Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
For the last couple of weeks, we have been building up to this text.
Jesus’s last beatitude was informing us that those who are hated, excluded, insulted, and slandered are blessed and therefore ought to rejoice when persecuted because their reward is great in heaven.
And then last week we saw that Jesus built on that idea with the idea of extreme love.
How we are to express that love for our enemies—those with whom we have hostility with and that as we do so, we are seek a reward from God’s hand.
We aren’t loving and kind so that we can receive back from those to whom we’ve been kind and loving, but so that God rewards us in heaven.
This morning, we come to the nitty-grittiness of it.
In many ways, it is the conclusion of this whole thought process of being blessed despite persecution.
And as we get into the text, I want us to see how compassion acts in our every day lives.
And so I want us to observe four characteristics of compassion as we go through this text.
The first characteristic is compassion lives a life of exoneration.
The second characteristic is that compassion lives a life of exuberance.
The third characteristic is that compassion lives a life of exemplification.
And finally the compassion lives a life of examination.
Exoneration
Exuberance
Exemplification
Examination
Compassion Lives a Life of Exoneration
The first characteristic that we come to when reading this text is that compassion lives a life of exoneration.
I struggled with this one as I was studying and writing out this sermon.
And the reason is because of what it might insinuate.
Because if we use a word like exonerate, then it might convey an idea that we are not allowed to seek justice when justice is what is called for.
But that isn’t actually what exoneration means.
What exonerate means is to literally release one from a burden.
It does not mean to be found innocent.
Many criminals are exonerated of their crimes.
They may be declared not guilty, but not guilty and innocent are two different realities.
Not guilty simply means there was not enough evidence to convict of the crime committed.
Innocent means that a person did not commit the crime at all.
Thus both innocent and guilty people can be exonerated—both have the burden of the crime released from them—there is no punishment received.
But that doesn’t mean that both are in the same boat.
Compassion lives a life of exoneration.
It releases an offender of the burden of offending you.
Or as Paul said in 1 Corinthians.
Love holds no record of wrong.
This is what Jesus is getting at in
The idea of judging and the idea of condemning are the same idea.
This is what we call a parallelism.
It’s saying the same thing in two different but connected ways.
So if we misunderstand what judgment means, we can look to the parallel phrase and see that judgment here does not mean that we cannot make a moral judgment as to what the person did.
Jesus would call out the Pharisees and Sadducees for their teachings and even their judgmentalism.
Jesus isn’t referring to moral judgments.
A sin is a sin is a sin, and we can see it for what it is and say that it is a sin.
What we are being cautioned about is condemning the person for whatever reason—whether sin, preference, shortcomings, or even persecution.
We see this most clearly with the woman caught in adultery, in which the leaders want to stone her to death (condemn), but Jesus refuses, showing compassion instead.
He tells her to go and sin (a judgment of what she did)—go and sin no more.
Exoneration.
Compassion doesn’t judge/condemn.
Now I have been using that word “compassion” quite a bit and you may be wondering why.
Where did this idea of compassion even come from.
It’s not in the text anywhere!
But it is.
It’s easy to leave behind a train of thought, when we get to a stopping point—a train station.
We were in the middle of a train of thought last week, when I ended the sermon.
We got off the train at the train stop and all went home for the week.
Now that we’re back, we’re boarding a train, and if we aren’t observant, we may think we’re on a whole new train of thought, but we’re not.
We got back on the same train headed for the same destination.
Let’s look back up to verse 36 for a moment.
That word merciful is different than the word that is usually translated as merciful.
In fact, this word in the Greek is used only three times in the New Testament.
Twice in Luke and once in James.
The two times in Luke are right here in this verse.
Let’s jump to
The infinitive form of the verb is found in
The word for compassionate in James and compassion in Romans is the same word Luke used right here.
The word is used 17 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and 14 of those times it is translated as compassion or compassionate.
It actually means to feel lament for someone, leading to action favorable to them.
So how then, what is one characteristic of compassion?
It is not to condemn, but instead to live in exoneration.
We forgive.
If our lives are characterized in non-compassionate ways, then we have a critical spirit, a condemning spirit, and unforgiving spirit.
This isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.
None of God’s commands are easy.
But as Augustine so famously stated, “O Lord, command what you will and give what you command.”
If God requires us to be merciful—to be compassionate—then he must give what he commands.
Or better yet, as Paul prayed in
Compassion exonerates, it does not hold the burden of offence over the head or causes their shoulders to bear the weight of the offense any longer.
It keeps no record of wrongs.
It doesn’t bring up the offense time and time again, causing the offender to relive it.
It doesn’t passive-aggressively or subtly point it out when things get heated.
Compassion exonerates and forgives.
And the promise comes with it.
If you don’t judge, you won’t be judged.
If you don’t condemn, you won’t be condemned.
If you forgive, you will be forgiven.
Compassion Lives a Life of Exuberance
But it is not only that compassion lives a life of exoneration.
It also lives a life of exuberance.
Following the idea of exoneration—not condemning, but forgiving, Jesus added, that if you give, it will be given to you.
And the idea is to become a giver!
The idea is to become a generous man, woman, or child.
It is not not be stingy.
And as Paul wrote in
So our giving is to be abundant and exuberant.
I say abundant and exuberant because it is this kind of giving that is rewarded.
Now I need a couple of volunteers and Michael and Savannah have graciously accepted my invitation.
And as a reward for their volunteerism, they get to eat ice cream the rest of the service.
But how much is up to them.
So I would like one of you to come up to make the other person an ice cream sundae.
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