Acts of Compassion
Have you ever done something that ordinarily you wouldn’t do, but you did it anyway because of compassion?
My guess is that every parent in the room has experienced this phenomenon.
Under ordinary circumstances, none of us when we were in our 20’s would willing take an infant that had just dropped 5 pounds into a diaper, remove that diaper, clean that baby’s bottom & put a new diaper on EXCEPT that this child in front of us now belongs to us. Most of us wouldn’t do that for anyone else’s child. It’s disgusting! We would barely do it for our own child. But because of love we’re willing to do something that ordinarily we would never want to do.
Under normal circumstances, if we saw that or… smelled that… we would turn & go the other way.
But, because of love in order to make things right we’re willing to change directions & move towards the mess.
The Problem of Disgust
The problem we all share is that we have this instinct inside of us called disgust. And when faced with disgust we often go in the opposite direction. It’s how we’re wired. Richard Beck talks about this idea at length is his book, Unclean.
One of the first things we have to do is be honest, put our cards on the table & admit that there are certain things, certain situations, certain people that trigger disgust in us.
The struggle we face as followers of Jesus is that because of Jesus, there are things that we should do, things we wouldn’t ordinarily do, but things we should do because of love that, if we’re honest, we have a hard time doing & more often than not simply choose not to do.
The Direction of Jesus
What’s interesting about the way Mark tells the story of Jesus is that over & over again Jesus encounters people who are different. People who, at least for most people, trigger disgust. People that most people move away from.
But Jesus, even though they are considered “unclean” for different reasons, doesn’t move away. He moves towards.
In every situation Jesus show us a different way forward.
In Mark 1.40-45, we find this story…
A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus,
You may know this, but leprosy was a serious skin disease. In the days of Jesus it was incurable.
By law, if you had leprosy you were unclean. You were impure. You were considered an outcast. You had to live outside the community separated from everyone else. Consequently, not only were you separated from community you were unable to go to the temple to worship.
In a sense, not only were you separated from people you were also separated from God.
If people were on a journey & they were walking towards you & you had leprosy, you had to shout out, “Unclean, unclean,” so that they would know to keep their distance from you. They had to keep their distance so that they would not become impure & also, so that they wouldn’t catch whatever it was you had.
When you saw someone with leprosy, what was triggered inside of you was disgust. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. People could be disfigured from leprosy. The sight was something you wanted to avoid, shield your children from & keep your distance from.
But this man CAME to Jesus… he broke the rules & approached Jesus, he knelt down in front of Him & Jesus didn’t move away.
Jesus allowed him to come near. Jesus didn’t read him the law of Moses & tell him to back up.
Jesus let him move close.
Jesus could have walked the other way, he could have kept his distance & no one would have faulted him for it. But He didn’t.
Jesus let the man with leprosy come near & instead of being disgusted, Jesus watched as the man knelt before him…
begging to be healed.
In humility & desperation, this man kneels before Jesus & begs Jesus to heal him.
What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
This man came to Jesus & revealed to Jesus the most disgusting thing about himself.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever revealed to another person the thing that above all else you would prefer to keep hidden?
Disgust not only makes us go in the other direction from others who we find disgusting to us, it makes us hide what we think is disgusting about ourselves from others.
Maybe the bravest thing we’ll ever do is bring the very thing that we keep hidden, the very thing that we think is most disgusting, most shameful, about ourselves, before Jesus & pray this prayer…
“If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.
Notice this man’s posture & this man’s faith.
This man knows his condition. He knows his need. So he approaches Jesus in complete humility kneeling before him. He comes to Jesus begging for his help.
He believes that Jesus has the power & the ability to do for him what no one else can do.
But he doesn’t demand anything of Jesus. He simply says, “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean…”
If this man had approached any of us, we probably would have turned our heads in disgust.
Most of us would have looked the other way & walked in the opposite direction.
But Jesus didn’t turn away in disgust at the man’s appearance or condition.
The Way of Compassion
Jesus saw this man, saw his condition, saw his sickness, saw his separation from community & from the opportunity to worship God, and Mark says that Jesus was…
Moved with compassion,
Jesus was literally MOVED with COMPASSION.
Jesus felt something for this man, & what He felt wasn’t disgust, it was compassion.
What’s interesting about this is that in some of the earliest manuscripts we have of the gospel of Mark, the word here isn’t compassion… it’s anger.
In other words, Jesus sees this man, sees his condition, sees his disease, sees his brokenness, sees his separation from community, from family, from those he loves & those that love him, sees his separation from God & from the worship of God because of his condition & all of this moves Jesus to anger.
Jesus is moved to anger at this man’s condition because this is NOT the way things are supposed to be. When Jesus created the world, He never intended for people to suffer from such horrible diseases. None of this was a part of His original creation. All of this brokenness came only after sin entered the world. And this brokenness made Jesus angry.
Have you ever been angry because things are not the way they are supposed to be?
Maybe you’ve gotten the call that you or someone you love has cancer & what you feel in your gut is anger at the cancer?
Or maybe someone you love passed away from this life to the next & you’re angry at death?
Maybe you’re angry at the illness. Angry at the job loss. Angry at the break in. Angry at the divorce. Angry at the way people are acting. Angry at the thing that thing that is making things not right!
In his anger & in his great compassion…
Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,”he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.
Jesus, moved by compassion, made a move to remove the separation this man was experiencing because of his sickness from people & from God. Jesus made a move to restore him to community & restore him to worship.
Jesus was so moved by compassion that nothing could separate this man from His love, not even leprosy.
[Tweet “Jesus is so moved by compassion that nothing can separate us from His love.”]Jesus was so moved he touched this man who was by law untouchable. Who even knows the last time this man felt the loving touch of another person?
Jesus, moved by great compassion, is showing us there’s another way. What once led to disgust now leads us to great compassion.
It’s Your Move
How can you let the love of God MOVE you to do things the you might not normally do?
Over & over again Jesus moves towards the outcast, the marginalized, the weak, the sick & when most people would turn & go in the other direction, Jesus, moved with compassion, moves toward the mess.
If you want to make things right you may have to change directions.
[Tweet “If you want to make things right you may have to change directions.”]And when you change directions & move towards the mess, then you too are moved with compassion.
Will you let love move you to make things right?
After Jesus touched the man with leprosy & healed him, Jesus told him not to tell anyone. Jesus wasn’t ready for the whole world to know who He was just yet.
But here’s what Mark said happened…
But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened.
Why did the man tell everyone what Jesus had done for him?
Because Jesus had saved his life.
And that happened because instead of being filled with disgust Jesus was moved with compassion.
[Tweet “Let love move you to make things right.”]How about you? It’s your move!
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