This past weekend, I got to spend a couple of days up in DC with a little piece of my family up there. On Sunday morning, we went to worship the Lord with others in that area, and at that particular gathering, they're going through different parables that Jesus taught with. This week, they were on Luke 10:25-37, the discussion and teaching leading up to the parable of the good Samaritan, as most of us know it. The interaction begins between Jesus and a man who studied Jewish law who brought up a question. This man, who was at first mainly concerned with publicly discrediting this roving rabbi, quickly had the tables turned on him and sought to justify himself as a righteous man by determining the number and "type" of people which he would need to "love" in order to be saved. He asked Jesus what was meant when the law commanded "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Who was his neighbor? And more practically, who was NOT? Whose welfare could he remove from his realm of concern in order to sleep in peace at the end of each day, knowing he'd done enough?
Upon reaching verse 33, I became fixated, and honestly, didn't hear much else for the remainder of the message. Seeing this beat-up and stripped man but not knowing who he was (he had no clothes, was barely conscious if at all, had no other means of identification, and Jesus, the story-teller, makes no effort to identify his heritage further than being "a man"), the Samaritan "felt compassion." That word is one that resonates to my core. Compassion... an absence of concern for self and an overwhelming loving concern for another. Not a static emotion, but a compulsion to meet the needs of someone else...
If you want an amazingly sobering and yet abundantly joyful reminder of the character of our God, take a little time and get lost in a study of the word "compassion" through the Old Testament and New Testament. There are tons of direct uses and even more indirect uses. Here, I'll help you get started:
Genesis 19:15-16, Deuteronomy 30:1-6, 2 Kings 13:22-23, 2 Chronicles 30:9, Nehemiah 9:5-32, Psalm 72:12-14 (prophesying of the perfect King), Psalm 103:11-17, Lamentations 3:31-33, Daniel 9:8-9 & 18-19, Hosea 2:23, Zechariah 10:6, Matthew 9:12-13, Matthew 20:34, Mark 8:1-8, Luke 7:12-15, Luke 15:20, James 5:11... that's just a few...
The reason I have life today, and more than that, life eternal, is a result of my great Creator's compassion and NOTHING else. He is compassionate. The writers and witnesses who knew His son Jesus, the visible image of the invisible God, continually wrote of specific instances displaying His compassion toward His people, whether friend or enemy. Granted, His compassion did not and could not exceed His zeal for His own glory and righteousness to be made known, so He remained steadfastly in stark opposition to sin. The Father had to be a fair judge. An unrighteous people could not be simply "let off the hook" without payment for their guilt and subsequent sentence. But His compassion led Him to the cross. Through a complete and utter emptying of Himself to the point of death, He paid for us and saved us. "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Colossians 2:13-14
So why is it that so many moments pass when my outward and inward life demonstrates a complete void of this knowledge, this attribute of compassion? How often, oh Lord, do I ignore and abandon this Spirit-led prompting, or miss it altogether?? I desire and pray to be like Christ, yet days pass without holy, unyielding concern for others... We are called to be consumed by His fire, and I find my pitiful wick at times is barely smoldering, struggling to remain lit. It's almost as if I fear giving myself over to this compassion. It IS crazy, after all. To sell all and follow Him, to serve and live for the sake of others...? Completely impractical at its best and scarily dangerous at its worst. What does it mean for me to care enough for my neighbor to give everything for them? To have compassion for those I do not even know? And who is my neighbor?
" 'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?' And he (the lawyer) said, 'The one who showed mercy toward him.' Then Jesus said to him, '
Jesus in no uncertain terms answered the man. He was asking the wrong question and Christ was pointing him toward the right one. It wasn't about who the neighbor was, but the one called to be a neighbor acting in compassion toward another... ANY other. That was what identified him as God's- and not what made him right before God, for that was accomplished by the compassionate sacrifice of the only worthy One, but what betrays to all others that we bear His seal and His Name. We must have compassion, and there is no definitive scope within which that is to be practiced. The Spirit prompts compassion, and we, therefore, must be compelled to act. And if we have stopped feeling that prompting, we need to get on our knees now and plead for it... a request which no doubt will be answered with a humbling reminder of our OWN need for a compassionate Savior.
"So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;"
So Lord, I pray that You would give me Your compassion toward my neighbor... Let me see as You see and feel as You feel. May my heart be wrung and broken, my life poured out to this end, but all the while, my eyes fixed on the Giver and Restorer of all things. And I pray that as You would do that in me, others might see You, and be led to follow You... The very One who first felt compassion toward me.
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