Until the Lord returns, there will always be sufficient selfishness and cruelty in the world. That's just what the choice of sin brings. But just as often, our faith is encouraged when we see and hear of acts of kindness and love. Even though the two examples of compassion I want to share are separated in time by almost 1900 years, I see a link between them that is timeless.
The first is an account of great friendship in the Gospel of Luke 5:17-26...
One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." The Pharisees and teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy ? Who can forgive sins but God alone ?" Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts ? Which is easier: to say , Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk ? But, that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," he said to the paralyzed man, " I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."
We would all be blessed to have friends like this man had. Persistent in the face of inconvenience. Patient in the face of personal time lost. Optimistic in the cold, hard face of a friend's lifetime of disability. And most likely one of them was a roofer, or they quickly decided they could share the expense of reimbursing the home's owner for damages to the roof. Now, if I'm the paralyzed man and I see this crowd, I'm probably saying, "Guys. Just take me back home. This is embarrassing." But all the while, I'm close to tears because these buddies of mine are obviously not going to let anything stop them. Mark 2 tells us there were four men who carried him. My guess is the five of them had quite a vital small group meeting after this event.
What are you doing to cultivate friendships like what these men enjoyed ? A friendship that knows that a need at 3 am is no different than a need at 3 pm. Or that will tear a hole in the hospital roof if the emergency room doors are blocked.
The circumstances of the second event are much different, but the thread of compassion and goodness is dyed the same. One of our lesser-known U.S. Presidents, James A. Garfield, was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881. The bullet lodged in an inaccessible location close to his pancreas, and he died eleven weeks later, most of the time in excruciating pain from the infection.
Two weeks before he died, Garfield insisted that he be moved close to the ocean. He felt he had endured enough of the heat in the White House. The doctors relented and arranged for him to be moved by train to the Jersey Shore, at Elberon. Incredible modifications were made to Garfield's railroad car to provide sufficient comfort so that the trip would not cause his death. Silence and stillness were arranged along the entire route, so the President would not be in the least disturbed.
The particular large act of kindness came when the President arrived at the seaside house. I will quote from Candace Millard's biography of Garfield, Destiny of the Republic, which I read many months ago.
When the train finally reached Elberon, it switched to a line of railroad track that had been laid just the night before. Two-thousand people had worked until dawn to lay 3,200 feet of track so that the President's train could take him to the door of Franklyn Cottage, the twenty-two room summer home a wealthy New Yorker had offered for as long as it was needed. While determining where the track would have to go, a surveyor had realized that he would need to cut through a neighboring garden, and he apologized to the owner. "I am willing that you should ruin my house," she replied, "all I have--if it would help to save him."
Before the train could reach its final destination, however, it stopped short. The cottage sat at the top of a hill. and the engine was not strong enough to breach it. No sooner had the problem become apparent than, out of the crowd of people who had waited all day in the tremendous heat for Garfield's arrival, two-hundred men ran forward to help. 'Instantly hundreds of strong arms caught the cars," Bliss, his doctor wrote, " and silently....rolled the three heavy coaches up the hill.
When I pictured that scene of what I'll call "mass compassion", it just struck me at how willing and ready and eager people are to help when the need arises. That was true in Jesus' day. It was true in 1881. And I believe it's just as true today.
Is there an opportunity for you to help Jesus heal a disabled soul by lowering someone through a "hole in the roof " ?
Or can your arms be two out of hundreds to help push someone up a hill to health out of a valley of sickness or hard times ?
"The road is long, with many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where, who knows where
But I'm strong, strong enough to carry him.
He ain't heavy--he's my brother."
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