For the six days preceding Easter, beginning on Monday, April 18, Rev. Dr.

Joan
Brown Campbell, Director, Department of Religion, Chautauqua Institution
shares a meditation that will be offered in the Appleton Chapel of the Memorial
Church at Harvard University. All the meditations are focused on Jesus the
Merciful; Jesus the Compassionate. This title is taken from Muslim friends and
teachers who always greet any audience with the words “In the name of Allah,
the Merciful, the Compassionate.” Beginning with Jesus’ call to ministry, and
each day thereafter touches on Jesus’ acts of compassion as set forth in the
biblical parables.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Luke 4: 18-19
The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

With these words Jesus, speaking in his home town synagogue, announces his
ministry. He stood before people who knew him well, and they took note that
when the scroll was handed to him his words, spoken clearly, placed him in the
lineage of the prophet Isaiah. The youthful Jesus astounded many with the
boldness of his message, but others were frightened, some even angry, that he
so willingly took on the mantle of the Prophet Isaiah.

From that day forward, Jesus’ ministry would be marked by controversy as he

carried out acts of mercy and compassion. Jesus the merciful, Jesus the
compassionate, would move among God’s people healing the sick, feeding the
hungry, seeking justice for those living with the burden of prejudice and poverty.
Jesus the merciful would call for the release of those held captive. For those
blinded by disease, or blinded to the pain of the world, Jesus would restore their
sight and they would, with tears in their newly sighted eyes, greet him with
thanksgiving for his love for them.
The life of Jesus is truly a life of mercy and compassion. His parables and
teachings are rooted in acts of compassion. Jesus did not simply preach
compassion, he lived it. He risked his very life for those who suffered. Jesus the
compassionate gave to us a vision of life abundant, full and free. To this day, he
calls us to follow the uncertain, uncharted, but faithful path of compassion.

The ministry of Jesus was characterized by a deep abiding faith where love was
always the last word. As lovely as this sounds, he was constantly at odds with
many of the most important religious leaders of his day. In fact, the parables are
marked by challenges to religious authority – marked by acts of compassion that
place love and justice and caring above religious rules and restrictions. In the
days ahead, we will take note of how compassion continually called Jesus to risk
on behalf of human need and suffering.

We will revisit familiar parables: of the woman accused of adultery…the healing

of the sick child on the Sabbath…the compassion for both neighbor and self in
the great commandment…the forgiveness of the enemy on the cross…and the
loving act of Joseph of Arimathea and his courage in the burying of the crucified
one.

For the next 6 days, as we prepare for Easter, I invite you to join with me as we
encounter a “compassion that lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual
traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves”
…words penned by Karen Armstrong, friend and author of the Charter for
Compassion. I owe to her the inspiration for these messages.

God of mercy and love,

Enter our hearts that we may be stirred to see all your children as precious; each
our very own. Open us to the possibility that you are present in the souls of all
people and that every expression of faith is a witness to you whose way is to
integrate, to heal and to make whole.