Jesus

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Compassion and the Victim Mentality

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. (Luke 19:1-6)

A seemingly peaceful day was disrupted by five or six police with their guns out of their holsters chasing and yelling after a teenager. There was a lone civilian among the police and it was obvious that he was the victim of the crime. For a moment all of us were disoriented with yelling and guns waving around in the air. Mary (my wife) warned the children that were with us to stay down, just in case someone’s gun were to go off by chance. Everyone heard Mary’s voice but no one paid attention to it, including me. We were just stood there paralyzed by adrenaline. The pursued teenager was trying to dodge the police by running between two parked cars. He almost looked like he was playing catch with them. It would have been comical if it wasn’t for the presence of the guns. Finally, the teenager turned into a narrow street which was his doom. He was surrounded. It didn’t take long for the police to subdue him and he did not resist. We were relieved that it was over. The children were strangely calm but our hearts were beating fast. Perhaps they were accustomed to such a scene. We were curious about the teenager. He was homeless like them but no one could recognize him from where we were standing.

The police made the teenager sit on the ground while they waited for the patrol car. Mary and I pretended that we needed to walk pass the scene just to catch a glimpse of the teenager. I admit we are curious creatures. Unfortunately he was someone we knew. His name is Raphael and he had just turned eighteen. He is a loner and doesn’t interact with the other children and teens. We have seen him several times in our neighborhood sitting outside a convenience store begging for money. Sometimes he would smile at us but most of the time he would just ignore us. We never knew him to steal or rob but maybe today he saw an opportunity to do it and took a risk. Anything is possible. There is strong chance that Raphael is going to prison. He most likely will spend a few months in the overcrowded prisons of São Paulo. He was crying as we passed him. I think he saw us as we passed him. There was nothing we could do for him.

I don’t believe that many people felt sorry for him. I am sure that the victim of his crime was feeling vindicated at this moment. Raphael looked defeated and devastated. It is easy to forget that Raphael is not the victim. However, this does not mean he doesn’t deserve our compassion. It also doesn’t mean that we should overlook what he has done. He is a criminal and he deserves our compassion. I think this is the hardest thing for us as human beings to do. This is really the tough part of the gospel. The Pharisees had a hard time with Jesus because He showed compassion to people who really did not deserve it. The Pharisees were not upset when Jesus healed the blind and the lame. They were upset when he ate with sinners. They were upset when he accepted them as his friends. They were upset when He showed compassion to those who did not deserve it.

Many times I have seen pictures of homeless children in brochures that show them in dirty clothes and sometimes they are curled in pain from hunger. The picture conveys the idea that these poor children are victims and because they are victims, they deserve our compassion. When we think of victims, we think of people who are deprived of their basic necessities. However, our homeless children eat leftover food from restaurants and usually these are good restaurants. At night several groups come by with food and hot soup for the homeless. A teenager once told me that they never lack food and clothing, in fact, she was giving away some of her clothes because she had too much. She slept on dirty mattress in the streets but she had a suitcase full of clothes. If I made a brochure of our homeless children eating food from restaurants and having suitcases of clothes, I doubt people will be moved to help. People don’t feel pity for people who are not victims.

Of all the people in Jericho, Jesus chose to dine in Zaccheus’ house. Without a doubt, there were more deserving people than him that would have been honored to have Jesus in their home. Perhaps some of them could have been victims of Zaccheus’ unscrupulous dealings. However, Jesus decided to show compassion to Zaccheus even though among all the people there, he was deserved it the least.

Zaccheus thought he had created his personal heaven until he met Jesus. The compassion of Jesus revealed the true state of his desperate existence. It woke Zaccheus out of his slumber of self-deception. This is what compassion does. It forces people to wake up from their self-deception. There is such thing as false compassion. False compassion makes and maintains people as victims. For me, another name for false compassion is pity. I think many times we confuse “pity” for compassion. Our feeling of pity comes from a sense of guilt but compassion is a decision we make to love those who do not deserve our love.

None of our homeless children and teens would consider themselves as victims. We should not make them victims. They never made excuses for their actions and we should not invent excuses to invoke pity in others. We don’t want anyone to help these children because of pity. Pity gets us nowhere. Compassion liberates lives. Some people believe that these children are victims of society’s ills. I am not sure if we can change society but I believe a genuine experience of God’s compassion can help us to be liberated from self-deception. This is not to say the children are solely responsible for their state of homelessness. However, turning them into victims is not going to change their state. Compassion can, as in the story of Zaccheus. Change for the better is our goal.

Everyone needs to experience the compassion of God to truly see who we are. Zaccheus went up the tree to see Jesus and he discover his true state that day. He realized the wealth and power he had acquired were just deceptions. The compassion he experienced through Jesus gave him the courage the face reality. Zaccheus would have something concrete to say to our children. Only those who allow the compassion of God to transform their lives have anything concrete to say in this world of self-deception. Only those who have experienced the compassion of God can love compassionately those who do not deserve it.

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When Better is not Good Enough

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. -John 3:1-3

Nicodemus was a seeker of the Truth. He saw a spirituality in Jesus that was new and unique. He wanted to better himself. He wanted to know more about Jesus’ doctrines so that he could be a better person. However, Jesus basically told him that better was just not good enough.

Jesus did not wait for Nicodemus to ask his question. He knew immediately the nature of the visit. Jesus did not preach a message of detachment from the world. This was the teaching of the Buddha. He too agreed with Jesus that better was not good enough. However, Jesus gave a very different answer to the spiritual problem. He told Nicodemus that one needs to be born of the spirit.  It was contrary to detachment from the world. Being born of the spirit was coming back to this life with all its problems and injustices with new understanding of reality. Christianity does not promise a change in the political and social structures of the world. There was very little said of social reforms in the gospels. However, it does talk about the person being transformed to see reality in a new Light. We cannot follow or even understand the teachings of Jesus without this new understanding. Those who limit themselves to doctrinal understanding of the faith are settling for a better spirituality or religion. Jesus tells us that this is not enough; better is just not good enough.

This is true in all aspects. In our work, the homeless would not leave the streets for better conditions. Better for them is not worth leaving the streets. They desire something new. In fact, people in all phases of life are always talking about change. They are always talking about the new or reinventing themselves. It seems like we know instinctively that we need something new. The old has shown itself to be lacking. However, we cannot create the new within ourselves. Churches or any religion cannot give or even usher the new. This is something beyond us. We cannot domesticate the forces that bring about the new.

Jesus said: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”(John 3:8)

The new that transforms our hearts and minds can only be done through the Spirit. No one has monopoly of the Spirit. The best we can do is to prepare ourselves for the Spirit. If we invest our time and energy in the old things or values that keep us imprison in the things of this reality, then we won’t be aware of the presence of the Spirit. Those who are seeking the new are aware of the futility of the old. These will understand the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes when he professed, “Vanity of vanities; All is vanity.”  Seeing the futility of the old is really the prerequisite that helps us prepare for the new.

We cannot produce the new within ourselves or others. All we can do is prepare ourselves to meet the One who can transform us from within. The preparation is knowing that we are part of the new. Many in the streets have seen the futility of the old but they do not know that they can be part of the new. However, the new has a place of them. This is the good news. The New is open to all but only few seek it.

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