Witness through compassion

Matthew 9:35–10:8 ³⁵Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.

³⁶When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were troubled and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. ³⁸Therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest.”

^10:1Jesus called his twelve disciples to himself and gave them authority to drive out unclean spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. ²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee and his brother John; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

⁵Jesus sent these twelve out and commanded them, “Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶Go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ ⁸Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and in his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and establish you in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)

I grew up watching and loving the Looney Tunes. So, I was excited when I learned that the new streaming service, HBO Max, will be airing the old Looney Tunes cartoons.

But I wasn’t so excited to learn that HBO Max is making new Looney Tunes cartoons. The new cartoons may be funny, but they have already given in to our current cancel culture. Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam will no longer carry guns to go after Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck.

If the new Looney Tunes wants to be consistent with cancel culture, eventually other classic characters will need to be canceled – Speedy Gonzalez for being a stereotypical Mexican mouse, Pepe Le’ Pew for #MeToo abuses, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat for their portrayal of speech impediments, Foghorn Leghorn for his southern drawl and Bugs Bunny for dressing in drag.

Our current culture is working hard to cancel comedians, talk show hosts, musicians, actors and actresses, police, politicians, movies, TV shows, social media posts, tweets, statues and even theme park rides,

A U.S. Governor recently said this about cancel culture: “Let’s remember the sin and mistake that this nation made and let’s not celebrate it.”

That’s the essence of cancel culture, isn’t it? Remember the sins of the past. No allowance for forgiveness. No room for compassion.

That is exactly the opposite of everything Jesus teaches. Not acceptance of sins, but forgiveness for those sins. Not permissiveness for transgressions, but absolution for those transgressions. Not canceling people for their past, but offering compassion for the present and future.

Jesus was a man in motion. He healed a paralytic, a sick woman and two blind men. He raised another man’s daughter from the dead. He called others to be his disciples. H answered the questions posed by searchers and skeptics. All that in Matthew chapter nine! Matthew then writes: “Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.” Whew! Jesus was busy!

Why all this activity? Why all this urgency? Because the people were harassed by false prophets. Because they were harassed by forces of evil in this dark world. Because they were harassed by the guilt of their own sin and the fear of eternal death. And by themselves, they were helpless to do anything about it.

Look around you. What do you see? You see accusations of racism and privilege. You observe anger and bitterness. You notice fear and confusion. You are witnessing people who are “troubled and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus was a man in motion. But he took the time to stop and spend time with people – the people he had come to save.

With divine compassion, Jesus healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. But Jesus also sat and listened. He stood and taught. He undoubtedly held hands, gave hugs, cried together, laughed together, and prayed with and for those who were hurting.

He did all this because of his compassion. Compassion has been defined as love in motion. That’s why Jesus was a man on the move. He had compassion for the lost, troubled and downcast like us. His love moved him into motion.

To have compassion for someone does not mean wallowing with them in their misery. Rather, it is listening to them. Reaching out to them. Spending time with them. Helping them. Those are all action verbs. Love in motion. It is helping them by pointing them to something greater than themselves, their sins and problems. It is sharing Jesus with them. He is the cure for their ailments, the forgiveness for their sins, the mercy for their mistakes.

Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest.”

Jesus sends us out to witness his compassion to others in need of divine compassion.

In the abstract, we can feel compassion for lost sinners. In the concreate, however, compassion comes with much greater difficulty. We may help with prayers or groceries or gift cards. We may lend a hand or offer some assistance. But we are busy people. We lead our daily lives to meet our personal needs, earn a living and keep family together. Having true compassion takes time, effort, investment that we don’t really want to be part of. We may respond to a mission sermon or a plea for help. But normally, we don’t think about the lost. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s more that we don’t think about taking the time to care.

