Sympathy and Compassion

It’s Memorial Day. Does it seem like that to you?  Perhaps since you have been homebound, “what day it is” has lost its significance.  Holidays are just another day.  I know for Martie and me that has been the case since we went on the mission field.  Trouble and misery do not take holidays.  Just this last Christmas, I received a call from someone we are helping repair their home. The husband has a terminal illness – ALS. Their lives have been upended.  Priorities shifted. Dreams derailed.  The trouble was a gas leak in the kitchen. They needed help. On Christmas.  Why call me?

Because they knew or hoped that I would help – even if it was Christmas morning.  Understanding the danger and the immediacy of the situation, I called a plumber that I use for the homes we repair damaged by Hurricane Harvey. But on Christmas?

He did what was necessary to stop the leak – got the gas company involved – on Christmas.  I am not sharing this so you might be impressed with me.  I am sharing this to make a point. Trouble never comes at a convenient time. The question is, “Are you willing to be inconvenienced when it shows up on somebody else’s door step?”

The pastor at the church we attend has been preaching on the book of Job.  Job is one of those Old Testament books that you read, but you may not call your favorite – it might not even make your top 10 of the 66 books of the Bible. Honestly, the only verse from Job that I tucked away in my memory is “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” [Job 15:13]

But it was chapter 22 that got my attention. Job’s friend Eliphaz was accusing Job for the third time – trying to get him to repent convinced that Job must have sinned to have such terrible things happen to him. Eliphaz said

“For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, And stripped the naked of their clothing. You have not given the weary water to drink, And you have withheld bread from the hungry……. You have sent widows away empty, And the strength of the fatherless was crushed.” – Job 22:6-7

What struck me was that the charges Eliphaz made were the same that Jesus made when He was separating the sheep from the Goats in Matthew 25 and what James defined as pure religion in James chapter 1.

Jesus said -

 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:  for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” – Matthew 25:41-46

James wrote

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble” – James 1:27

Do you see it? Eliphaz was bring the same charges against Job that Jesus brought against the “Goats”. And what James said was proof of right faith and living.  I love it when the Lord shows things like this to me.  But He never shows me without purpose.  So, back to the title of the devotion. Sympathy and Compassion.

As Christians we have been called to be more than merely sympathetic for other people.  The priest and the Levite that walked past the man in the ditch may have felt sorry for him (sympathy) but were not inclined to let their lives be interrupted for someone they did not even know.  No, they have much too important things to do. Compassion is sympathy with hands and feet.  It is not just feeling sorry for someone’s trouble, but doing what you can to help them in their time of trouble. Compassion always costs the one showing compassion. It is not a loss it is a sacrifice – an offering.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

I have taught on these verses in the past and have thought of them in terms of bringing comfort to people who experience the same thing that I have experienced. That is empathy. But I have skipped over the words “who are in ANY trouble” meaning that it doesn’t matter what they are facing – to bring godly comfort to them does not require that I must have experienced the same life struggle that they are experiencing.  The focus is on God’s comfort, not mine.  The love of God – Agape – poured out through us. We know that God is able because He has comforted us. The comfort we can give is sweet – a balm – but oh so much more comforting if we have faced the same trouble.  We may not relate to the specific problem, but we can relate to a gracious God  in whom we found comfort in our affliction. The Good Samaritan didn’t help the man who had been robbed and beaten and left in the ditch because that had happened to him. He did it because of his love for others – a love that went beyond merely feeling sorry for this trouble. 

Oh – one other thing …… Eliphaz was wrong about Job!

Who has God placed in your path, your life, when it was not convenient, when it meant going beyond feeling sorry for them – knowing you could offer comfort – but it would cost you something – disrupt your plans – cost you time, emotion, maybe even a holiday or two.