Sermon Tone Analysis

| *The Master Has Come - And Is Moved With Compassion* \\ Sermon  by   |   |

 

| There lived in India a well-known poet named Tagore.

One morning his servant was late coming to work.

Tagore became more angry by the minute as he waited for him to arrive.

Finally, the servant came in and began his duties.

Tagore had already decided to fire him.

He said, "Stop what you are doing and get out.

You are fired."

The man kept sweeping and said, "My little girl died last night."

\\ \\ This incident points up one of the great needs in the world today - the need for compassion.

Compassion has been defined as "sorrow for the sufferings of another, with the urge to help."

But, we have cheapened the word.

When we hear the word "compassion," we really think of pity - and we hear such nauseating phrases as "pity the fool."

Pity is not worth a plug nickle.

It was pity that caused one man praying in the temple to say, self-righteously, "I am thankful I’m not like that man over there."

\\ \\ No, we do not need any more pity.

We have had enough of that.

What the world longs for is compassion.

George Buttrick, in The Interpreter’s Bible, wrote that the word we translate as "compassion" is a much stronger word, meaning "the pain of love."

That’s it.

Compassion is the pain of love.

\\ \\ The Master has come - and is moved with compassion.

\\ \\ After Jesus had announced the theme of his campaign, "The Kingdom of God is at hand," and had chosen twelve to be disciples, he set out on a preaching tour which carried him to small towns and villages.

\\ \\ Matthew tells us that Jesus taught in the synagogues, and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Not only that - he also healed those who had diseases and infirmities.

As his fame began to spread, large groups of people came to hear and see him.

They hung on every word.

They longed for the healing touch.

\\ \\ Then, Matthew says, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

(Matthew 9:35-38) It was not pity Jesus had.

He did not feel sorry for these people.

He felt the pain of love.

\\ \\ We see this compassion of Jesus, this pain of love, in other places.

On one occasion, a large crowd had come to hear him.

After he had healed the sick he said to the disciples, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."

He took the loaves and the fish and fed the people.

\\ \\ On another occasion he went to the city of Nain.

A man who had died was being carried out of the city, the only son of a widow.

Luke wrote, "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’

" Jesus restored the young man’s life.

\\ \\ Then, once when Jesus was preaching in Galilee, a leper came up to him and said, "If you will, you can make me clean."

Mark reports, "And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’

" \\ \\ Everything Jesus did was rooted in this compassion - the pain of love.

His words - the stern words, the comforting words, the healing words, the forgiving words, all had their root in the pain of love.

His deeds of mercy stem from compassion.

All the miracles of Jesus grew out of the pain of love.

Never did Jesus do a miracle just for the sake of a miracle itself.

Never did he try to impress an audience.

No, instead you see Jesus being moved with compassion.

He sees a pain, a hurt, a sorrow, a loss - and the pain of love causes him to reach out to touch, to lift, to help, to heal, to forgive, to transform, to encourage, to challenge.

\\ \\ The Master has come - and is moved with compassion.

There are three things to remember about the compassion of Jesus.

\\ \\ I \\ \\ We see the pain of love in incarnation.

\\ \\ It is the compassion God felt for his creation that caused Him to send Jesus Christ into the world.

"Incarnation" is a fancy word which means God took on human flesh, and came into our experience.

The pain of love was the motive force behind that incarnation.

"God so loved the world that he gave his only son ..." \\ \\ God knew this was necessary because in spite of everything he had done for his children, still they were in trouble.

He made them a covenant they had not kept.

He gave them a law they had not obeyed.

He sent them prophets they had not heeded.

So now God would send them his Son to love them - to care for them, to touch them, to reveal himself to them, to win them, to convince them, to compel them.

\\ \\ Wherever Jesus went to help - and lift - and encourage - and heal - we see there the heart of God, the love of God, the compassion of God, the pain of God’s love.

\\ \\ Love is often painful.

\\ \\ A young woman fell in love with a young man.

They were going on a picnic.

It was their first date.

She was afraid he would find out how near-sighted she was.

So, she went out to her uncle’s farm, where they were to have the picnic, and stuck a pin in a tree.

Later, as they were eating, she said, "Oh, look.

Someone left a pin in that tree."

She ran to retrieve it, and tripped over a cow.

\\ \\ Love is often painful.

\\ \\ But, the pain of God’s love is good news for us because we are often like the people Jesus touched - the fallen, the blind, the deaf, the sinners, the lost, the least, the despised, the unloved.

We are those people.

\\ \\ A little first-grader hurried into the classroom and said, "Teacher, two boys are fighting on the playground, and I think the one on the bottom wants you."

\\ \\ We sometimes feel life gets us down.

God has sent Jesus Christ to rescue us - to show us the way, to help us, to meet us, to lead us.

\\ \\ An old rabbi told a story of a boy who ran away from home.

He was one-hundred days’ journey away.

He sent his father a message that he wanted to come home, but he did not think he could make it.

His father sent him a message back: "Go as far as you can, and I will come the rest of the way to meet you."

\\ \\ God has done that in the incarnation.

\\ \\ II \\ \\ Second, we hear the pain of love in identification.

\\ \\ The pain of God’s love, which sent Jesus into the world, is heard in his identification with us.

For not only did Jesus come into the world, he became like us.

He became one of us.

He identified himself with us completely.

\\ \\ Saint Paul wrote in Philippians, "Though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross."

\\ \\ Jesus Christ emptied himself.

He changed places.

He gave up the highest status and took the lowest, that of a servant.

He became obedient unto death on the Cross.

The pain of God’s love, goes that far.

It runs that deep.

We hear it in Jesus identifying himself with us.

\\ \\ Martin Luther heard it.

As a young man he wanted to be a lawyer.

One day he was nearly struck by lightning - and decided to become a monk.

But he lived a life of fear.

Then he taught a course on the Psalms at Wittenberg University.