the present situation does not seem like what we have expected, however, so long as we hold on to the heart of compassion, see the matter through God’s eyes, experience the heart of Christ’s love for the salvation of the world, I believed God will help us grow at the appropriate time. When we apply the heart of compassion to our community, apply the heart of compassion to people’s need, and apply the heart of compassion to which language we use, then taking action, we will believe that Taiwanese, Chinese, Hakka, English, Spanish are all equally important. When we apply the heart of compassion to our outreach, we would not limit ourselves. This is a heart of compassion. Because Jesus has the heart of compassion, he became one of us to serve stranger and aliens. We can also become more like others to be with them and serve them. This is the key point of today’s scripture text.

●Those with compassion in their heart are the most beautiful

Compassion does not discuss conditions, does not consider the price, and does not ask if it is worthy or unworthy to be done. Some time ago, there was a young criminal in Napoleon’s army who was sentenced to the death penalty for his crime. The day before the execution, the young person’s mother went to see Napoleon and implored his mercy to exempt her son from capital punishment. After Napoleon listened, he replied like this “Woman, your son’s error is unworthy of mercy.” “I understand.” the woman replied: “If he matches, it does not count as mercy.” Dear brothers and sisters, how limited is human “mercy”. But God said to us “you are worthy of mercy!”

Here is a story. Every year disabled persons come from all over the world to gather in one place to attend the Special Olympics. It is a magnificent scene, attended by celebrities. With the stadium music blaring, the competition is not inferior to the Olympic Games. What do these athletes all know is the meaning of personal obligation. In order to win a victory, it will take several months or even several years of hard training. Several years ago, five disabled contestants gathered at the starting line. With their hearts racing, each person hoped to be the first to get to the finish line. When sound of referee’s gunfire resounded, the athletes rapidly started from the crouching position to running immediately with all one’s strength. The audience stood up, yelling to cheer and encourage them. Suddenly the second place running contestant fell, took a tumble, faced down and collapsed. He struggled with all his might but was incapable of getting up. In the stadium, first, there was a collective sigh, and then it was quiet. Afterwards, the crowd saw the leading athlete stopped running, turned around, put out a hand to help the person who fell down. The two athletes held on to each other to complete the competition together. The audience stood up, saluted, cheered, and was moved, because they all knew that the athlete who returned to help the companion showed the spirit of sportsmanship. His sacrifice – they knew – is the real victory and is noblest “compassion”. It turns out that the person who has compassion is the most beautiful.

In one of my favorite songs, the name of the song is “The Tormented Child.” The lyric states:

“When life’s weary, devote all effort; entirely hope in tomorrow, hoping to encourage life. In the ignorant year, puzzled anxiety continues; Courage as if in deep sleep, disappointment is the only feeling. Jesus, please grant us your mercy; Jesus, please grant us your mercy; Jesus, Jesus, please grant us your mercy.

In a fickle crowd, sincerity looks as if far away; Indifference has brought the cold wind, let the lonely soul sob. In the never-ending setback, the constant flow of tear does not stop; silence as if customary, enduring patience is the only strength. Jesus, please grant us your mercy; Jesus, please grant us your mercy; Jesus, Jesus, please grant us your mercy.

Tormented child, tormented child, I know your heart hides the hope, come to me, enable me to become your way, to become your path.”

●Conclusion: Good compassion, walking with yours God

The Holy Bible records the story of God’s compassion and the story of Jesus’ compassion, God expects his children to become more like him, to have the feelings of compassion. The Holy Bible says, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)