Some years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote these powerful words. Listen…

“How do you measure success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child,
a redeemed social condition,
or a job well done;
To know that even one life has
breathed because you lived…
that is to have succeeded.”

I like that very much. It’s a beautiful statement… but, somehow I want to add one more ingredient to the mix, namely... compassion! The spirit of compassion… The touch of compassion.

Without that special Christian quality in our lives… our lives cannot really be successful! We can be highly educated, we can rise to places of prominence in this world, we can accumulate lots of wealth, we can even win numerous awards… but even after we have done all those things if we are not loving, compassionate people our lives are failures, empty shells… because we have missed the key component in life and God’s most important lesson… namely…

“Loving compassion”… Jesus called it “the most significant sign of discipleship.

In John’s Gospel, He said it like this: “A new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you. By this, all will know that you are my disciples.” (John 13:34-35)

Jesus not only taught compassion He lived it!

As deftly and as quickly as a magnetic needle points to the North Star,… even so the heart of Jesus immediately zeroed in on the neediest person in the crowd.

How quickly He noticed a rejected and lonely Zacchaeus up in that sycamore tree.

How swiftly He sensed the intensity and urgency in the cry of Blind Bartimaeus on the roadside.

And in each case, He reached out with compassion to give the help that was needed.

Now, we see it again in this tender story in Mark 5. Remember the story with me.

Jesus is on His way to see a little girl who is critically ill… when suddenly He is interrupted.

As He is moving through a large enthusiastic crowd,… a woman who has been hemorrhaging non-stop for twelve years discreetly slips up behind Jesus and timidly touches the hem of His robe. Right then, the story tells us, her bleeding stops.

She thinks she has gone unnoticed, so she drops back trying to lose herself in the huge crowd. But then, Jesus stops, turns around and asks: “Who touched me?”

His disciples are astonished and somewhat put out by His question.

“Who touched you?”
“What do you mean ‘Who touched you?’”
“The crowd is pressing in all around us… pushing and shoving. Everybody is touched everybody. What kind of question is that?”

But Jesus knows that is was a special touch. How perceptive He was! He begins to look around.

The woman had not expected to be found out. But now she fearfully steps forward and she tells Jesus…

* That she has had this bleeding for so long… over 12 years;
* And that she had tried everything… doctors, medicines, magic, wives tales, superstitions,… but to no avail… no improvement… in fact she has only gotten worse.
* She tells Jesus that she has heard about Him and His power to heal… and that she felt that if she could just touch His clothing, she could be made well.. and it worked!
* It worked! The bleeding has stopped!

Jesus’ heart goes out to her and He speaks to her tenderly: “Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your disease.”

Now, in this fascinating story, we see not only the compassionate spirit of Jesus, but also, we discover here some of the key characteristics of compassion,… special qualities that we as followers of Jesus (with the help of God) need to cultivate in our lives.

Let’s take a look at some of these together.

I. FIRST, WE NOTICE THAT COMPASSION IS SENSITIVE TO THE NEEDS OF OTHERS.

Compassion is aware, tuned in, responsive, sensitive to the needs of others.

Hundreds of people were pressing in upon Jesus that day in that crowded and busy street scene. Picture that in your mind…

They were thronging around Him, rushing over to be near Him, pushing and shoving and clamoring, reaching out to touch Him… yet out of that mass of humanity Jesus became aware of one person, one need, one touch.

He felt something unique and special as that woman tried to secretly touch the hem of His robe… how sensitive He was!

To bring this closer to home, let me tell you a true story.

I happened on a Father’s Day some years ago. I had preached in the 8:30 a.m. service that morning and then had rushed to teach Sunday School. After Sunday School, I had charged frantically back to my office to quickly skim over my sermon notes… and get ready for the 11:00 service which now was only minutes away… and the clock was ticking.

However, when I arrived at my office it was absolute pandemonium. People were waiting there for me.

* Someone wanted to tell me about a friend who had been taken to the hospital.
* Some former members who had moved away were back home and wanted to speak to me.
* A young couple I had married two weekends before had just returned from their honeymoon and they had stopped by to say “Hi.”
* Three staff members were there to remind me of special announcements that needed to be made in the upcoming service.
* An usher was there with a note about a car in the parking lot with lights on the doors locked… and the motor running.
* Another staff member was there to introduce me to some visitors who were prospective members.
* Yet, another staff member wanted to tell me that one of the babies scheduled to be baptized in the next service had not shown up yet.

It was now four minutes till eleven… the clock was ticking relentlessly… and it was bedlam.

And I was trying to deal with all of these things and at the same time grab my Bible and Hymnal and Sermon notes and put on my robe… suddenly I felt a persistent tug at the back of my robe.

I turned around. It was our daughter, Jodi. She was 8 years old at the time. She had worked her way through the crowd, was tugging on my robe… and insistently motioning for me to bend down. She had something to tell me.

My first response was (how shall I say this?) parental!! I thought: “Jodi, Jodi, couldn’t this wait til we get in the car after church? I’m doing big stuff up “up here!”

