Pentecost 3 (Luke 7:11-17) “He had compassion on her.”

Compassion is not charity.

Charity is certainly beneficial. It has its place. It can accomplish much good. And, for lost souls distorted by the pain of separation, charity can be a meritorious work and a condition for divine favor. Sadly, charity that proceeds from separation tends to perpetuate separation.

Compassion proceeds from the depths of the soul. It derives from that place Moses calls “the image and likeness of God.” We each bear that image and likeness in our souls. That image and likeness is what makes salvation from sin and death possible.

Jesus appeals to that image and likeness in our souls. It is the true self. It is the threefold pattern of love Jesus reveals and Jesus embodies.

Compassion is that universal and unconditional love that asks: how may I help?

Jesus is the very source of compassion. We feel compassion, concern, for other people because God the Father created us by the power of God the Holy Spirit according to the pattern of God the Son. An important question to ask as we read the accounts of Jesus’ teaching and action is: what pattern of life does Jesus reveal?

The first element of the pattern is that Jesus was present in the moment. He was not distracted by anxiety about the future or fear derived from past events. His Real Presence is the gift of God to those who abide in Divine love through worship, prayer and Bible study.

The second element is that Jesus saw the woman. How many times do you really see the people in your lives? Because Jesus lives and moves and has his being in the Real Presence of God the Father he is the Real Presence of the Divine in the daily lives of all whom he meets. He sees the woman in all of her grief and need and fear. As a widow bereft of her only son she is now alone. There is no one to help her, protect her, care for her. She faces isolation, poverty and uncertainty about her survival.

Jesus saw all of this.

The third element is a feeling. He felt her pain. He identified with her anguish and isolation. Jesus reminds us that The Father created people to be in an interdependent relationship with each other. We are our brothers’ keeper. How we treat the least, the poorest and the outcast reveals our innermost nature.

The apostles teach that Christians rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Separation produces a numbness in our ability to identify and feel the emotions of other people. That numbness produces indifference. And, that indifference leads to active evil.

Jesus sees the widow, feels her pain, identifies with her need. He then initiates a conversation that will meet the woman’s need. He doesn’t wait to be asked. He doesn’t investigate her level of righteousness to determine she is worthy of help. He acts on the need. And, he acts from the Real Presence of God.

Jesus did not perform miracles from the place of power. Jesus performed miracles from the place of Real Presence. That place is steadfast, holy, universal and unconditional love.

People focus on the action in the miracle. The action is the word: rise- followed by the dead man returning to life and quite literally rising off the funeral bier. It is indeed an amazing miracle. The value to the widow is incalculable. The value to us is infinite.

The pattern in the miracle is the original blessing. It is the pattern of living God intended for us as a species and we as a species rejected. It is a pattern we as individuals reject through our daily choices. And, it is a pattern of living Jesus restores to us. All of us. Each of us.

The record of this miracle is designed to help us understand who God created us to be, how we choose to separate from our true selves, and what life would look like and feel like if we made a different choice.

Jesus is that different choice. Jesus is that pattern of the Original Blessing.

We are not Jesus. We can grow into his image and likeness. That pattern is already at the depth of our souls. We need only to take the first step forward by grace through faith to become who God  created us to be.

The gospel reading today gives us one important key to the new life nd the new way of living. That key is compassion.

The Holy Spirit, the Counselor, is encouraging you to practice compassion from the place of compassion. That place is not will. That place is the infinite and eternal love of God we experience as we make a real choice to immerse our hearts, minds and will in the Real Presence of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.