“IS YOUR EMPATHY RUNNING ON EMPTY?”

LUKE 13:10-17

 

10  Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

11  And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

12  When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."

13  When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

14  But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."

15  But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?

16  And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?"

17  When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

 

Some people think it’s strange when I tell them that I’ve never turned my television on to watch an episode of “Survivor” or “American Idol.”  The reason is simple. As far as “Survivor” is concerned I decided early on that I really wasn’t interested in watching a bunch of people show you how they can be sneaky and stab each other in the back.  As far as “American Idol” is concerned I know that the show is very popular.  I also know that there’s a rather mean spirited guy on the show named Simon.  From what I’ve read Simon can be really viscous when it comes to evaluating people’s ability to sing. 

 

What you see on those shows is very similar to what happened when a husband and wife encountered an unexpected problem one summer on their vacation.  The unexpected problem was a really painful toothache.  After a while the husband and wife realized that something had to be done. So they went to see a dentist. “Doctor,” the wife said.  “You’ve got to do something. This tooth is ruining our vacation.” “Well,” the dentist said, “why don’t you let me take a look at it.  Maybe we can save it.”  “No,” the wife insisted. “We don’t have time for that.  Just pull the tooth and we’ll be on our way.  I also don’t want a Novocain.  This is our vacation and we’re in a hurry.”  “All right,” the dentist sighed. “If that’s what you want.  Which tooth is it?”  At that point the wife let out a sigh of relief and said to her husband, “Open your mouth dear and show him your tooth.”

 

It’s called empathy; the ability to feel someone else’s pain; the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

 

Jesus didn’t find a lot of empathy when he was teaching that day in the synagogue.  While he was there a woman came in who had been crippled with some sort of ailment for 18 years.  Now the woman didn’t go to the synagogue that day expecting to be healed.  She didn’t even ask Jesus to heal her. Jesus healed her because he felt her pain.  Instead of being congratulated for helping the woman though Jesus found himself being criticized and condemned.

 

Luke says that the leader of the synagogue became indignant!  He became indignant and said, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”

 

The leader of the synagogue didn’t show a lot of empathy that day.  Now here’s what I want to know. How do you think the leader of the synagogue would have reacted if that woman had been his wife?  How do you think he would he have reacted if that woman had been his daughter?  My guess is that he would have been a little more understanding.   

 

It’s called empathy; the ability to feel someone else’s pain; the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.  Unfortunately, empathy seems to be in short supply these days.  What you see instead is a way of thinking that Judith Viorst pokes fun at in her children’s book “I’ll Fix Anthony.”  The motivation for the book came from her own sons.  In the book she writes, “My brother Anthony can read books now, but he won’t ready any books to me.  He plays checkers with Bruce from his school. But when I want to play he says, ‘Go away or I’ll clobber you.’  I let him wear my Snoopy sweatshirt, but he never lets me borrow his sword.  Mother says deep down in his heart Anthony love me.  Anthony says deep down in his heart he thinks I stink.  Mother says deep deep down in his heart, where he doesn’t even know it, Anthony loves me.  Anthony says deep deep down in his heart he still thinks I stink. When I’m six, I’ll fix Anthony...When I’m six, I’ll float, but Anthony will sink to the bottom…I’ll breathe in and out when I should, but Anthony will only go glug, glug…When I’m six my teeth will fall out, and I’ll put them under the bed, and the tooth fairy will take them away and leave dimes.  Anthony’s teeth won’t fall out.  He’ll wiggle and wiggle them, but they won’t fall out.  I might sell him one of my teeth, but I might not…Anthony is chasing me out of the playroom.  He says I stink.  He says he is going to clobber me.  I have to run now, but I won’t have to run when I’m six.  When I’m six, I’ll fix Anthony.”

 

Empathy challenges you to move outside of yourself to try and understand how another person is thinking or feeling.  So, for example, instead of blasting immigrants as lazy freeloaders empathy challenges you to wonder. It challenges you to wonder how bad it must for someone to leave his or her loved ones and travel to a place where they’re not wanted or welcomed.

 

Let’s bring it a little closer to home.  When you get into an argument with a friend or someone in your family empathy challenges you to look at the problem from their point of view.  So, instead of digging your heels in because you know that you’re right, you listen to why that person you love is angry with you.   Here’s another one for you. When you see someone struggling with a problem instead of blaming that person for the predicament they’re in empathy challenges you to do what you can to help.  It challenges you to do what Jesus did that day.  Jesus didn’t just feel sorry for that woman.  He did what he could to help her.

 

Empathy changes the way you look at people.  Instead of judging people you ask yourself, “I wonder what it must be like to be him or her.”  That’s what an elderly woman in a nursing challenged the people who took care of her to do in a poem that she wrote.  They found the poem shortly after she passed away.  This is what she wrote,