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"Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched
[the leper] and said, 'I do choose [to do something about your
need]. Be made clean.' " Caring was not enough, either for the
leper -- or for Jesus. Concern is a noble emotion, though it must
grow if it is to result in commitment. Even commitment is only a
noble intent. It becomes worthy of our faith when it grows into
action. Caring is only the beginning, like a decision which we
never put into action; like a promise we never keep. Even for
Christ the desire to have a positive effect upon the condition of
the leper was a decision about which he then had to do something.
Caring wasn't enough.
I admire a congregation that once established the motto: We
Care. It was a well advertised and widely circulated image of the
congregation's mission. Because it inspired a renewed sense of
vitality, the phrase became a part of a highly motivational ad
campaign including an attractive bumper sticker. It inspired
evangelical conversations all over the country. There were those,
however, who knew that the "Madison Avenue" approach had to be
followed with a skid-row-sensitive application. One perceptive
leader made sure that the congregation realized the commitment
that such a slogan implied. "Are we sure we have the integrity,"
he asked, "to do what is required if we say, 'We Care?' "

He didn't know it at the time, but he was laying out for the
congregation's social concerns committee the same challenge the
leper put to Christ: "You can do something, if you choose." And
from that moment, hard questions continued to be asked in that
congregation. When someone came to our door in need of food or
shelter, would we demonstrate that we cared or would we put them
through a series of hoops designed to prevent them from getting
any tangible expression of our concern? It happened when the
ministries of our partnership with other congregations asked for
our participation in a campaign to strengthen the social service
agency of our work. Would we choose to care or rather would we
use any projected increases in giving to add the staff person we
wanted to make our congregation more attractive to those seeking
a snazzy child-care facility? It was repeated when the hard facts
about the congregation's less-than-enthusiastic participation in
world missions was made clear. Would we be passionate enough
about souls to put our dollars on the line or would we simply
agree we care and leave it at that?
I'd like to suggest that the word compassion be seen as the
next stage of Christian love -- beyond caring -- on the way to
action. If love is only an emotion of affection, the need for
loving deeds remains. It is when love is seen as some sort of
romantic feeling about another person that it becomes something
which you might fall into or fall out of. When someone reports
that they have fallen out of that "loving feeling" I wonder when
they quit doing loving things for the person they once loved.
Surely love includes our feelings of warmth and concern; the
desire for that person to be healthy, happy, secure and
fulfilled. But if all we ever do for other people is have warm,
friendly, pleasant feelings toward them, our love falls short. If
we fail to do something about their health, happiness, security
and fulfillment, our feelings will remain simply a pleasant wish
toward them. And I don't think that is Christian agape at all.
If there were not more required of us than caring, our passion
for people would suffice and we could stand by feeling

bad about their plight. That is not the kind of steadfast love we
have experienced from God in Christ. Nor is it the love that God
means to be the central motivation to change the world.
My suggestion is that the first three letters of the word,
compassion -- c, o, and m -- represent the elements that must be
added to love in order for Christian caring to become God's own
passion. There are three words I'd like to suggest. They start
with the letters c, o, and m. I believe we must move beyond our
care and concern to a com-pelling com-mitment on behalf of human
com-munity.
Caring starts with a compelling emotion. When we are moved by
the condition of someone who is hurting, we have at that point
begun the process and we are on the right track. For many people
-- and for much of that time -- the starvation of tens of
thousands, and the subhuman living conditions of millions of our
brothers and sisters, hardly make their way into our field of
vision. We could manage to successfully avoid the need to ponder
their condition if it were not for the media which bring the
images into our living rooms. Thanks be to the essential goodness
of people that when faced with such realities, we do care. We
begin to have compelling emotions that cause us to sympathize and
hurt on behalf of those who are hurting. Something begins to stir
within us and we feel the urge to do something.
Certainly God cared and continues to care about the human
condition. Any attempt to reflect upon the spirit of God must
imagine God to be concerned about the nature and destiny of those
whom that divine nature has created and loves. Our salvation in
Christ has its origin in God's compelling emotion on our behalf.
That emotion also becomes the origin of our passionate action on
behalf of others. We have compelling emotions for people on God's
behalf.
Caring could stop there -- and often does -- for you and me.
Many of our best emotions on behalf of others are fleeting. Faced
with the enormity of human suffering and the difficulties
encountered by anyone who tries to do something, we rarely get
farther than feeling bad and quickly move on.

