What one word best describes your emotional state right now? Maybe it’s hope as you watch your children or grandchildren start a new school year. Maybe it’s joy as Penn State football has returned. Maybe it’s frustration at ever changing covid guidelines. Maybe it’s sadness as we see the devastation across the south and north east due to Hurricane Ida. Maybe it’s anger at the situation that has unfolded in Afghanistan. Maybe it’s anxiety when you think about the financial future of your family or the stability of your job. After the past year, the past month, or just this past week, what one word best describes your emotional state right now?
If I had to choose one word for my emotional state it would be weary. Like many of you, I am weary of trying to navigate through the pandemic, weary of the political divide, weary of the uncertain future we all face in so many ways. I’m not feeling hopeless, I’m not ready to give in or give up, I’m just tired, emotionally tired. What one word best describes your emotional state right now?
For the past 16 months we have been on this emotional roller coaster and it doesn’t look like it is over yet, so this month we want to learn how to faithfully deal with all of our emotions by looking to Jesus. I read an article this week that highlighted 39 different emotions that we see in Jesus, but they are grouped into 10 major emotions: anxiety, anger, shame, sadness, pain, peace, faith, hope, love, and joy. Jesus experienced all of these at different times and places, and if nothing else, I hope that it is encouraging to know that Jesus felt some anxiety and anger and sadness during his life. We aren’t alone with our emotions, Jesus knows them all.
Think about the emotions Jesus was feeling in the just last few hours of his life. In the garden the night he was betrayed He felt betrayed, isolation, and anxiety. The next day He felt sadness when He looked out at the people of Jerusalem who were so far from God, and His friends who had all deserted Him. Later He felt shame as He was hung exposed on the cross to die. During His life, Jesus also got angry when He saw the hypocrisy of religious leaders who cared more about rules than about people, and He felt love and joy when He was surrounded by children or saw the faith of those who came to Him for help.
In Jesus we see the full range of human emotions because He was human just like we are, and so we can learn from Jesus how to process and walk through some of the emotions we wrestle with. As we begin this series, I want us to think about the one emotion Jesus has when He looks at us. What is the one primary emotion Jesus feel when He sees you today? It might not be what you think it is. When we get caught up in sin, when we fail to live the way we know we should, when we wrestle with our faith or living out faith, how does Jesus feel? When we are frustrated or angry at the situations around us, when we are at the very end of our strength, when we are weary, how does Jesus feel?
The good news is that Jesus is not angry with us. He is not frustrated or disappointed. He is not ready to give up on us. When Jesus looks at us and sees our pain, sorrow, frustration, or weariness, He has compassion. To really dig into the compassion Jesus has for all of us, let’s look at one moment when Jesus had compassion. Luke 7:11-16 (NLT)
Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, “A mighty prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people today.”
There is a lot we don’t know about this passage. We don’t know how old the young man was who died, or how he died. We don't know how old the widow was, or how she became a widow in the first place. There is a lot we don’t know, but here is what we do know, the young man died just the day before because without proper embalming, you didn’t hold on to bodies for more than a few hours or a day before you buried them. What this also tells us is that the mother’s grief is real and raw. There has not been time to come to terms with his death. The grief and anguish is right there in front of her and the pain is real. Nothing can or will ever be the same again and she is overwhelmed with sorrow.
We have seen that kind of grief recently in the heart breaking pictures of families receiving their sons and daughters back from Afghanistan. The pain of loved ones gathered around the flag draped coffins weeping is similar to what Jesus is witnessing at this moment. We have also seen this pain in the people of Afghanistan as they were trying to leave, of the people across the south who have lost everything. It is heartbreaking and devastating.
When Jesus looks at this woman, he not only sees her grief, he also know she is now completely alone. She has no son and no husband which means there is no one to take care of her. Women were completely dependent upon the male members of their family to care for them. Without a son or a husband, this woman might have to become a slave or the property of another man to survive. She might have to sell her body to men in order to care for herself. She is hopeless and helpless. Her future is filled with uncertainty and sorrow and fear. As He walks into the city, Jesus sees it all.
Over 40 times in the gospels it says that Jesus saw people, now the reality is that Jesus saw everyone, but in these 40 situations, and probably many more, Jesus did more than just see them, He noticed them. He took note of all that was going on around them and in them. He observed the situation in its entirety and could not only look into the future of these people, but into their hearts as well. Jesus saw her and it says that when He did his own heart overflowed with compassion. Think it about, there was more compassion than His heart could contain.
The word compassion here means that what Jesus is feeling is coming from the deepest place within His being. He is feeling this woman’s pain and sorrow from His gut. His very being is filled with a sorrow that literally moves Him to reach out and respond.
This is how God cares for you for today. He sees your pain, your anxiety, your frustration, your uncertainty, and your weariness and Jesus is moved from the depth of His being to do something to help. Jesus is moved with compassion for you, and for me. The emotion Jesus has for us today, and really every day, compassion, and compassion moves Jesus to step in to help.
