Extreme poverty in third world countries, oppression, protesting in the streets, gender equality and racism. How should a Christian respond to the tumultuous times of this generation?
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Radical Compassion
Luke 10:30-37
We are in crazy times right now here in America, 5 cops assassinated in the past week, unarmed black males are shot and killed by the cops. The New York Times just reported of a poll that show that race relations are at the lowest that they have been in over twenty years. You have protestors in the streets and groups like the “black lives matter” organization trying to bring light to issues facing the black community. On the other hand there is a fight over gender and income equality. As you move from the US, there is poverty and a lack of clean water in third world countries, there is sex trafficking and slavery in other counties.
What do we do with this as believers? Do we ignore it? Do we dismiss it? Do we only focus on spiritual things, preaching the gospel, evangelizing? What should be our response? How should we feel? And how should we look at political movements?
And if some of the things that I just named, particularly here in the US and the protest that is happening across the country is foreign to you, that is a problem. That is a problem if you are totally oblivious to other peoples struggles, other peoples pain but the scriptures are not silent.
In the book of James 1:27 – He said that pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their distress or affliction. He is not ignorant to their problems.
The Apostle Paul even writes almost a whole chapter to the church on their responsibility to widows, 1 Timothy 5.
The Apostle is also aware of the fact that there were some people in the body of Christ who were slaves, literally, so he address them in 1 Corinthians 7 and Ephesians 6.
So the church cannot just sit silent to peoples struggles and pain. I think that one of the best places in scriptures where this is demonstrated is in Jesus description of the Good Samaritan.
Luke 10:25-37
My neighbor
A man gets robbed, beaten, stripped and left for dead. That man is now a “victim” of the kingdom of darkness. That is the work of the kingdom of darkness, robbing, greed, beating someone, that is Satan’s MO, that is sin. That is the opposite of what God commands. That is the work of spiritual wickedness in high places, influencing or maybe evening possessing to commit a wicked act. Let’s not forget that, let’s now forget who is working behind the scenes here.
Let’s not forget who is behind the drugs and crime and prostitution that are consuming some of our communities.
We cannot forget that the battle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual wickedness in high places taking place here.
So the first people to hit the scene here are your religious people……..this should be great news.
In Acts chapter 3 the scripture talks about a lame man, who everyday, people would drop in off in front of the temple to beg alms from the people entering the temple.
The priest, the preacher, the deacon, the people that know God’s word, the people that preach God’s word, the priests and the Levites, they know what God said about the treatment of the stranger in the book of Ezekiel, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Jeremiah. They are aware of this but they go to the other side.
This action is one that we so have to guard against because we can be so disciple-minded, so evangelistic, that we miss an opportunity to bring the kingdom of God, the Kingdom of light, to a person who is experiencing the wrath or cruelty of the Kingdom of Darkness.
That is what’s taking place here, the priest and the Levite have an opportunity to bring the kingdom of God in kindness and compassion to a person experiencing the work of the kingdom of Darkness but they miss it.
But then, the Samaritan comes along, that one that many of the Jewish people refused to associate with because they thought that they were unclean.
And the scripture said that he was moved with compassion (verse 33)….
This was not the customary “I’ll pray for you” that we sometimes use, but the Samaritan was praying with his feet in moving to action.
James said in chapter 2 verse 14 – that if we see a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and we say to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled”, and yet we do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
And look at the extent of the Samaritan’s compassion:
-He stops his trip———————————————————————————–
When we see the cruel work of the kingdom of darkness on a person’s life, how easy is it for us to say, I can’t address that right now, I have dinner plans, I have all these kids with me, I can’t help you right now, my favorite television show is about to come on, the game is about to come on or about to listen to a sermon by my favorite pastor, etc. etc. etc.
And not only does he stop his trip, but he bandages the guy, takes him to an inn, pays a care worker take to watch over him.
For some, the extent of our compassion would be, “I will call 911 for you” and wait till they come, but the Samaritan, he goes far and beyond that.
And if we are being honest, when we read about the efforts of the “good Samaritan” in the back of our minds, we are saying Jesus, who does that? Who sees a person hurt or injured and goes that far, who sees the less fortune in their misery and goes that far, who sees the oppressed in their situation and goes that far? That’s not normal Jesus, that’s, that’s radical.
Yes it is radical, but that is just the point, Jesus expects radical compassion. He expects radical compassion for the less fortunate; he expects radical compassion for the poor.
This is not just, I am going to support my favorite charity by throwing money at it, this not just I am going to give to the widow fund or the orphan fund and go about my day but as opposed to just giving to the orphan fund, maybe I am going to adopt the orphan, as opposed to just giving to the widow, maybe I am going to go and spend time and check up on them, cut their grass, take them grocery shopping, take them out to dinner. As opposed to just supporting missionary organization, I am going to go and be one.
This not just, I go to church on Sunday and do my church thing here and I do my other thing there but Jesus expects radical living.
Isn’t this so like Christ to give an example like this? All throughout the gospels, Jesus preaches radical living.
In Mathew 5:40-41- He tells the crowd if someone sues you and wants to take your shirt, give him your coat also. If someone forces you to go a mile with them, do 100% more and go two miles……..Radical!!!!!!!
Jesus also expects radical obedience to where we must love him more than our family and be ready to die for him.
But what else can we expect from a person who radically loved………God coming down from heaven, taking on human flesh to die for sinners……….that is radical love.
So why did the Samaritan show so much compassion?…… I believe that part of the answer if not all of the answer is found in verse 27 and Mathew 7:12.
Neighbor as yourself………the Samaritan sees himself in the man that was beaten and the compassion that he showed, he would want showed to him.
Mathew 7:12-Golden Rule
In the oppression of different groups and people, do you see yourself and how you would want to be treated?