Or, urged by other equally compelling feelings about our need to
take care of ourselves first -- compassion may well end at the
level of compelling emotions. But there is more to it than that.
At a higher level of human caring and concern comes the point at
which compelling emotions lead to commitments. Then we make
choices about which compelling emotions we will honor and how.
Commitments are the result.
The leper had it absolutely right. Not doubting the power of
our Lord to do something significant, he questioned Jesus's will.
"If you choose to make me well, you can." After we have felt our
concern for the situation of others, the issue is whether or not
we have the will to do something about it. The leper already knew
all about the sympathy of others. He had probably seen precious
little commitment follow up that sympathy. The best forms of
education and motivation -- raising our levels of consciousness
and awareness of issues -- may fall short at the level of
decision-making. Faced with clearly-stated and well-argued
reasons to act; knowing full well how appropriate it would be to
do something -- how right and good it would be, we often stop at
this step. We simply choose not to act.
Of course Christ chose to help. The leper's healing was a type
of prediction of his ultimate choice to lay down his life for us.
The issue is seldom whether we would prefer the starving to be
fed, the naked to be clothed, and the homeless to be housed. Only
the most dispassionate would not have a "compelling emotion" to
want to help. The choice comes down to the nature and extent of
our commitment. Are we prepared to commit the sharing of our
lunch to the cause of the hungry? Will we give up one of our two
coats to cover the cold and shirtless street person? Are we
prepared to welcome the stranger into our church, much less our
home? For many of us the compelling emotion never graduates to
these levels of true commitment. That's why our Lord had to give
us these illustrations.
Yet another step remains. First there came the compelling
emotion, followed by commitment. Then the call is for us to

care about the whole human community. And it is not easy. It is
one thing to have compelling emotions on behalf of those who look
like us and to feel some commitment to those who are nearby. Of
course we love those who like us and who are like us. The
spiritual strategy of Jesus is to move us along. The invitation
is to have a compelling emotion, that commits us to action on
behalf of the human community of lepers around us.
It is no wonder that Jesus understood the power of the action
he was being called upon to do. Touching a leper is no easy task.
But that is exactly what he had to do. Would he care? That's an
easy yes. But while he obviously could reach out and touch the
leper with healing, would he choose to do something to heal? Not
quite so obvious to answer, but yes. Now came the tough part for
him and the step that's difficult for us as well. Would he feel
strongly enough and be committed enough to commune with the
unclean leper, a representative of everything from which we want
to keep our distance. It is at this point, and this point alone,
that Jesus truly cared. "Immediately he reached out and touched
him."
Perhaps you have known someone who had cancer and who
experienced the loneliness of having people keep their distance.
So fearful are some people of catching it, or being so closely
associated with the potential prognosis, that they separate
themselves from the victim. So often people avoid the healing
that closeness and acceptance can provide. There are new leper
colonies in our day and time. The greatest pain experienced by
many AIDS sufferers is the separation they feel from even some of
their closest family and friends. We probably know more about how
you catch AIDS than we know how you acquire cancer. You can't get
AIDS just by touching someone. But so much for compelling
emotions and commitments.
Yet that is the kind of passion Jesus has for people. If you
are prepared to die for someone, touching them is not an
insurmountable challenge. Your care and concern is a good place
to start. Commitment to do something, when and if you have the
opportunity, is an excellent step. Beyond that, recognize

that the vast array of people who need the results of your love
and commitment -- the whole human community. When you feel
something for them, decide to do something, and then follow
through with deeds of love and mercy. That's compassion.
Not only did Jesus speak of his care and concern. Not only did
he decide to act. He reached out and touched humanity. He not
only felt strongly about the plight of the human family and
decided to do something about it. Feeling compelling emotions
toward people, committed to changing the plight of humanity, he
decided to die for it. For the whole human community. And that
kind of passion takes power.