Compassion in Action

Scripture Reading

Luke 10:25–37 ESV

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Luke 10:

Intro

World News

People in a mad rush to get the supplies that they think they will need

People who see an opportunity to make a quick buck off of their neighbors instead of caring for their neighbors.

We think, what has the world come to today!

but I’m here to tell you this morning, that what we are seeing playing out in our empty toilet paper isles and barren hand sanitizer sections is absolutely nothing new.

For as long as there have been people, during times of need there has been panic, and there have been those seeking the opportunity to capitalize on that panic.

During times of famine, people have stockpiled food and sold it to those who could afford the higher prices.

During times of sickness, people have stockpiled medicine and done the same.

In short there have always been plenty of people who are willing to take advantage of their neighbors in their time of greatest need.

Yet on the other side of that there have also been people like Robert Trail.

You see Robert Trail was a preacher in the church of Ireland for 15 years in the mid 19th century.

And if you know your history, you’ll recall that in Ireland beginning in 1845, that a great blight struck the potato crop in Ireland and over the next several years the resulting famine would kill over 1 million people in Ireland.

What people don’t often realize about this famine, is that there was plenty of food, even in Ireland to care for those who were starving, but there was this attitude among the more fortunate that the farmers were getting what they deserved, that they were foolish to put all their eggs into one basket, that they should have diversified their crops, and so if they are starving it is their own fault, and so very little was done until it was much too late.

But during this time, Robert Trail began a campaign to seek help for those who were starving to death in his area. He wrote articles to the newspapers, he sought charity from those who could afford it, and he even turned his own home into a soup kitchen and wrote these words about the experience

“my house is more like a beleaguered fortress. Ere the day has dawned the crowds are already gathering. My family one and all are perfect slaves worn out with attending them; for I would not wish, were it possible, that one starving creature would leave my door without some-thing to allay the cravings of hunger”

One man wrote who saw the way that Robert Trail cared for those suffering,

“His humanity at the present moment is beyond praise.”

You see, Robert Trail was a man of compassion. As a follower of Christ he took seriously the words of Jesus that were read earlier in Luke the 10th chapter, the section of scripture that we are going to look at this morning and notice that we as Christians are called by Christ to do three things.

We are called to observe, we are called to compassion, and we are called to action.

Body

Christ calls us to Observe

The text says that all three of the men, the priest, the levite, and the Samaritan saw the man who had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead. But I believe that only one of these men truly observed the situation for what it was.

What I mean is this, do you remember what Jesus said to his disciples when they asked him why he spoke in parables?

Jesus spoke often about this phenomenon

Mark 4:10–12 ESV

10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”

Jesus tells us that there is a way to see and hear the world around us and even to process biblical teaching with ears that hear and eyes that see but in the end result in no real understanding.

Unfortunately I think this is all too often the case with us as followers of Christ. All too often I’ve heard brothers and sisters in christ, and I’ve even been guilty of this myself, of seeing some poor soul caught up in addiction, or some homeless person on the corner and instead of truly seeing that person for a precious soul that is loved by God I see them first as someone who has made their own decisions and now has to deal with the consequences that they’ve created for themselves.

And in so doing, in making what I’m seeing a surface level only judgement I give myself the excuse to do exactly what the priest and the Levite did in this parable of Jesus. I give myself permission to pass by on the other side.

But we are called not merely to see, but to observe.

That begins with having a heart that is conditioned, that is softened by the Word of God.

Who among us today can think back upon their lives and can attribute the turning point in their lives of sin and their conversion to Christ to someone who came into your life who had a heart that allowed them to see you for who you could be in Christ rather that who you were when you were trapped in sin?

Church, we are called to do more than see people for who they have become in their sins, and to observe who they are to God. A precious soul made in His image and for whom Christ died.

Christians throughout history have won untold thousands over to Christ because they were not only able to see with their physical eyes, and hear with their physical ears, but they also were able to observe and understand humanity through the eyes and the will of God Himself because their hearts had been softened by HIS WORD.

And that observation strips away every excuse that we have to pass by on the other side of the road. Instead it stirs up in us the next thing that Christ calls us to in this text:

The word there in

Christ calls us to Compassion v.33

The word there in the Greek is one that is familiar to us as we’ve talked about it recently,

splanchnizomai - The feeling of compassion that the king had for the servant that couldn’t pay back his debt, the feeling that comes from the pit of ones stomach, from within.

