Sermon Transcript/Article - The Compassion of Jesus and Christian
Social Responsibility
Introduction
Compassion is a form of love that results in acts of
kindness and mercy. Compassion is stirred up within humans when they encounter people
who are suffering. The Bible speaks to us about compassion. In the Old
Testament - Zechariah 7:9 states "This is what the
LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one
another. In the New Testament, we read in Colossians 3:12 “as God's chosen
people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience.” In Exodus 22 we can learn about God’s
expectations concerning compassion. And throughout the Gospels (Mathew, Mark,
Luke and John) we can observe the compassionate example of Jesus. This message
is about compassion –not only the compassion of Jesus. But it’s also about the
compassion and social responsibility of Christians.
Text
- Exodus 22:21-31
In Exodus 22 vs 21 -31 (NIV) the Bible lists specific examples given by God to Moses
and the Israelites on how to apply the 10 Commandments. In these verses who
will hear about compassion and social responsibility.
21 “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were
foreigners in Egypt. 22 “Do not take advantage of the widow or
the fatherless. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will
certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I
will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children
fatherless. 25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you
who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. 26 If
you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because
that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in?
When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I
am compassionate. 28 “Do not blaspheme God or curse the
ruler of your people. 29 “Do not hold back offerings from your
granaries or your vats. “You must give me the firstborn of your sons. 30 Do
the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for
seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day. 31 “You are to be my holy people.
God’s
Holy People
This section of the Bible comes shortly after the 10 Commandments
that are listed in Exodus 20 and it is part of the laws listed throughout
chapters 21-23. These laws focus more on specific examples and case studies that
include - how to treat servants, issues regarding personal injury, protection,
and property, justice and mercy, social responsibility, how to worship, keeping
the Sabbath, and observing annual
festivals. All of these rules and laws were for the Israelites. God knew that
this large group of people which was now free from Egyptian control and slavery
was struggling with their human nature and they needed His guidance. They
needed to know how to get along with each other and to know what God expected
from them. God called the Israelites “His chosen people” and He set them apart
from the rest of the world in hopes that their holy living would be example to
others. They were to be followers of God. So, He gave them the 10 Commandments
and other rules to guide. These rules were not for the Egyptians, not for the
Canaanites or any other group of people around them. God was only addressing
His people that chose to follow Him. And that was stated in Exodus 22 verse
31when God said to Israel- You are to be my holy people. God had a special plan for the Israelites to be His representatives to
the other people living around them – the Gentiles (which includes everyone
else who isn’t Jewish) and this was so that the Gentiles could also come to
know God. He wanted the nations to be blessed through Israel. However, the
Israelites did not do a very good job at representing God. Instead of following
the 10 Commandments and His other rules, they betrayed God and followed the
foreign gods of the Gentiles. So God sent His Son, Jesus, to save the entire
world not just the Israelites. Jesus had a ministry on earth in which he
preached about God to all – including the Gentiles. He commissioned these new
followers of His, both Jews and Gentiles, to be the new blessing to the
nations. Romans 11 explains this by comparing Gentile believers to the branches
of a wild olive tree that have been grafted into the original cultivated olive
tree of Israel. So now Gentiles, too, are partakers of God’s promises and can inherit
His blessings of salvation. The final tree represents the collective people of
God, both the natural branches, which are the Jews, and the wild braches, the
Gentiles. So, this new group of collective believers is called the church –and
it includes all people, of every race and nationality who have chosen to become
followers of God.
So now the 10 Commandments and rules of God are for Jews and Gentiles, for His church, for His
individual followers to help them live holy lives. They are not for the entire
nation of America, or Egypt or any other
nation in the world. God did not intend for us to impose these laws and
commandments on everyone else who has no interest in following Him. God did not
call us to become the morality police. God wants His followers to focus on
themselves and doing what’s right. The people of God, the church, we are responsible
for our own behavior, not for everyone else’s behavior. You can’t force God’s
rules and instructions on people who don’t want them. So, putting up a list of
the 10 Commandments in a public building, will not force people to improve
their behavior. People only want to follow God’s rules after they have made a
commitment to follow Him and then they will have the Holy Spirit living in
them. The Holy Spirit changes each of us individually. We don’t have the human
ability to perfectly follow God’s rules of holy living, that’s why we need Jesus
as our Savior. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit living in us, to help us obey
Him, to help us show compassion the way that Jesus does.
