Compassion & Mercy:
A Meditation
for Lent
Text: Jonah 4:10-11 (NASB)
Intro: Joke: Jonah, the whale, the little girl, & the teacher
Thesis: More than anything else, the book of Jonah
teaches us about compassion and mercy – both from God and from other people.
A. What is compassion?
1. Basically, wanting to help someone who needs help
2. Compassion: “Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it” (American Heritage Dictionary).
3. “Compassion, literally a feeling with and for others, is a fundamental and distinctive quality of the Biblical conception of God” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
B. God’s compassion in book of Jonah
1. Compassionate on Nineveh – sent a message of warning, gave them opportunity to repent (“a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger” 4:2)
2. Compassionate on the sailors – storm stopped as soon as Jonah was off the ship
3. Compassionate on Jonah – sent the whale to save him
4. Compassionate on Jonah again – sent the plant to shade him from the hot sun
C. Patterns of God’s compassion
1. Both big and little acts of compassion (big – warn Nineveh; small – plant for Jonah’s shade)
2. Came whether it was “earned” or not
D. Other Biblical thoughts on God’s compassion
1. “It lay at the foundation of Israel’s faith in Yahweh. For it was out of His compassion that He, by a marvelous act of power, delivered them from Egyptian bondage and called them to be His own people. Nothing, therefore, is more prominent in the Old Testament than the ascription of compassion, pity, mercy, etc., to God” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
2. That’s what the NT Gospel message is all about – The Great Act of Compassion, God sending His Son to help us…with our sin problem and our separation from Him. “Christianity may be said to be distinctively the religion of Compassion.” (ISBE)
A. What is mercy?
1. Basically, it’s giving a second chance
2. Mercy: “Leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice” (WordNet Dictionary)
3. Mercy: “Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power; clemency; a disposition to be kind and forgiving” (American Heritage Dictionary)
4. Being spared the punishment that one deserves
5. Sometimes translated lovingkindness
6. Closely related to compassion
B. God’s mercy in the book of Jonah
1. God has mercy on the sailors – doesn’t just wipe out the ship
2. God has mercy on Jonah – doesn’t slay him; gave him a 2nd chance
3. God has mercy on Nineveh – didn’t wipe out the city – gave them a 2nd chance
C. Other biblical thoughts on God’s mercy
1. Mercy often points to relief from misery – God is a God of mercy
2. God’s great act of mercy – not destroying sinful humanity, but giving us a 2nd chance – the offer of new life and a new relationship with Him through faith in Jesus, who died for our sins
A. These qualities needed in the horizontal relationships in the book of Jonah
1. God sent Jonah on a mission of compassion/ mercy to Nineveh
2. Jonah showed not only bravery but compassion on the sailors by demanding to be thrown overboard
3. Jonah had compassion on the plant instead of the people of Nineveh
B. Other Biblical examples
1. Joseph – had mercy on his brothers (didn’t take revenge on them, but forgave)
2. Samaritan – had compassion on the beaten man (had every reason to not help, but helped him a lot)
3. Moses – pleaded with God on behalf of the obstinate, rebellious Israelites
4. Ruth – compassionate on Naomi
5. Hosea – mercifully took back Gomer
C. Be merciful, as you have received mercy
1. Book of Jonah is an object lesson on receiving and showing mercy – God was compassionate and merciful on Jonah; so Jonah should’ve been compassionate and merciful on the Ninevites in return (but he wasn’t)
2. That was the point of God’s conversation with Jonah at the end of the book – shouldn’t He have compassion on these people who don’t know right from wrong (and therefore, shouldn’t Jonah?)
3. God demands mercy of His people
a. Micah 6:8
b. Beatitude “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt. 5:7)
c. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” (Lk 6:36)
4. Closely connected with the concept of forgiving as we have been forgiven
a. In Lord’s Prayer
b. In parable of the unforgiving steward
5. “Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan. – Saint John Chrysostom (347–407)
6. “We do pray for mercy; / And that same prayer doth teach us all to render / The deeds of mercy.” – Shakespeare (1564–1616)
7. Mercy and Compassion important parts of the Code of Chivalry
a. “Give mercy to those that ask for it”
b.
“Have
compassion to the weak, frail, and oppressed, and seek to help them in any way”
8. “Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.” – Henri Nouwen
9. Rick Warren (The Purpose-Driven Life, pp. 142-143) – “In real fellowship people experience mercy.” When living in community, we have plenty of need of – and occasion to give mercy to each other, because we will all blow it at some point; we’ll all need help and a second chance. Hurts happen, whether intentional or un-. “Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has already forgiven you.”
· Summarize the purpose of Lent
· Why compassion and mercy as Lenten meditative material
o God’s great compassion and mercy
o The way it should change our understanding of God
o The way it should change our behaviour toward others
o The way it should inform our worldview
A little girl was observed by her teacher waiting for her parents to come and pick her up. The teacher noticed that she clutched a big storybook under her arms with the obvious title, "Jonah and the Whale."
Feeling a little pernicious, she knelt down beside the little girl and began a conversation.
"What's that you have in your hand?" she asked.
"This is my storybook about Jonah and the Whale," she answered.
"Tell me something, little girl," she continued, "do you believe that story about Jonah and that whale to be the truth?"
The little girl implored, "Why of course I believe this story to be the truth!" She inquired further, "You really believe that a man can be swallowed up by a big fish, stay inside him all that time, and come out of there still alive and OK? You really believe all that can be true?"
She declared, "Absolutely, this story is in the Scriptures and we studied about it today!"
Then the teacher asked, "Well, little girl, can you prove to me that this story is the truth?"
She thought for a moment and then said, "Well, when I get to Heaven, I'll ask Jonah."
The teacher then asked, "Well, what if Jonah's not in Heaven?"
She replied, "Then YOU can ask him!"
Sermon © 2004 by Jeffrey Westbrook