Pentecost 3
What does “compassion” look like? Jesus’ reaction to the dead son of the widow
of Nain shows us. But wait! Jesus was
Jesus and we clearly are not. How can we
expect to be compassionate as he was compassionate? We certainly can’t raise widow’s sons from
the dead! On the other hand, Paul
writes, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
So, what does Christ’s compassion look like in this
story? First, Jesus is out on the streets
when this miracle takes place. He is not
sitting in a synagogue waiting for the widow to come to him with her
sorrow. In the same way, we need to get
out of our churches and into our communities – looking for the widows and
widows sons who are all around us all the time, yearning for new life to touch
them in the midst of death. Second,
Jesus sees her need… and acts. He
doesn’t get the disciples together for a committee meeting to discuss what
should be done. He simply acts. We
cannot sit in our churches debating what we should do about the suffering and
searching people around us. We need to
get out there and act. We need to let
our neighbors set our churchly agendas.
We cannot try to impose our agendas upon them. Finally, like Christ, we need to give
life. Judgment, recriminations, demands
and legalism do not have a place in Christ’s work of compassion. The woman does not even ask for Jesus’
help! His action is driven by
compassion. Nothing more. Sure, we may not be able to resurrect the
dead, but we are able to bring life into the dark places in people’s lives and
in a world where death too often reigns.
We are resurrection people and we
believe in a God who can and does bring life, abundant life, in even in the
face of death.
Jesus does not raise the widow’s son in order to add numbers
to his disciple band. That is not his
goal. That is never his goal. His goal is to make the Reign of God known in
word and deed. When people’s lives are
changed by that gift of compassion, mercy, grace, forgiveness and love, they
cannot help but follow. In the same way,
we do not go out into the world in compassion, service and love to fill our
pews. We go out because compassion is
what Christ’s disciples do. We go out
because we know the power of God’s Reign to change the world and know we cannot
in good conscience keep it to ourselves.
People will want a piece of that!
Guaranteed! But, as soon as
recruitment becomes our primary goal, we will fail. Every time.
What does “compassion” look like? We only need to look at the life and ministry
of Jesus to find out.
Peace,
Bishop Mike.
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