Church as Compassionate

Have you ever listened to a news story or read an article or saw something in your life that caused you to feel it in the pit of your stomach? Like the news or the image just grabs hold of you and sinks deep into your whole self?Our bodies react to the emotional events we see in our lives and hear in the news. We have phrases for this. There was a “sinking feeling in my stomach,” or there was a “knot in my gut” or “my stomach dropped.”

The Bible also has a word for this. It is “compassion.”

In the Gospels, Jesus looks on the crowd and has compassion (Matt 9:36; 14:14; 15:32 and Mark 6:34; 8:2) on them. This word used for Jesus having compassion means “in the guts.” It literally points to the deep level gut feeling. That when Jesus had compassion on the crowd, he had a gut level feeling of mercy for them. 

The crowds are “harassed and helpless” (Matt 9:26) and Jesus sees the only response as that of compassion. The same crowds exist today. People are harassed and helpless, people without a shepherd, and the God of the Universe sees the crowd with compassion. 

And He uses the church to accomplish His care for the crowd. 

Compassion is divinely given and divinely ordered.

The word compassion means literally to “suffer with.” We are called to join others in their difficulty, found at moments where people do not have what they need to move forward and are in despair because the world keeps pressing in and they don’t know how to press back.

These are tight spaces and abrupt corners of the world. These are places where people struggle because they do not have and cannot always communicate what it is they do not have. Suffering can feel like not having enough room to move or air to breathe. People want to have room and want to have enough air, but they do not.

The church is called to these too-tight spaces. Where the world presses in and people get tired of pressing back. The only response, the only answer to the call in social and psychological asphyxiation is compassion. We know this because God does this. 

We are going to look at a passage where God not only sees people in their struggle and brokenness but entirely associates with them.

Matthew 25:31–40 ESV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Compassion is hard work

It’s a strange intersection, being called to engage with people in their suffering. To comfort those with the comfort that God provides. Compassion is messy, it is hard and causes us to engage with our own suffering. But this is where we are called to find people as the church.

Evading Suffering at all Costs

But this is hard work because we have this cultural commitment to happiness at all costs and with that, a rejection of difficulty or loss. We have come so far in technological advancement, we have made such huge medical leaps, we have grown in global economics so much that suffering and struggling has taken to the back burner. It is no longer a priority in our experience. We think we can do enough to bypass it. With enough grit and perseverance and for only thousands of dollars a day, we can bypass aging or loss or physical limitations. We have begun to think that suffering is an option

And so brokenness and suffering seems like something that people choose rather than the norm of human experience. But the reality is people are still suffering and struggling, they are just doing it underneath layers and layers of instagram stories and health core trends.

We know this because there are areas in our lives we cannot bypass. In the more silent and quiet moments we recognize the lack that we live with. Or we see that people cannot absorb every loss and just “move on.”

Unavoidable Loss

We all face unavoidable loss. And the culture has done a terrible job preparing people for that 

The world has tried to mute suffering but it’s like trying to mute just one part of a dialogue on a movie. If you hit the mute button, everything goes silent.

It is a struggle to be human in the world and the church should be the first to stand as witness to say, “yes. yes it is.”

So much so that God had to become human in order to take on the heaps and heaps of sin and rejection and rebellion and hurt and agony and bitterness and anger and violence, being crushed underneath it, suffering as God and human but showing that no part of suffering has the last word. God raised Christ to say that ultimately every tear will be wiped away and as one of my favorite theologians, Samwise Gamgee, says, “all the sad things will come untrue.”

The church embraces the reality of suffering

The church is called to embrace that reality under the death and resurrection of Jesus. The church is uniquely postured to care for those our in the margins, the stranger and the ill, because we too, have been the stranger and the ones who have been sick. It is because of the compassion of Christ that we have any hope at all The church hangs onto that reality and when other people hurt, we don’t wash over it or pretend it isn’t there. We stand as a witness and not only say that it is a struggle to be human in the world, but also, I see you in your struggle as a human in the world and more importantly, Christ sees you in your struggle.