Social
Responsibility in Exodus 20
Among
all these specific examples of how to apply the 10 commandments is a special
section listed in chapter 22 that I read earlier. It is about social
responsibility. In this section, God tells His people that He expects them to
show respect to everyone regardless of their social standing and other
differences. He gives specific examples of people that can be easily exploited such
as foreigners, widows, orphans, and the poor. God wants to make sure that the
most vulnerable in society are protected, because He knows how easy it is to
take advantage of these people. And unfortunately, we see this in our own
country. Yes. Here in the great United States of America people are being
exploited. For example: there are some employers taking advantage of immigrant
farm workers by underpaying them and giving them substandard living conditions.
There are children who cannot protect themselves that are being physically and
sexually abused. Elderly people are taken advantage of financially. Poor people
are offered payday loans with annual interest rates as high as 400%. There are
hate crimes targeting people based on their race, sexual orientation, or
religion. We even have human trafficking and under aged prostitution in this
country. And God hates this. He has mercy on those who are mistreated and
oppressed. Exodus 22, Vs. 27 even states God’s own words saying: When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Jesus
is Compassionate
In the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John - we learn much about Jesus, who is
God. The New Testament shows us multiple examples of the compassion of Jesus. Much
of what Jesus did during His ministry on Earth was done to show His credibility
– that He was sent from God, that He was God. But in addition to seeing His
credibility, His miracles show us the great compassion He had for people. And this compassion, a
reflection of God’s love, is what made Him so attractive. People gave up their
current lives and followed Him around traveling by foot. We see the compassion
of Jesus - when He freed demon possessed people from evil spirits, when He
healed blind people and those with leprosy. He also healed a woman with
internal bleeding, a paralyzed man, and a man with a withered hand, Simon
Peter’s mother-in-law, a Roman centurion's servant, and other people with other
physical conditions. Jesus showed compassion to a widow when he brought her
dead son back to life. In Mark 6 we see that a huge crowd of people showed up
to see and hear Jesus. Verse 34 says: “He had compassion on them, because they
were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.” And
then he fed this hungry group all the fish and bread that they could eat. In
Luke chapter 7, we see a woman who earned her living as a prostitute. She found
Jesus, worshipped Him by cleansing His feet with her tears and perfume. Jesus
knew her sinful life, but He showed her compassion, forgave her sins, and told
her to go in peace - that her faith had saved her.
Jesus also gave us examples
of how to have compassion through the example of the prodigal’s son and the
good Samaritan. In Luke 15 the prodigal’s son, who had left his father and
squandered away the wealth his father had given to him, returned home. Verse 20
says that when the father saw him, he ran to him, was filled with compassion
for his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Although the son did not
deserve forgiveness and to be accepted by his father – he was, because of His
father’s love and compassion. And this father’s example also represents God’s
love and compassion for us, too. We are so undeserving, we ignore God and we
insult Him, yet He is always waiting for us with open arms to welcome us back
with love and compassion. In Luke 10 we have the story of the Good Samaritan
told by Jesus himself. This example shows the compassion of a Samaritan (a
person considered to be in a low class, who crossed social boundaries to care for
a person in a different class.
Jesus had compassion for the marginalized members of
society. His compassion was liberating for women. Actually, Jesus’ relationship
with women was considered revolutionary and radical in a patriarchal society in
which women were treated as social and spiritual inferiors to men. Women were used
to being bartered off by their fathers and husbands. They had no property
rights and were not allowed to learn about spiritual truths. They were
considered unclean, untouchable, and in need of purification after their monthly
cycles and childbirth. But Jesus challenged the traditional gender restrictions
and taboos. He allowed women to touch Him, to speak with Him, and to eat with
Him. He healed women and forgave their sins. He taught them spiritual truths.
