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I’m always amazed at Jesus. Scripture shows us chapter by chapter the incarnate (in the flesh) side of Jesus: struggling with loss and betrayal; finding joy in celebrations and human discoveries; processing anger and resisting anxiety. Jesus was filled with compassion, sorrow, joy, and frustration. Jesus experienced our stuff. In Matthew 14:6-14 we find out that John the Baptist was murdered by Herod. John was Jesus’ cousin, just three months apart. He was also the forerunner for Jesus, announcing that the Messiah/Savior was here, and to get ready. Kind of like a living announcement for the Kingdom of God. When Jesus finds out that John was murdered, He goes off to be alone, and deal with the heavy amount of grief He was experiencing. The crowds that followed Jesus found out where He was off to, and went after Him for help, healing, and teaching. When Jesus saw them coming, it says that He was filled with compassion, and healed them, even performing a miracle to feed them all! Now, wait. I can barely handle when I’m having a bad morning, and yet at one of the certifiably real difficult moments of Jesus’ life, He’s responding to other people’s needs. Yikes. But maybe therein lays the secret: our own personal loss and pain isn’t disconnected to the way we can serve others. Jesus didn’t let pain prevent His reaching out; instead, it fueled it. He connected to their loss through His own pain, and it motivated His service. Compassion: empathy with feet. God, never let me become isolated in my own pain to the exclusion of who you’re bringing my way. |
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Have you ever walked through the perfume area at Macy’s? Whenever I do, I think two things:
1. Will I make it through here without passing out? If you’ve ever been in a space where just a little perfume has been in the air, you know it. A small dab will linger. So imagine a whole jar! As a woman poured out her perfume on Jesus, the disciples were furious! It should have been used for this, or for that! Jesus rebukes them. This woman was doing something beautiful and significant to Jesus: anointing Him for His burial. Which meant that this woman recognized the sacrifice that was coming, and was offering worship to Him. Does this still happen today? Could it be that when we judge others for what they are doing (or not doing) for God, that we are putting ourselves in the same place as the disciples? The biggest problem the disciples had wasn’t their focus (helping others), but idolatry. Their own deeds were the point, not Jesus. And because of that, the power behind their service would be impotent, because it would be self-fueled and self-serving. When we self-righteously judge our service as superior to others, we’ve missed it. Our good deeds have become our god. And that’s the real waste. God can always find another jar of perfume; what he wants is our hearts.
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(c) 2009 the fountainChurch |
Compassion:
Empathy With Feet