But, I didn’t say that. There was something about that tug… and God was with me that morning and He gave me the good sense to realize it.

So, I just shut everything else out… and dropped down on one knee to be on eye level with 8-year old Jodi. She beamed… and she said:

“Daddy, it’s Father’s Day… and I have a special present for you. I made it in Sunday School this morning… and I want to give it to you right now because I love you so much… and I’m so glad that you are my Daddy!”

She handed me the present. It was a Father’s Day Card she had made with construction paper and crayons. On the front cover was a picture of Planet Earth as seen from a space ship with these words: “To the Bestest Father in the whole wide world.”

On page 2 was a Polaroid picture of Jodi making the card in her Sunday School class. It has been snapped by her teacher.

On page 3 these words: “Happy Birthday” and then that was marked out… followed by the word “OOPS”… and then “I mean… “Happy Father’s Day.” Beneath that was this footnote… “Everybody makes mistakes.” The back cover had three more words: “I Love You.”

After I read the card out loud, Jodi’s face lit up with a proud smile. She wrapped her arms around my neck, hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear: “Dad,” I love you even when it’s not Father’s Day.”

I hugged her back… and in that moment we became the whole world for one another. In that moment “Time Stood Still.”

Thank what I would have missed if I had said to her: “Not now, Jodi! I’m too busy!” Think what that would have done to her spirit.

I was a few minutes late for church that day, but it didn’t matter because somewhere in heaven, God was smiling!

Now, think about this. Jesus had so many great moments like that with people… and sadly the truth is we have so few. Jesus had so many tender moments where time stood still. He could feel the touch, hear the cry, sense the need, zero in on the person, seize the moment.

You know why, don’t you? Because He was compassionate and being compassionate means first of all… being sensitive to the needs of others.

Over and over, Jesus in the Gospels, shows us how to tune in to the needs of people, to be aware, to be sensitive.

That’s number one… Compassion is sensitive to the needs of others.

II. SECOND, COMPASSION TAKES ADVANTAGE OF INTERRUPTIONS.

This past week, I skimmed through the Gospels and put together what I consider to be a very impressive list. Listen to this listing and see if you can find the common thread that runs through this. Here is the list:

The Good Samaritan Parable
The Great Commandment
The Blessing of the Little Children
The Healing of the Gerasene Denomic
The Healing of the Ten Lepers
The Healing of the Paralytic
The Healing of the man blind from birth
The Rich Young Ruler Encounter
Zacchaeus
Blind Bartimaeus
Nicodemus
The Cross… and the Resurrection

Now what do these stories have in common? Well… they are all special moments in the scriptures… and they were all produced by interruptions!

Jesus, with His compassionate heart, took advantage of these interruptions and redeemed them and used them to do good.

We see it again here in Mark 5. Jesus was on His way to see the critically ill daughter of Jairus, when He heals this woman of her hemorrhage.

This raises a poignant question that should haunt all of us… How many special moments have we missed? How man special moments with our children, our mates, our friends, our co-workers or even with strangers have we missed because we were too tired, too busy or too preoccupied?

Compassion, first of all, is sensitive to the needs of others… and second, compassion takes advantage of interruptions.

III. THIRD, COMPASSION IS GRACIOUS.

Notice how gracious Jesus is to the woman.

* He calls her “daughter” … an obvious term of endearment.
* He doesn’t fuss at her or criticize her or question her.
* He doesn’t condemn her for being superstitious.
* He doesn’t even give her a theology lesson.
* He just meets her where she is.
* He accepts her, encourages her and heals her in a gracious way. He doesn’t take the credit… (He gives her faith the credit.) “Your faith has made you well!” How gracious He was!

I have been in the ministry now for over 40 years… and over the years I have noticed something that I think is very significant. The great Christians all possess this magnificent spirit… of graciousness and humility.

Recently, while on a speaking engagement, I was at a dinner party in another state. The host was bragging loudly about how he had been active in a great church in that city for 37 years… and especially about how close he was to a series of truly outstanding ministers who had served that church during that span of time.

But, then when a certain man’s name was mentioned, the host became livid. I cringed inside as he let loose with a harsh, hostile tirade against that other man. His criticism was hard, tough, cruel, unfair, vindictive… and was sprinkled with expletives. He finished by saying: I’ll never speak to him again as long as I live!”

I found myself wondering: What has he been hearing in church all these years? How could he go to church regularly for 37 years… and hear the gospel preached by those outstanding ministers Sunday after Sunday for 37 years and still know nothing of graciousness, compassion, forgiveness.

I mean, how can we be exposed to the life and teachings and the spirit of Jesus and not realize the importance of love, mercy and grace.

Our Lord’s bigness of spirit, (our Lord’s love)… is a constant call and challenge to us to be compassionate, gracious people.

But, you know, it’s not enough to just feel it. We have to do something about it. Compassion can’t sit still. Jesus shows us that over and over. Compassion is love gone to work. It is active!

Remember how the poet put it:

“A bell is not a bell till it’s run;
A song is not a song til it’s sung;
Love is not put into your heart to stay,
Love is only love when you give it away.”