The compassion Jesus had for this woman moved Him to reach out and touch the young man’s coffin. Now it wasn’t a coffin the way we think of it, it would have been more like a plank of wood or a stretcher that the body would have been placed on. When Jesus reached out to touch this board, the act would have been shocking.
To touch a dead body was against all the religious rules of the day and to do so would make someone ritually unclean. But to touch something that had touched a dead body would have also made a person unclean. Those were the religious rules of the day that people were to follow. That was the line you didn’t cross. You don’t touch dead bodies, and yet here is Jesus, so moved with compassion that He crosses the line and crosses the road to help someone in need.
Jesus always crossed the line and broke the rules to help those in need. He touched the dead, He touched the lepers, He touched the sick, and He allowed Himself to be touched by sinners, Jesus invited Himself to the homes of tax collectors so He could eat with them, and He did a lot of healing on the Sabbath when no one was supposed to work. Jesus reached out His hand and heart to sinners all the time and he broke the rules and crossed the line to do it. He did all this because His heart overflowed with compassion. And this is how God feels about you. Jesus is willing to break the rules and cross the line to reach out to us, and when He does - it changes everything.
When Jesus reached out and touched the dead man, the people gasped, but so did the dead man. He breathed in new life. The young man was raised from the dead and returned to his mother. With one touch, Jesus didn’t just fill this man with new life, He gave new life to his mother as well. She now has a future, and hope, and peace, and security. She has a life once again. One touch from Jesus changed everything for this man and his mother. All it took was one touch. All it took was one touch.
All it takes is one touch from Jesus to change our lives. For those dealing with the grief of loss, the touch might not restore our loved ones to life, but it can bring us comfort. Just one touch from Jesus can heal broken hearts and provide a peace in the face of death. One touch from Jesus can open the door to our future, give us hope for relationships, or strength for the uncertain days to come. One touch from Jesus can change everything, and that touch can come in so many different ways.
I've been thinking back on this past year and a half to see if I could identify those moments when I felt the touch of Jesus. That touch often came in a note from someone saying thank you for what the church was doing and how our continued ministry was making a difference for them. It came from gifts given to help keep ministry going. It came from personal stories about how people felt encouraged and connected by the ministry of Faith Church, or one email that said, we are praying for you. This past week, in the midst of feeling weary, I realized that Jesus' compassion was still overflowing to me and to all of us at Faith Church.
It came in one more note from someone saying thank you for what Faith Church is doing. It came from a gift from a person far away made because the music ministry of the church encourages them and they want to keep it going. It came from a story about how a few people invited their friends to attend the live stream of our worship, and after a year they are now gathering with 20 people each week. It came from a meeting where 20 people said, we want to join Faith Church and be part of what God is doing here.
Just when I am feeling weary and tired, God says to me, look around and see all the ways I am with you. Look at how I am working to bring you life. There is hope for the future. There is new life. There is strength because my power is overflowing.
One touch from Jesus is all it takes to turn everything around and I know that in many ways God is here to reach out to you. It doesn’t matter what you are going through - Jesus sees you. Jesus has taken notice of your situation and He is getting ready to touch you with the power of His compassion. If we will humble ourselves before God, God will lift us up. If we will look to Jesus, the touch will come, and it will change everything.
What is really exciting to think about is that the way God wants to touch people and fill them with hope and peace and joy and life might just be through you and me. When we reach out to someone, it might just be the touch that will turn that person’s life around. It was the note in the mail, the gift to the church, the story shared with us, or the prayer offered up that made the difference. We can be the hand of Jesus that reaches out to touch those who are in need, and it can be our touch, in Jesus’ name, that can make all the difference.
If you need the touch of Jesus today, He is here to reach out to you. His heart still overflows with compassion. If you have experienced the touch of Jesus, if you can identify how it has helped you during the past year, or the past week, then think about how you can bring that life giving touch to someone else. Our compassion can be the power that brings the dead to life. Our touch can give hope to those who are hopeless and helpless. Our compassion can be what gives strength to those who are weary. All it takes is one touch from God, or from us the people of God, that can change everything.
Next Steps
Emotions - Compassion
What one word best describes your emotions today?
What emotions have you wrestled with this past year?
Jesus felt all the emotions we do. Try to identify times when Jesus felt: anxiety, anger, shame, sadness, pain, peace, faith, hope, love, and joy.
Does knowing Jesus felt all these emotions change how you see Jesus? Does it help you today?
When Jesus looks at us He is filled with compassion.
Read Luke 7:11-16.
Why is reaching out to touch this young man such a scandalous thing? What rules was Jesus breaking?
What does this one touch do for the man and his mother?
Looking back over the past year, where have you experienced the touch of Jesus?
● How did it come to you?
● What impact did it make?
● Why is it important to remember these moments?
When have you seen Jesus break the rules and cross the line to touch you or those in need?
Sometimes the touch of Jesus comes through other people.
● Who do you know today that needs the touch of Jesus?
● Where might you need to cross the line or break the rules to bring God’s compassion to someone in need?