This kind of compassion doesn’t come when we see the world through physical eyes, when we see people as mere statistics and numbers on a page. It’s the feeling that comes from actually spending time with and getting to know people.

It originates in seeing them as a precious soul to God

and it becomes manifested in getting to know their stories, in understanding their struggles, in feeling their pain, and in loving them with the love of the Lord and wanting what is best for them.

Now there is an area in life where most people, even wordly people, are able to have compassion, and that’s within their own families isn’t it?

Even those who are atheists, those who don’t believe one single word of scripture are often able to find compassion for their parents, grandparents, children and great grandchildren.

And often we use that level of compassion as a measuring rod to ourselves don’t we?

Now don’t get me wrong, I fully believe in

Providing for our relatives and for our families is absolutely essential and failure to do it makes us deniers of the faith and worse than an unbeliever.

But how many of us, when we are truly honest with ourselves, need to really take a second look at what it truly means to provide for our household?

Now I want you to understand that I’m not stepping on your toes without having first stepped on my own in this.

And I’m not saying that it’s wrong to have nice things, I’m not saying that it’s wrong to go on vacation, I’m not saying any of that.

But what I am saying is that if we are neglecting compassion and passing by on the other side of the road on our way to purchase a vacation home in Hawaii all the while citing as justification by saying “I’m just providing for my family”, are we doing what is right in the sight of God?

Again, I’m not saying that it is impossible to do both.

But if our compassion does not lead to action, It’s not compassion at all, but instead it is just sympathy.

But Christians aren’t called to mere sympathy, we are called to compassion!

Where observing them with eyes and hearts softened by the word of God takes away our excuse to pass by on the other side of the road, compassion goes a step further in motivating us to action on behalf of the best interest of others.

Christ calls us to Action

Perhaps you remember what James wrote in chapter

James 2:14–16 ESV

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

Perhaps it could be said of the Priest and the Levite, that they saw the man and had sympathy for him. They may have even made a note in their minds that someone else should help that poor soul. Maybe the government, or perhaps the man behind us will have time to stop.

But not the Samaritan. The Samaritan in Jesus’s parable observed more than a republican, more than a democrat, more than a muslim, more than a jew, more than black, more than white, more than slave, he saw a neighbor whom he loved and had compassion for. That compassion led him not only patched the man up there on the side of the road, but also brought him to an inn, cared for him overnight, and left provisions for his care for the long term.

It’s this kind of action that Jesus says proves what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

And it is this compassionate action that has set Christianity apart from the world for thousands of years.

Conclusion

Church, we have an incredible opportunity during times of public panic and crisis to show unprecedented love to our neighbors!

I told you the story of Robert Trail this morning, not because he’s the only one to put his compassion into action, but because he is one of the few out of the thousands of Christians who have put their compassion in action over the last 2,000 years who has a name.

But the truth is that the church has always shone through the brightest in the eyes of nonbelievers in times of public crisis.

In Acts chapter 11 the church in Antioch recieved a prophecy that a great famine would effect the whole area of Judea, so the church there took up a collection for the relief of the brothers in Judea.

Historian Rodney Stark believes that one can trace the rise of Christianity to the three major plagues that occurred in the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th centuries.

In fact, the plague in the 3rd century was so bad that the pandemic is believed to have killed more than 5,000 people every day in Rome alone, and some cities had their population wiped out by more than 60 percent.

And you know what happened during that time?

People absolutely panicked! It is said that family members would take those who had fallen ill, and before they had died take out their elderly, their babies even, and throw them in a ditch at the side of the road out of fear of catching the disease themselves!

But Christians during this time and during every plague put their compassion into action and refused to pass by on the other side of the road. They would find the sick and dying on the sides of the roads and carry them into their own homes and care for them. They would treat the dead with respect and give them a proper burial. They loved their neighbors as themselves and so behaved as a light into a dark and dreary world.

One skeptical non-Christian emporer who was named Julian wrote this about the Christians during this time

He said, “The recent Christian growth was caused by their ‘moral character, even if pretended,’ and by their benevolence toward straangers and care for the the graves of the dead.”

In another letter he wrote, “The impious Galileans (Christians) support not only their poor, but ours as well, every one can see that our people lack aid from us.”

Brothers and Sisters, the church has a long history of putting our compassion into action during times of crisis.

Be encouraged during this time to continue in that tradition.

Instead of hoarding, give generously. Instead of contributing to the widespread panic, respond thoughtfully.

Call your neighbors and see what they need.