14 Compassion and Forgiveness

14 Compassion and Forgiveness

Call to Worship:

John 11: 32-36
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

For most of my life I have been tormented by my inability to forgive people who have injured me. I am always convicted by the directive to forgive 7 times 7, but also by the seemingly opposite directive not to throw my pearls before swine. A great man once taught me that the meaning of forgiveness is: "to give as before", a very difficult task given that the offender might offend again, regardless of our forgiving feelings. It always seemed to me that to “give as before” meant opening myself up to the possibility of repeated offenses—“if you deceive me once shame on you, but if you deceive me twice shame on me.” And yet Jesus tells us to forgive and forgive and forgive. How do I do that? WHY should I do that?

Well, for one thing, possibly the most important thing, I know that holding on to resentments puts a spiritual weight on myself, the bearing of which constitutes an impediment to my own personal spiritual growth.

In fact, in I.C. Sharma's book, Cayce, Karma, and Reincarnation, we find this knotty little sentence:

"But if we resist wishing ill to our ill-wisher, the negative effect of the mental karma reverts to the originator."

Every negative thought I carry around with me, about somebody else, is a negative burden on myself. I know I need to relieve myself of these burdens of resentment, grudges and wariness, by rising above the situation, by freeing myself of the bad attitude, and trying to see the offending person in the same light in which I saw them BEFORE the offense; but no matter how I swear to myself, in prayer, to greet my enemies with a smile of forgiveness, I continually fail, at the crisis, to live up to the standard of my self-made vows. I have tried many techniques and have failed to change myself. I always swear that my next encounter with the offender will be different, but, on confronting the offender, I keep lapsing into cold, negative, rejecting behavior. The good news is that, recently I have stumbled upon a new technique for changing the way I see the offending person, and this may be the way for me to conquer my cold-hearted ways—I am trying to learn to see my enemy through the eyes of COMPASSION.

The dictionary defines "compassion" as:

"a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering."

The emphasis of this definition on the object of compassion as "one who suffers", shines a new light on the whole subject of forgiveness. Usually, when we cannot forgive, it is because we suffer from offense. Little do we realize that it is the offender who suffers most from his offense, it is he who is unfortunate, and it is he, therefore, who is an appropriate object of compassion. Notice that both "pity" and "forgiveness" reside under this single umbrella.

Compassion is not only a humble mental attitude, putting others' feelings ahead of our own, it is a superior mental perspective as well—it allows us to rise above all petty mundane considerations and view the BIG PICTURE. Compassion relieves us of the fear of mundane consequences by raising us ABOVE the material dimension to a higher mental state. And, of course, don't forget that our most radical exemplar of this higher mind state was Jesus.

One of the qualities of Jesus’ personality I have always so vastly admired was how FEARLESS He was. Jesus was never intimidated by the social forces bent on discrediting Him and destroying Him—and, to the end, He worshipped the divinity of His accusers and forgave them even as they crucified Him. What a guy! I want to be like that.

But I am NOT like that--I still suffer from a raucous cavalcade of petty fears, and endure endless inner dialogues with a cosmic cop, who enables my tendency to express every subtle glint of personal originality with feelings of guilt. My repressive Nazarene upbringing installed in my psycography an area of content that automatically generated feelings of guilt and fear; many things were included in this frontier, but mostly these guilt feelings registered whenever I took the tiniest toe-step outside the limits of the prescribed norm. To my mother, like the most traditional Hassid, every single everyday act was imbued with religious significance, and was therefore the proper domain for her ceaseless accusations and come-uppance. Hell was my homeland and to Hell I would return. Later we will discuss compassion and other human feelings as they are felt in the bowels--it was definitely in the deepest pit of my gut that I felt guilty, rejected and alone. Thus, slave as I am to emotional turmoil, I have seen the the only way for me to get free from my own mental shackles is to rise above them and witness the infinite beauty in every human being in the world, even the ones who have screwed me.

The rest of this sermon will be concerned with digging deeper into the PROCESS of forgiveness through compassion. We begin with a sermon from 1914, given by C.H. Spurgeon, which gives several examples of the compassion of Jesus:

"He was moved with compassion."—Matthew 9:36.

“This is said of Christ Jesus several times in the New Testament. The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not found in classic Greek. It is not found in the Septuagint. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves. They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one. It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels—a yearning of the innermost nature with pity. As the dictionaries tell us— Ex intimis visceribus misericordia commoveor. (from the depth of pity). I suppose that when our Saviour looked upon certain sights, those who watched him closely perceived that his internal agitation was very great, his emotions were very deep, and then his face betrayed it, his eyes gushed like founts with tears, and you saw that his big heart was ready to burst with pity for the sorrow upon which his eyes were gazing. He was moved with compassion. His whole nature was agitated with commiseration for the sufferers before him."