How different is the single-minded compassion of Jesus for lost sheep? His immaculate conception and perfect life to replace humanity’s sinful natures and imperfect lives. His baptism in the dirty Jordan River to take away the grime of humanity’s sins. His temptations in the desert to defeat the power of the devil in humanity’s lives. His redemption on the cross to pay for humanity’s crimes against a holy God. His resurrection that gives the promise of eternal life to all who believe in him. His ascension puts him at God’s right hand to rule all things for the good of his people’s salvation.

That is Jesus’ divine compassion of the lost.

Still, people want to cancel Jesus!

The removal of statues was never going to stop with Christopher Columbus. It was always going to move on to Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson for their role in the Civil War. It was then going to move to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for the sins of their times. It was then going to move to the statues and stained glass, the paintings and portrayals of Jesus. Presently, it’s because Jesus may be pictured as European instead of Jewish. There is a growing movement to cancel Jesus.

How sad that when we look into the face of God, we can only see the color of skin.

The rhetoric of the masses implies that Jesus only came to save those who look like him. They are emphasizing the differences in humanity and using those differences to separate us. They intentionally ignore the fact that those differences were created by the same loving God who can count every hair on all 7 billion humans on the planet.

Thank the Lord that Jesus has compassion on us! He does not treat us as our sins deserve. He does not treat us as we treat each other. He does not treat us as we treat him.

God could certainly comb through our old tweets and social media posts. He could recall our hate and racism and sexism. He could remember our wars, infanticide and genocide. He could see all that and decide to cancel humanity.

Instead, God did something really strange. It doesn’t make any sense in our unforgiving and unrelenting cancel culture. Instead of canceling humanity, God sent his Son to pay for the sins of the world. He offered to cancel forever the debt of sin of those who believe in him and accept his divine compassion. Compassion compelled Jesus to move to the cross and the grave, so that we might be moved from hell to heaven. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

Compassion for the lost. Only God can fill us with it. Jesus sought us out as sheep needing a shepherd. He gave his life for us on the cross. He personally binds up our wounds and forgives. But he also constantly places before us people who need his love and forgiveness. He moves us into action to look for and have compassion for lost sheep. He wants to use us to teach, feed, and heal them. How we need Jesus’ compassion for the lost!

And that is what Jesus’s compassion is all about. It is not a magical cure for our problems. It is a not a televangelist bopping us on the head proclaiming that we are healed.

God’s compassion is the word that cuts through our loneliness to join us to community.

God’s compassion in the words of absolution that forgives your past and gives you power for sanctified Christian living.

God’s compassion is the water of Baptism that washes, cleans and clothes us with Christ. The water that gives us new life – new life found in the community of sheep who also bear the scars and healed-over wounds of life.

God’s compassion is the bread and wine of life, the meal that nourishes us for the Kingdom. The food that can only be shared in community, that is served at the Shepherd’s table for hungry sheep.

God’s compassion that cancels our current cancel culture.

God’s compassion for the crowds and for us – even as we press in on a tired Jesus – is about reminding us that the Good News is that we are loved. We are forgiven, reconciled, and made whole in the One Body of Christ.

There is immediacy and urgency in Christ’s mission: “Preach ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Help people right where they are. Give them the healing balm for their wounds caused by hurt and anger. Give them hope of the resurrection as they face death. Give them the assurance of an eternal home as they see their homes destroyed by fire and violence. This is the blessing we are witness to as workers in the ripe harvest fields of our nation.

Compassion is love in motion. Jesus is calling you and pointing you toward the world – toward the world he loves, the world he redeemed, the world that is our mission field.

It is Jesus’ love in motion that moves us to action, too. The harassed and helpless, the troubled and downcast, the lost sheep without a shepherd need to know of their Savior! Though the love of most has grown cold, we witness Jesus’ compassion to them. Though many are trying to cancel Jesus, we let them know that Jesus does not cancel them.

It’s time for us to get moving to tell them! Amen.

May the Lord continue to direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s patient endurance. (2 Thessalonians 3:5) Amen.