FROM THE PASTOR

Finding compassion in Christ

We find the word “compassion” used a lot lately.  We speak about the compassion of those who are the first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic.  We may question the lack of compassion of some who think differently than ourselves.  

Compassion is used nine times in the Gospel’s describing one of the chief attributes of Jesus.  In this weekend’s Gospel, it is said that Jesus had compassion on the people that he was ministering to – because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Jesus also had compassion on the disciples who were tireless working to bring healing and wholeness to the people of Galilee.  Jesus invited them to a deserted place where they could find rest and re-creation for their ministry.

A precondition for compassion is the unconditional solidarity with the ones for whom you stand.  Jesus compassion for the crowd is the mark of his identification with his children….but that mark of complete identification would not be fully achieved until he would hang on the Cross at Golgotha, when He chose to go all the way – identifying with our personal experience in birth and life, but also in death. 

We are told by Plato in a statement attributed to him, that the highest form of knowledge is empathy.

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge.
It requires no accountability, no understanding.
The highest form of knowledge is Empathy,
For it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world”  Plato

Many of us are fatigued by the past year and a half…..for some we are physically depleted, while still others of us are emotionally or spiritually depleted…..we understand what it means to feels to be sheep without a shepherd…..needing to feel the touch of Jesus who has compassion on all the sheep – who is in unconditional solidarity with each one of us in our pain, sickness, exhaustion, grief, or sadness…..

Know that your God – the great shepherd of all the sheep, is in complete solidarity with each of us…..that you can entrust to God in prayer all that separates you from being made whole….Jesus is full of compassion for each one of us who are struggling in anyway at this time….

See you in Church!
Pastor Johnson