St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 11, 2010
“Compassion: Beyond Yourself!”
Text: Luke 10:36,37

Compliments, consideration, compassion; these three abide. These
three we are aware of; these three are good for us; these three we
need; a pat on the back, a thoughtful, helpful gesture, a bit of
patience & kindness & loving care. Compliments, consideration, com-
passion; these three abide, and the greatest of these is compassion.
COMPASSION is what we would all like to have a little more of when
we are feeling helpless, hurting, lost, not sure of ourselves, and
trying hard not to feel sorry for ourselves.
COMPASSION is kindness, tenderness. COMPASSION is a parent sitting
up late at night tending to the needs of a sick child. COMPASSION s
a pastor or Elder or Stephen Minister or a neighbor & friend sitting
in a hospital waiting room with someone they know who’s all alone,
who has a loved one in surgery or a member of the family facing some
kind of medical issue when no one else has the time to be there.
At the heart of what is traditionally called “The Parable of the
Good Samaritan” is an incredible, radical, surprising, not-to-be-
forgotten demonstration of COMPASSION. A Jewish traveler walking
alone on a narrow winding road from Jerusalem down to Jericho is
robbed, beaten, left for dead in a ditch by the side of the road.
After two pretty busy, religious people, a priest & a Levite, pass
by on the other side, a foreigner, a Samaritan, a non-Jew comes
along, sees the man in the ditch and stops, interrupts his journey,
goes beyond himself, does everything he can & more to help the man.
This is what COMPASSION is! COMPASSION is when someone interrupts
what they’re doing, goes beyond themselves, does everything he/she
can and more to help someone else! Yes, even to help a stranger, an
outsider, a foreigner, an immigrant, someone from across town, the
other side of the tracks, an ex-con, a conscientious objector, a Jew,
a Muslim, a Mormon, an atheist.
In a kind of crazy children’s song titled, “Holy Spirit Fruit,”
(words & music by Bryan Sirchio) acts of KINDESS AND COMPASSION
are pictured as that which Holy Spirit causes to grow & emerge
from Christians . . . like fruit on a tree. So the song says . .
Do you know that you and I are sort of like a tree?
There is a very special fruit that grows from you and me!
It’s not the kind of fruit that you can buy in groc’ry stores,
but once you’ve had a taste of it you’re bound to want some more.
Goodness, Kindness, Patience, Faithfulness and Self-control,
Love, Joy, Peace and Gentleness with roots down in your soul!
If you want to be real happy and make God happy too,
You need to plant the love of Jesus and grow Holy Spirit Fruit!
The more I think about it, the more I realize how I not only need
these nine fruits, these nine gifts of the “Holy Spirit” growing &
emerging in my life, but in this parable of the Good Samaritan I see
the gifts of the Spirit deeply rooted, acted out, demonstrated in the
actions of that man whom Jesus said was a Samaritan, a non-Jew, a
half-breed, a hated enemy of the Jews. A Samaritan was a “tree full
of COMPASSION, full of Holy Spirit fruit” to help a Jew.
The most amazing, most challenging, most surprising, most note-
worthy element in this parable is not just that the Samaritan stopped
when the priest and the Levite chose not to stop because they had
other things to do, but the Samaritan did all he could, went out of
his way, went totally beyond himself to make sure the wounded, bleed-
ing, left-for dead traveler, a stranger to him, got the care he needed.
Now when we see that, then we may start to see that this is not
just a parable about showing kindness to others, but what’s really
going on here is that COMPASSION although it may be compared to fruit
on a tree is not automatic; it does not come from deep within us
because some of us have it and some of us don’t. No! True compassion
comes from experiencing compassion.
By that I mean, genuine compassion, true compassion has its
origin, its beginning in God’s compassion and the clearest, closest
expression of God’s com-passion that we can know & experience by faith
is in the person & work of Jesus Christ our Savior & Lord.
As familiar as this parable what’s at the heart of this parable is
more than a good example, more than a lesson on doing good to others.
For one thing, more than half the parable is devoted to the
Samaritan’s actions – having compassion, interrupting his trip,
stopping, pouring wine & oil, bandaging wounds, lifting the man up &
putting him on his own animal, bringing the injured man to an inn &
securing the innkeeper’s hospitality. This is “an excessive amount
of detail if the only point is to ‘go and do likewise.’”
Writes one commentator who looks beneath the surface of this
parable . . .
“The extravagance with which Jesus describes the Samaritan’s act-
ion is not meant as instruction in first-aid procedures but as an
invitation! We ourselves are meant to tingle with the healing sting
of wine, to be calmed under the soothing caress of oil, to enjoy the
relief of someone taking charge of what has become a nightmarish
situation for us, and finally, what a relief to experience the hospi-
tality of being checked into Hotel Compassion, all expenses paid.
Before we go and do anything kind & caring beyond ourselves, WE
by faith are meant to know the care & compassion of the ONE who went
100% beyond Himself to find us abandoned, gently take care of our
wounds & provide rest recovery for us. Beyond providing a good example,
the actions of a Samaritan toward a Jew are a mirror reflecting back
to us nothing less than the kindness & com-passion of God has shown
us, extended to us, especially in the person & work of Jesus Christ
who suffered & died & rose again for us & for our salvation.
It was the early church father, St. Augustine’s view of this par-
able that “the beaten & broken traveler is Adam, is every one of us;
and that the Samaritan, the outsider, is Christ; and the inn is the
church, Hotel Compassion, where all of us broken & helpless travelers
may find rest and be refreshed.
So it has happened in Christ, and so we sing . .
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heav’n, to earth come down!
Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, All they faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, Thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation,
Enter ev’ry trembling heart. (LSB, no. 700, v. 1 C. Wesley)
An American poet named Edgar Guest who lived at the turn of the
century, tells of a neighbor by the name of Jim, Jim Potter who ran
the drug store in the small town where Edgar Guest lived. The poet
recalled that daily he would pass his neighbor & they would smile and
exchange greetings.
Then came a tragic night in the life of the poet Edgar Guest when
his first born child died. He felt lonely & defeated. Several
later the deeply grieving poet had reason to go to the drug store
run by his neighbor Jim Potter. When he entered the store his good
neighbor & friend invited him to come behind the counter. “Eddie”,
he said, “I really can’t express to you the great sympathy that I
have for you at this time. All I can say is that if you need for me
to do anything
you can count on me.”
Years later the poet Edgar Guest wrote of that exchange in one of
his books. This is how he worded it:
“Just a person across the way – a passing acquaintance; the
pharmacist may have long since forgotten that moment when he extended
his hand to me in sympathy, but I shall never forget it – never
in all my life. To me his act of compassion stands out like the
silhouette of a lonely tree against a crimson sunset.”
And speaking of a lonely tree against a crimson sunset, is it
not a lonely tree in the shape of a cross that stands against a
crimson sunset of our sinfulness & brokenness – a sign to remind us
of our Lord’s great grace & compassion & forgiveness that everyday
we might rise to new life, not just to enjoy life, but to live life,
get beyond ourselves, and be neighbor to others even as Christ went
beyond himself & was & still is being and will always be neighbor to
us.
Compliments, consideration, compassion abide, these three but
the greatest of these is compassion. Christ’s compassion for us!