Truth & Compassion:

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence -1 John 3:18,19

Christ’s compassion should have earned Him a Nobel Prize, why did it crucify Him?

Because it was not merely a gut-level response to pictures of starving children. It welled up out of a prophetic insight into the root causes of human misery. Jesus dealt with the source of human suffering — Sin.

Seeing a blind beggar, the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). The question blamed the innocent man and/or his parents. It sought to rationalise the disciples’ indifference to his need. True, the man was born blind, but did he have to be a beggar?

The man was not begging because he was blind. He had to beg because Israel was blind to the fact that he was an image-bearer of God, the crown of God’s creation. Instead of recognizing their sinful indifference to their neighbour, the disciples held him guilty.

In John 5, a man paralyzed for 38 years lay near the Pool of Bethesda. He needed help to get into the waters when they were stirred and their therapeutic properties released. The man was sick, the treatment was free and within sight, yet he could not get to it.

His religious society had not enforced a basic etiquette of civilised behaviour: first come, first served. The resourceful arrived late but got healed first. In John 5 as in John 9, the religious leaders got very angry that Jesus healed the poor on Sabbath, polluting one of their sacred vows. They hadn't cared for the sick men but were prompt in enforcing their inhumane rule.

Jesus didn’t need to challenge the socio-religious establishment in order to heal these men, but healing an individual was not His only objective. The spiritual blindness of the self-righteous community also needed healing.

Genuine compassion calls us to confront cultural practices that make people miserable. Compassion needs to create a society where a blind or paralyzed person can live with dignity and security. A society is blind to truth if a physically challenged person should live a hand-to-mouth and insecure existence. Exposing its blind self-righteousness can help transform it into a humane and compassionate community.

Challenge Question:

How does compassion manifest in your daily life? Do you merely feel sorry for the helpless and suffering? Or do you actively contribute to a society where the sick and vulnerable are not condemned to a pitiable existence?

Related Scriptures:

● John 9

● John 5:1-16

● So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. – Matthew 7:12

● Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell You, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ - Matthew 25:34-40