He encouraged them to witness for Him. He allowed women to travel with Him as
disciples and to help support His ministry of proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Jesus showed women compassion and He publically challenged their traditional
roles. Like the Prodigal, the Good Samaritan, and Jesus - we, too, are expected
to show compassion for all people regardless of their social standing, race, gender,
or religion. Jesus does not discriminate. He makes Himself, His love, and His
salvation available to anyone who wants to accept Him and follow Him.
Compassionate
Christians
In our country, we like to tell lawyer jokes and lawyers
don’t really have the best reputation for being compassionate, but in actuality
many lawyers are compassionate. In our own communities we have lawyers that
work for non-profit organizations who help represent women in domestic abuse
situations and low income people who don’t have the financial means to
represent themselves. One of the most impressive Christian ministries that I
have heard of is International Justice Mission. This organization has a global
team of lawyers, investigators, social workers, and community activists working
to rescue victims of slavery, child prostitution, and police brutality. They
use the court system to hold human traffickers and other criminals accountable.
They also provide counseling and help for the survivors of this violence and
abuse. What a wonderful way for Christians to show compassion.
Mother Teresa was one of the most well-known
compassionate women. She dedicated her life to serving Jesus by showing
compassion to those who weren’t being cared for. She established homes for
those with leprosy, orphanages, a nursing home, health clinics, hospices for
the dying, and a home for people infected with HIV/AIDS. She rescued children
from a hospital in a warzone. She ministered to the hungry in Ethiopia and
radiation victims at Chernobyl. Her example motivated many other people to live
out compassion in their own lives. At the time her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries
of Charity had over 4,300 sisters and brotherhood serving in her 610 missions
in 123 countries.
Henri Nouwen, not only was he a pastor and priest,
college professor, writer and public speaker, but he was also the personal
caregiver for a disabled man and he dedicated himself to praying for people. He
had this to say about compassion. “When
I really bring others into my innermost being and feel their pains, their
struggles, their cries in my own soul, then I leave myself, so to speak, and
become them; then I have compassion. Compassion lies at the heart of our prayer
for our fellow human beings. When I pray for the world, I become the world;
when I pray for the endless needs of the millions, my soul expands and wants to
embrace them all and bring them into the presence of God. But in the midst of
that experience I realize that compassion is not mine, but God’s gift to me. I
cannot embrace the world, but God can. I cannot pray, but God can pray in me.”
Conclusion
and Application
Jesus was compassionate. His compassion and holiness is
what made him attractive to the people who didn’t yet know Him. They were drawn
to Jesus and accepted His message about God, because of the kind and
compassionate way that He acted. He didn’t win converts by demanding that
people follow His rules. The rules of holy living came after they made a
personal decision and commitment to follow Him.
The application for this sermon is pretty straight
forward. We, His followers are to be imitators of Jesus and represent Him well
to others. Therefore, we too are to show compassion. And we have multiple
opportunities throughout our community and the world. We can start by showing
compassion to our own family members, even our own children. What a wonderful opportunity
and honor it is that parents can represent the compassion of Jesus to their
children. We can pray that Jesus will open our eyes to the needs of people in our
workplace. We can encourage people in our community by volunteering at the
homeless shelter and soup kitchens and other social service entities. We can
show compassion to people throughout the world by financially supporting
children through sponsorship programs and supporting ministries that meet the
various needs of those who are suffering. And there are so many more ways to
show compassion. Jesus knows you well and if you ask Him, He will give you a
special way to show compassion – a way that works well with your personality
and your opportunities. People are emotionally overwhelmed with their problems.
They need God’s people to care and to help. Showing the compassion of Jesus is
a wonderful way to live as a witness for Him.
