Compassion Test
How compassionate are you?
[T]hey said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. - John 8:4-6
In today's Gospel reading, John tells us that Jesus is being tested.
The Pharisees have brought a woman before him and asked what should be done with her, knowing that the law demanded she be stoned to death for adultery.
If the intent was to trap Jesus, they had to believe he would be compassionate and seek to let the woman go, perhaps by absolving her sins.
For them to take this approach, Jesus must already have developed a reputation. He ate and drank with sinners. He healed those who were lame and sick, people considered sinful. So, he was a compassionate man, and apparently that was a bad thing.
Do we value compassion today? Is giving someone a second chance a good thing or a sign of weakness?
We often have volunteers come to us who need to fulfill community service hours, either as part of a school program or as a court ordered alternative to incarceration. They come to serve, not because they want to, but because they have to.
Our goal during the few hours we have them working with us, is to bring out the compassion in them, to help them see what they are doing as something that brings them joy and a sense of value.
We don't always succeed in that. Some do their time and leave without acknowledging any change at all.
But it could be that God is working through them to change others, and that may be something we cannot see.
In the case of the adulterous woman brought before the men who were ready to dispense justice upon her, Jesus helped them see her sinfulness in them.
They changed, and left without casting the first stone.
Perhaps the same happens when someone known to the community comes to serve. Others who know why the community service is ordered see and remember.
This is what happened yesterday. Two of the men who come to us for lunch came to me and told me to work this volunteer extra hard. "We know him," they said in his presence. "Give him more work to do."
"Are you his mentors?" I asked.
"No."
"Then let him be. Focus on your own actions, and leave him alone."
Compassion, for me, is simply another word for fairness. When we treat each other the way we would like to be treated, we offer nothing more than what we deserve, allowing us to take control of our lives and change.
Where is the justice in keeping someone from changing?
I turned to the young man performing community service and told him to choose his friends wisely.
Will he listen?
I don't know. But it is not up to me to get him on the right path, just to show him it exists. He has to want to do the work.
And let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
More to come...