[Sidebar: This point about deep emotions being felt in the bowels is one that must be emphasized. The experience of feeling in the bowels, that is to say in the body, the feeling of shared experience of another in our physical being (we call this "empathy") is the carnal expression of compassion. Compassion, then, has two components:

1. a spiritual component which is above the sinner, the offender, and
2. a vital component which is the connecting link between the object of compassion and the one who feels compassion.

The flesh, being weak as it is, has exposed us all to unspiritual temptations, but this is also grounds for rejoicing because we may, like Jesus, transcend the limited boundary of our carnal identity, and vibrate sympathetically with our suffering companions, and pity them in our very physical being, thus allowing us to rise above, and enter the spiritual dimension of our relationship.

Back to Spurgeon:]

"This word is not used many times even by the evangelists, yet if you would sum up the whole character of Christ in reference to ourselves, it might be gathered into this one sentence,

"He was moved with compassion." . . .

Was he not moved with compassion when he entered into a covenant with his father on our behalf, even on the behalf of all his chosen—a covenant in which he was to be the sufferer, and they the gainers—in which he was to bear the shame that he might bring them into his own glory? Yes, verily, he was even then moved with compassion, for his delights even then were with the sons of men. Nor did his compassion peer forth in the prospect of an emergency presently to diminish and disappear as the rebellion took a more active form, and the ruin assumed more palpable proportions. 

It was no transient feeling. He continued still to pity men. He saw the fall of man; he marked the subtle serpent's mortal sting; he watched the trail as the slime of the serpent passed over the fair glades of Eden; he observed man in his evil progress, adding sin to sin through generation after generation, fouling every page of history until God's patience had been tried to the uttermost; and then, according as it was written in the volume of the Book that he must appear, Jesus Christ came himself into this stricken world. 

Came how? O, be astonished, ye angels, that ye were witnesses of it, and ye men that ye beheld it. The Infinite came down to earth in the form of an infant; he who spans the heavens and holds the ocean in the hollow of his hand, condescended to hang upon a woman's breast—the King eternal became a little child. Let Bethlehem tell that he had compassion. There was no way of saving us but by stooping to us. To bring earth up to heaven, he must bring heaven down to earth. Therefore, in the incarnation, he must bring heaven down to earth. Therefore, in the incarnation, he had compassion, for he took upon himself our infirmities, and was made like unto ourselves. Matchless pity, indeed, was this!

. . . His tender heart pities all the griefs of his dear people. There is not a pang they have but the head feels it, feels it for all the members. Still doth he look upon their imperfections and their infirmities, yet not with anger, not with loss of patience, but with gentleness and sympathy, "He is moved with compassion."

I am especially interested in the sentence, “To bring earth up to heaven, he must bring heaven down to earth.” Surely the act of rising above the sins of our oppressors, and the sins of our own intolerance involves bringing Heaven down to Earth, and viewing the offense from the Heavenly perspective which negates all significance of the sin and rather glories in the divinity of us all, a divinity either realized or merely potential.

From The Compassion of Christ by Wayne Jackson, we read:

“The saying is proverbial: “People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” There is a measure of truth in that.

Consider the case of Jesus Christ. He was the most forceful, demanding teacher who has ever lived. He was the one who taught that even one’s closest family members must give way to loyalty to him, and that the true disciple must be willing to “bear his cross” for the Master (Matthew 10:34-39). In view of the rigorous nature of the Savior’s requirements, how does one account for his amazing popularity?

For one thing, the evidence supporting his claims was staggering. No honest person could deny it. Beyond that, a strong case can be made that Jesus’ compassion for the lost, as a reflection of his incredible love, made him a most attractive character. 

Our Sympathetic High Priest
There are several words in the Greek New Testament that reveal insights into the marvelous compassion of the Lord with reference to sinful, suffering humanity. Let us think about this for a moment.
The book of Hebrews (4:15) has this exciting passage:

“For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one who has been tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

Of special interest is the term “touched.” It translates the Greek sympatheo, from sun (with), and patheo (to feel). Hence, the meaning is to feel with. Our English “sympathy” is derived from this word.

Michaelis notes that the term “does not signify a sympathetic understanding that is ready to condone, but a fellow feeling that derives from full acquaintance with the seriousness of the situation as a result of successfully withstanding the temptation” (Bromiley, 802-803). . .

A truly stunning case of the Master’s tender concern is observed in a circumstance recorded in Mark 3:

Jesus entered a Hebrew synagogue on the Sabbath day. There he encountered a man with a withered hand. The Jews suspiciously watched the Lord, to see whether or not he would heal the man, and thus, in their judgment, violate the sabbath by doing a good “work.” If he did, they would then “file charges.” It has always intrigued me that they anticipated the possibility of a miracle, yet had no interest in the Teacher’s message!
But Christ “knew their thoughts” (Luke 6:8), and understood the effect that sin had wrought in them, and it angered him (Mark 3:5). The Greek term for anger (orge) denotes a deliberate disposition, not an impulsive flash of wrath.