Ladies, when you see a young woman out in the streets, with a short skirt on, chest all out…do you see yourself unregenerate and how would you want someone to respond to you? Would it be in judgmental yelling? Or maybe more love and compassion?
There are kids, little girls and boys caught in sex trafficking, imagine if one of your kids were caught of up in this, you would do everything you could to get them out.
As believers we have to begin to see ourselves in the people facing difficult circumstance. We have to begin to see ourselves in the orphan, in the father in the third world county searching or food and water to feed his family. We have to begin to see ourselves in the woman caught up in sex trafficking. Or the different groups and people here in American that are or feel oppressed.
If you are Caucasian and 95% of the people that you call your friends or people that you associate with are other Caucasians, you are not likely going to be able to empathize with other people in minority communities.
Same goes for the black community, if all of your friends and people that you associate with are from the culture, you are not going to understand this other community.
So we as the church are going to have to get out of our comfort zones and get to know other people, show empathy to sow the seed of the truths of the gospel.
Look how Hebrews 13:3 speaks to this matter…….
The scripture said that we should remember the prisoner as though we are in prison with them…..putting myself in that small cell where you are missing your family and your loved ones…..what compassion would you want……..now do the same.
Political movements and the kingdom of Darkness
But in our quest to be like the Samaritan in showing radical compassion and empathy, we have to be on guard against the deception of the kingdom of darkness. 2 Corinthians 11:14 said that Satan disguises himself as angel of light. Meaning that Satan can makes things that are not best for us look really really good. Wolf in sheep’s clothing. And so, in our desire to be like the Samaritan, it is really easy to make the eradication of poverty, sex trafficking, clean drinking water for the entire world the ultimate goal, the main thing, salvation.
It is very easy to make caring for the poor, orphan, civil rights, education for all, health care the end goal at the expense of the gospel.
You ever heard the term social gospel…..that is what the social gospel is, where we make things like world peace the end goal.
The entire world sometimes champions these things, the world loves the Jesus that talks about caring for the poor and oppressed and love. But the Jesus of repentance, the Jesus of judgment, eternal hell fire, Jesus as the only way to heaven as spoken of in John 14:6, that Jesus, they shun but that is the deceptive work of the Kingdom of Darkness……to distract you from the truth.
Revelation 12:9 said that Satan deceives the whole world and it is not just through those things such as murder and rape but it is those seemly good things that we are distracted.
The kingdom of Darkness is fine with humanitarian effects in the name of humanity. Satan is not offended when you do things in the name of humanity.
Why? Because they don’t erase sin. They don’t bring you closer to God. Your sin still remains, good works and good deeds do not erase sin……..sinless blood erases sin,
So Satan is fine with the bloodless sacrifices of our humanitarian efforts because they have no power, they do not break the chains of the kingdom of darkness our hearts and minds. Good works alone will not break alcohol addiction, good works alone will not break the spirit of depression, good works alone will not give you a sense of purpose, success alone will not bring you lasting joy. These things are powerless against the chains of the Kingdom of darkness.
It is only the sinless blood of the Son of God that erases sin and makes us right with God. It is only faith in the word of God that is going to break the yoke of Satan.
In Acts 17 Paul tells a group of pagans that God has determined where we would live (the boundary of our habitat) and the times in which we would live.
I was not born in the times of the civil rights movements but as a black man, I would hope that I would have got involved in the many efforts lead by people such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Because, the white supremacy that prevailed in America at that time was and is a work of the Kingdom of Darkness flexing its muscle on an oppressed people similar to the situation with the man who had been beaten and left for dead by the robbers.
And just like white supremacy is a work of the kingdom of darkness, so is black supremacy, Asian supremacy, German supremacy, and racism because all of these ideologies and thoughts put a sinful confidence in the flesh and not in God.
See this is the deceptive work of the Kingdom of Darkness in many political movements and ideologies.
Mathew chapter 3:9, John the Baptist confronts a couple of Pharisees and Sadducees who placed confidence in the flesh by telling them that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from the stones around them.
Not only do these ideologies place a confidence in the flesh but they have as their mission the building of their own kingdom and not God’s kingdom.
Take Hitler for example, that he wanted to build a German nation, he had plans for Germany and Germans to take over the world, building his own kingdom, he was not concerned with God’s kingdom and the great commission. And this is the same about any political movement whose ideology is based on the building up of one people through the demise of another. Systematic racism is the work of the Kingdom of Darkness and sin.
Back to my initial thought that if I lived during the time of civil rights movement of the late 50s’ and 60s’, I would hope that I would get involved, I would hope that I would March.
But I am also fully aware of this, that no rally, no law, no march will break the bondage of sin, it will not remove humanity from the snare of Satan. We must understand that political movements, no matter how good they may be in caring for the oppressed, less fortunate, are limited and that they do not provide full liberation.
Jesus is the true liberator, he is the only one that can invade and change human hearts and break the chains of the kingdom of darkness. This is one of the main reason why the Son of God came to Earth. In Luke 4:18, Jesus begins to quote Isaiah 61:1.
So yes, like the Samaritan we help the man on the side of the road who was robbed and left of dead. We confront the kingdom of darkness in our communities and family……………………………….where the kingdom of darkness has left a person dead on the side of the road through drug addiction, prostitution, gang affiliation, sex trafficking, areas of poverty through human greed. We bring the light of the gospel in love, compassion, empathy and biblical truth about the person of Jesus Christ.
The sword that God tells us to pick up in Ephesians 6:17- is not just for defense but it is for offense, so that we would go and attack the kingdom of Darkness wherever it infiltrates our society. In Mathew 28:19, Jesus said to “go ye therefore and make disciple of all nations”. The “go” in the first part of that verse suggest offense to me, which means that we are to attack.
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