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Sympathy or Compassion

This last Sunday I spoke of what it means to know Christ - not only as the Gospel promises us that he saves us, by Grace alone, through faith alone, in his own work alone - but also in personally knowing HIM, as our mediator... the one who stands before the Father on our behalf, making intercession with the Father for us.

The author of Hebrews says,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. [Hebrews 4:15-16]

You notice the words "sympathize with our weakness". Sympathize is a good word, but a better word would be "Compassion with our weakness". Thomas Goodwin was a 17th century Pastor who gave me some new insight into Jesus' compassion. Jesus has compassion on us in both our afflictions (sickness, pain, separation, etc...) and in our Sin too. Like a parent with a sick child he is not angry, but cares deeply for our needs.

I wanted to "muse" a bit on that somemore but didn't have time in our service. Yet when we think a bit more on how this we might want to think about the way we deal with each other in this area. Henri Nouwen helped me think this through some more.

God sent Jesus to make free persons of us. He has chosen compassion as the way to freedom. That is a great deal more radical than you might at first imagine. It means that God wanted to liberate us, not by removing suffering from us, but by sharing it with us. Jesus is God-who-suffers-with-us.

Over time, the word sympathizing has become a somewhat feeble way of expressing the reality of “suffering with” someone. Nowadays, when someone says: “I have sympathy for you,” it has a rather distant ring about it. The feeling, at least for me, is of someone looking down from above. The word’s original meaning of “suffering together with someone” has been partly lost. That’s why I’ve opted for the word compassion. It’s an along-side of you word; more intimate, and closer. It’s taking part in the suffering of the other, being totally a fellow human being in suffering. . . .

Jesus is the revelation of God’s unending, unconditional love for us human beings. Everything that Jesus has done, said, and undergone is meant to show us that the love we most long for is given to us by God, not because we deserved it, but because God is a God of love.

How can we do more than sympathize with those suffering? How can we have real compassion for their needs?

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