The most unusual thing about this episode, however, is the fact that Jesus was “grieved” over these hard-hearted men; hence, he healed the man’s withered hand in an attempt to soften them!

The original term that is rendered “grieved” (sunlupeo) is found only here in the entire New Testament. The noun lupeo (used 16 times in the New Testament) means sorrow or pain (either of body or mind). But the addition of the prefix sun, makes the term unique in the New Testament. 

Herodotus, the Greek historian, used the word to describe the emotions of certain citizens who offered their condolences to a man whose brother had just died (6.39).
In this passage, Mark seems to be suggesting the sympathetic nature of Jesus’ grief, as he contemplates the fact that these men were their own worst enemies (Vine, 362). What an index into the loving heart of the Son of God!

Perhaps the most dramatic biblical term denoting the idea of compassion is the word splanchnon. Literally, it signifies the intestines. When Judas committed suicide by hanging himself, his body eventually fell to the earth and “his intestines gushed out” (Act 1:18).

But both the Hebrews and the Greeks came to use the term in a figurative sense, for deep feelings of tenderness and compassion — much as when we use the term “heart,” as in, “I love her with all my heart.” There are several instances of where this word is employed to describe Christ’s feelings for the unfortunate.

Christ: “moved with compassion”
Jesus had this emotion for a poor man who was afflicted with the dreaded disease, leprosy (Mark 1:41). The gentleman met Christ, kneeled before him, and begged: “If you will, you can make me clean.” What confidence he had.

The Lord, “moved with compassion,” responded, “I will.” With but a touch of the Savior’s hand the man was instantly cleansed. Someone has aptly commented that it was only on account of the Lord’s compassion that he had a “hand” with which to touch the gentleman!

The purpose of the miracle, of course, was to establish the Messiah’s credibility as a teacher “come from God” (cf. John 3:2). Nevertheless, we must not overlook the fact that Jesus had sincere feelings for this man’s horrible plight.

The Lord is not going to miraculously deliver us from the physical effects of a sin-cursed world. It is noteworthy, though, that as we suffer, we may be assured of his genuine sympathy. 

Christ’s compassion for the people
The term splachnon is used to depict the concerned disposition that Jesus had for the confused Jews as they sought to find direction for their lives.

When the Savior heard the news of the murder of his friend, John the Baptizer, he took his disciples apart into a remote area near Bethsaida. But the multitudes followed after him. Mark says that Jesus “had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd” (6:34), and so, he “welcomed them” (Luke 9:11).

Think about it. The Lord set aside his own grief for his murdered cousin, a righteous man of God, to minister to these people who so desperately needed direction in their lives. What a man!"

The foregoing piece emphasizes the healing miracles of Jesus' compassion. But what about forgiveness? How does the healing reflect on the idea of forgiveness? Perhaps the key is in the phrase: "Forgiveness of sins".

The issue of the Divine right to forgive sins figures in the scripture:

Mark 2:5-7
"5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves,
7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Obviously, Jesus' claim to be the Son of God includes a claim on the Divine right to forgive sins. Can we, too, claim the same right to forgive the sins of our enemies, and greet them "as before"? Ought we to do this because we know it is the right thing to do, or must we do it because we know about the deal the Father makes with sinners:

Mark 11:25
25 "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. "

1 John 1:9
9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Remember that Jesus' forgiveness is not some some half-hearted vestige, but a real commission of the offense to the so-called "sea of forgetfulness":

Micah 7:19
"He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

Hebrews 10:17
17 "Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

How is it possible to completely forget the sins of our enemies? Certainly one way is to realize that every sin we hold against another is a sin we hold against ourselves:

Romans 3:23-26
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

The act of "forgiving sins" is not unlike the act of "being born again". The newness of attitude that the forgetfulness of sins affords us, is the the newness of life offered to us by the mediation of Jesus Christ between God and Man. To forgive "as before", is the same as being born again, is the same as forsaking the "Old Man" for the "New Man". To live each moment of life in the present, devoid of past and future, is to live in the eternal Now of Infinity.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

The new Man in Christ learns new strategies for dealing with the sins of others, including this no-nonsense instruction sheet:


Matthew 18:15-18

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

This socio-political catechism leaves no room for harboring passive aggressive resentment--it is all about getting things out in the open and defeating the evils of hidden hatreds.

The following article mentions the social context in which the compassion of Jesus was demonstrated:

Jesus and His Tender Compassion, Weldon E. Warnock,
Guardian of Truth XXXVIII No.23, December 1, 1994:

"One of the greatest qualities in the life of Jesus was his willingness to enter into the human situation and to be deeply moved by tender compassion that compelled him to help and to heal. Jesus was never detached from, nor indifferent to human sorrow and suffering. People were never a nuisance to Jesus but an opportunity to serve.

