4 For the Lord is good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.
When I was in seminary, I took a class from an amazing teacher and prophet, The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle. He taught a class called “Teaching Grace and Bearing Burdens: Reconciliation as God’s Love in Action.” This was several years before I began to learn about the scourge of mass incarceration and been introduced to the profound writing of Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and the work of Bryan Stevenson at the Equal Justice Initiative located in Montgomery Alabama that is dedicated to “ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society”[1] and his writing about his work with people sentenced to die, too often unjustly, in his writing Just Mercy.
As part of the requirements for this class, we were to lead Bible Study at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center. Three students accompanied Dr. Battle. We knew that the men permitted to participate in this Bible study had been selected based on their superior conduct in the jail and their commitment to faithful attendance at these classes.
The first night we arrived, the awesome presence of the place caused my heart to catch in my throat. Though it was long past dark on a cold February night, the place shown like midday in Arizona. Every inch of its grisly barbed wire, giant metal gates, and stone walls were illuminated by massive lights that assaulted the eyes, putting you on notice of the barbarous place you were about to enter. Yet outside the walls waiting to get in to see their loved ones, were small children and men and women of all ages. They lined up patiently waiting to be screened before entering. Dr. Battle had conducted many Bible Studies in this detention center so he was able to help us produce the appropriate documents and find the processing area to allow us to enter.
Movies don’t do justice to jails. The size of the gates that restrict access, the intimidating sternness of the people who work there, the sterility of the massive rooms all create an environment of unbridled control. To put it mildly I was anxious. The setting and my own preconceived ideas of the people I would meet inside put my Christian confidence to the test.
We were shown into a large, brightly lit room that was surrounded by other rooms with bars covering the windows. Once the persons in charge checked us again, we were lead into a room with a meeting space with stairs leading up to individual cells. The attendant locked the doors behind us and announced the Bible Study. Down the stairs bounded men of all sizes and ages. Most of them had shaved heads and were covered in tattoos. Each of them were clutching well-worn Bibles. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I had never been in a jail before and the sight of these enthusiastic people rushing towards us caused me to flinch. But when the attendant shouted at them to calm down, they immediately sat, with their eyes turned on us, burning with enthusiasm. Now I have to say that I have participated in many Bible Studies, and lead a few, but I have never had people come rushing to study the Bible with such passion.
I soon learned that these men knew their Bible. They had many questions they wanted to ask. They could quickly find a verse in the Bible that helped to amplify their thoughts. The study was energetic and powerful. The men wanted to find the truth and they believed that it could be found in scripture. They were also looking for hope and redemption, and a love open to forgiveness.
We hear today in our reading from the Gospel according to Matthew that Jesus is going about all the cities and villages teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and sickness. It is clear that for Jesus “proclaiming the kingdom” is closely tied to real, active concern for everything that affects human life. These are not abstract “religious” tasks, but real actions that confront the things that restrain human flourishing.
When Jesus saw the crowds, “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” What does compassion mean for you? I am not always sure we understand the full weight and meaning of this word. We often hear it described as a state of being or feeling in which something has occurred to move us to feel sympathy, empathy, perhaps even pity for someone or something else. We see the face of a small child covered in dust who has been pulled from the bombed out rubble in Aleppo Syria and we feel deep sympathy. We hear of families who have lost everything in a fire and our hearts feel sadness and concern.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the word for “compassion” (esplagchnisthē) occurs only five times with Matthew 9:36 being its first appearance. Each time the language of compassion appears, Jesus is the one feeling it after he has seen the state of those around him. He feels compassion for people afflicted and each time he does something to act to remedy their suffering. Jesus feels compassion for those who are sick and begins to heal them. He feels compassion for two men who are blind and heals them both. In Matthew 15:32 Jesus feels compassion for the crowd who has been following him for three days without food. He says, “I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” Jesus shows compassion about what might happen in the future to his followers and he responds by giving them food.
In today’s reading, Jesus’ compassion is in response to not just illness or the lack of food, but to those who are vulnerable. He is moved by those whose lives lack dignity, who existence is perilous because of physical struggles or the barriers created by society that result in exclusion, isolation, or persecution causing these people to be “harassed and helpless” (9:36) Matthew teaches that Jesus’ motivation was compassion. “Compassion” reflected Jesus’ character.
Recognizing that the need was great, Jesus called for more laborers to attend to the harvest. His call was answered when he sends out his disciples. They are named in this passage—twelve simple people, even one whom he knows will betray him—giving them remarkable life-giving power to see and care for those who suffer from the ravages of mental and spiritual distress and to tenderly care for those whom life has treated cruelly. Jesus sends them out vulnerable so they may connect to the vulnerability in others, recognizing their total dependence on God’s love.
They are to be present for the people right in their own neighborhood. Later they will carry the good news of the kingdom to the far reaches of the earth. But in the beginning, they are to care for the “lost sheep of Israel.” They are to give with the generosity that they have received from God.
God has richly blessed us here at Grace Church with opportunities to encounter people whose stories teach us much about the world. Because you are willing to reach out and be present with people beyond your families and beyond your immediate friends and beyond this church community, you have had the opportunity to understand compassion as Jesus showed us. You have moved beyond feeling empathy or sympathy to action. To caring, to bearing another’s burdens, and to seeing in those you meet the face of Christ, you have recognized another as a part of Christ’s body in the world. And in this way the kingdom of God has been proclaimed.
Beginning next week and continuing for two more Sundays in July, we are going to hear about stories of “Radical Love.” We are going to learn about instances where God placed compassion in people’s hearts, and they responded with empathy or sympathy—but also action. They saw people and an opportunity, and with love and courage they responded. How is God laying compassion on your heart and giving you the chance to respond simply, directly, and generously? Please come and bring your friends, so together we can listen for how we are being led to create places of compassion in our world.
When the semester ended with Dr. Battle, I did not want our time together in the Bible study to end. I felt compassion for these men. I had seen their longing for forgiveness. I had experienced their deep love of God and their faith in God’s mercy. For a few hours every week, studying the Bible together, our hearts remembered the promise of God’s eternal love. In God, no one is outside love. In God, nothing is outside forgiveness. Spending time with these men, plumbing the hope of the Bible, I had my faith strengthened and my heart opened.
You might never be able to share the Bible with a group of men or women in a prison. But when you help someone learn a new language—you are showing compassion. When you spend time really listening to children and youth and creating spaces where they are loved and respected—you are showing compassion. When you provide food, but also attention, to someone visiting a food pantry, you open yourselves to God’s kingdom. “The harvest is plentiful,” Jesus says.
Today’s scripture is a true witness to what the time of Pentecost is about. Pentecost is not simply about boldly proclaiming the Gospel message to others far and wide. Pentecost is also recognizing that we have been empowered to see the world around us, particularly people in the world who too often are overlooked and ignored, and to act in ways that empower them to address the circumstances that endanger their lives and communities. After all, Jesus’ compassion for others is always sparked by a single observation, the people are “harassed and helpless ” and we must do something to address it. What will our compassion move us to do?
Dorothy Day wrote: Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife, which may at any moment become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself, “What else is the world interested in?” What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships? God is love. Love casts out fear. We want with all our hearts to love, to be loved.
The keenness and intensity of love brings with it suffering, of course, but joy too, because it is a foretaste of heaven.[2]
-Dorothy Day 1897-1980
[1] Equal Justice Initiative https://eji.org/about-eji
[2] Dorothy Day. The Reckless Way of Love.