In every situation given in Matthew 25, every condition offered, the individual has gone without some kind of necessary help. Someone doesn’t have enough food or water. They are lonely and without community. They are shamed and naked, exposed and needing some kind of covering. They are sick or imprisoned. Having to go without a necessity, whether a community or a meal, is almost unbearable. Suffering reveals humanity's true need. It shows us the gift and limitation of the self. 

Compassion is God’s work

Compassion is the way to meet people in what they lack and suffer with them, meeting them where they are and seeing God for Who He is. The church is offered the opportunity to stand close enough to the other that to see the face of Christ.

Matthew 25:38–39 ESV

when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

The sheep are confused. When did we show compassion to the King. But then to all of creation’s surprise, the King Himself answers

Matthew 25:40 ESV

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

It is not simply that we are called to take compassion seriously, we are called to participate with God who has already taken compassion seriously.

The church is called to meet people in their suffering and sickness, in their anger and woundedness. Because it is there that God attends to the wounds and the sin.

We cannot escape the connection between the act of compassion and the face of Christ.

We see this incredible bookend happening in the passage. In the opening verses of the passage, 31-33, the King is revealed to be on the throne with the nations gathered before Him. Then He provides justice in judgement, separating the sheep and the goats.

King Jesus invites those who are blessed by the Father to inherent the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. The life that the King is about to describe is how life is intended with the Father. Think about this context where we understand compassionate action. All is laid bare. Nothing in all creation is a secret, nothing is hidden in the location of this passage. God is sitting “on his glorious throne.” The fact He is sitting tells us that He is actively ruling. Nothing is out of place.

God is speaking plainly here. And when we hear Him speak, it is not about how much we did or how loudly we spoke or how right we were. He did not praise the church for our beautiful buildings or fancy services or established politics. In His full rule and reign (this cannot be overstated) He points out one activity, did you care for people who did not have in such a way that they were able to receive?

The Face of Christ in the work of Compassion

There is no distance between the compassionate act and the face of Christ

There is no distance between the King and the poor.

Christ entirely represents Himself with those who are marginalized and impoverished.

The author Martin Buber tells a story that shows us the strange intersection and need for compassion.

“There is a tale that a man inspired by God once went out from creation and wandered till he came to the gates of the heaven. He knocked. A voice from within responded: “What do you want here?” The man said, “I have proclaimed your praise in the ears of mortals, but they were deaf to me. So I come to you that you yourself may hear me and reply.”

The voice from within the gate cried, “Turn back. Here is no ear for you. I have sunk my hearing in the deafness of mortals.”

God is to be found in the deafness of humanity. In need and muck and mire. Jaques Ellul states that Jesus is moved to compassion because he is faced “with man’s lowest condition.” In this Christ fulfills his role as Savior. He has compassion as He suffers with those who suffer. He takes on their suffering, he “suffers in their stead.” Jesus Himself bears the misery of the crowd, thier “desperation, and its mournful despondency, and makes them His own.” (Ellul, Jacques. 2011. The Meaning of the City. Translated by Dennis Pardee. Wipf & Stock Publishers. 127)

Christ recognizes and associates Himself completely with those without. He calls them brothers. This is a role of relational association. Those who have not are brothers with Christ. Sisters with Christ.

There is no state or condition or experience in which Christ cannot reach you and scoop you up. There is nothing on this earth that Christ cannot move and no place on earth Christ cannot reach.

Compassion becomes the Church’s Work

The church takes up the call of Christ’s connection to the broken and the humbled and the marginalized, the poor and the widow, the stranger and the immigrant.

We have to struggle with the brokenness of the world because we can do so and not grow tired of doing good. The life of Christ then is a struggle with the world as we both cleave to Jesus Himself and walk toward where He is, both as King of all of creation and eternity and as the humble poor and stranger. In doing this, we experience what Luigi Giussani explains as a life where an “affection for everything blossoms.”

(Giussani, Luigi. 2026. At the Origin of the Christian Claim: New Revised Edition. 1st ed. McGill-Queen’s University Press.86)

As we follow Christ we want to see our affection for everything blossom. Meaning we care well for those who do not have, Christ’s brothers and sisters.

I want you to hear a story about a way that this church has done this in the past. I’ve asked Andrea Cadle to come up and talk about it. She was a kid when this happened but we will see how God continues to work through generations of people as we take compassion seriously.