According to Webster, compassion is "to suffer with another; hence, sympathy; sorrow for the distressed or unfortunate with the desire to help" (Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged, Second Edition). Webster then gives a poignant statement from South, "There never was a heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender and compassionate."

William Barclay wrote, 

"If there was one thing the ancient world needed it was compassion, pity and mercy." There was no concern for the sick and feeble, no provision for the aged and no feeling for the mentally and emotion-ally disturbed. Christ, however, in his appearance brought love, affection and care to a world of apathy and complacency."

Here are a few more scriptures concerning the compassion of Jesus. We will see that the compassionate acts of Jesus were not only confined to miracle healings, but also to taking care of His followers' physical need for food, and giving spiritual instruction:

Matthew 15:32

"And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way."

Mark 6:34

"When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things."

John 11:34-38

"and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!". But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?" So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it."

This scripture asks the big question: if Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, why did He weep? We have previously agreed that it was because of His deep sympathetic resonance with the PEOPLE in His flock. So deep was His love for them, that their pain became His pain even though He, more than anyone, was able to RISE ABOVE IT. So must we rise above the transgressions of our enemies, and glory in the Oneness of ALL including that scumbag on the corner who stole my wallet.

This article by Rudolf Steiner places the idea of "compassion" into the context of generally accepted parameters of spiritual development and evolution, and indicates the price we must pay for holding on to bad feelings. Furthermore, it emphasizes the point, we have been making, that forgiveness of other peoples' sin requires not knowledge of the sinner, but "self-knowledge"--that to forgive another we must first forgive ourselves. Finally, it describes the dangerous thought forms that can invade the higher planes if we bring our petty emotional attitudes before the Heavenly authority:

Secrets of the Threshold – Lecture VIII – Munich, 31 August 1913

"The egoism we develop in the physical world, without being willing to acquire self-knowledge, shows up when it is carried into spiritual worlds. Nothing is so disturbing, nothing can be so bitter and disheartening as to experience the result of our failure to develop love and compassion in the physical world. Ascending into the spiritual world, we are filled with anguish by the selfishness and lack of love we have achieved in the physical-sense world. When we cross the threshold, everything is revealed, not only the obvious but also the hidden egoism that rages in the depths of men’s souls. Someone who with outward egoism frankly insists that he wants this or that for himself is perhaps much less egoistic than those who indulge in the dream that they are selfless, or those who assume a certain egoistic self-effacement out of theosophical abstractions in their upper consciousness. This is especially the case when the latter declaim their selflessness in all sorts of repetitions of the words “love” and “tolerance.” What a person carries up into higher worlds in the form of an unloving lack of compassion is transformed into hideous, often terrifying figures he meets on entering the spiritual worlds, figures that are extremely disturbing for the soul."

This next Steiner quote affirms significance of the term I have spoken of before: "humble pride". As I said above:

"Compassion is not only a humble mental attitude, putting others' feelings ahead of our own, it is a superior mental perspective as well—it allows us to rise above all petty mundane considerations and view the BIG PICTURE."

Rudolf Steiner  – From the Contents of Esoteric Classes – Berlin, 15th May 1908

"Some say that sympathy (compassion, pity) can also come from egoism. That may be the case. Many kinds of sympathy only arise because one doesn’t want to see other people suffer. That’s even a good thing. It’s better for a man to help someone out of egotistical sympathy than not to help him at all. But we must learn to develop a sympathy that stands above egoism, that helps fellowmen because it’s one’s duty to help them."

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate the main theme of this presentation: that compassion and forgiveness are linked, co-active—that one leads to the other. Compassion, the experience of sympathy and a desire to ease the suffering of others, inevitably enables the subject to view the suffering one from a higher mental perspective, and share his pain on one level, while rising above his pain on another level; remember that Jesus wept not because He thought death was a terrible thing, but because His friends did. Viewing reality from a higher mental perspective creates three changes in attitude toward those who trespass against us:

1. that we all are one, and share each others’ pains and joys through inherent sympathy,
2. that the one who offends us only truly hurts himself, and is therefore not deserving of more rejection from us, but is rather worthy of forgiveness, just as we forgive ourselves, and
3. that we are forgiven in direct proportion to our ability to forgive others.

When we fear entering into relationships flawed by past offenses, we must remember that the petty grudges of the present give rise to eternal punishments in the hereafter.

Let us pray: Jesus thank You for Your healing presence in our lives, lives so infected by mundane smallness we too easily forget the largeness of Your love, the depth of Your compassion. Let us day by day become more perfect imitators of Your infinitely patient and tolerant Self. Amen.