This is the talk I gave at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on December 26, 2004. The Scripture is from the 2nd chapter of Hebrews, verses 1 – 18…
What is the difference between sympathy and empathy?
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary describes sympathy as having common feelings or emotions, such as an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other… the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another. And it describes empathy as a passionate feeling or emotion… the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present.
After I read those two definitions, I was more confused than when I started! I think I prefer the very simplistic version I remember being taught by a Sunday School teacher many, many years ago… Sympathy is that ability to care about another’s pain even though you may never have personally experienced that particular pain. In other words, I can sympathize with someone who may have lost a parent, even though both of mine might still live. To empathize with someone, however, is to be able to share their pain and suffering because you have also been through it yourself. Hence, I can empathize with someone going through an unfriendly divorce because I have done that myself.
Both emotions have their uses… and their limitations. Just as a simple example… even though I have never been an orphan, I could probably work at an orphanage. My feelings of sympathy and love for those less fortunate than I would, I believe, stand me in good stead. However, I would be worse than useless working with alcoholics and drug addicts. True, there are those who have never suffered either of those conditions who do excellent work in that field, but by far and away, the most effective are those who have either recovered from them themselves, or had to deal with a loved one who suffered from them. I know from having hired and worked with some of them that those in the recovery process feel as if they have nothing at all in common with someone like me who has never had a drink of alcohol in their life!
As most of you know by now, I am a big fan of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Scotty, Dr. McCoy, and all things ‘Star Trek’! And there is a line from the fourth movie, ‘The Voyage Home’, that I would like to talk about this morning. But for it to make any sense, I first need to give you a brief synopsis of the story line as in developed in movies 2 and 3.
In the second movie, ‘The Wrath of Khan’, Spock receives a massive dose of radiation while rescuing the ship, and dies. However, in the third movie, ‘The Search for Spock’, Mr. Spock’s cells are unintentionally regenerated by a science-project-gone-wild and quickly grow to become himself again. So it is, then, that in the fourth movie, Dr. McCoy is trying to talk to Spock about what it was like to die…
“Come on, Spock… you really have been where no man has gone before! Can’t you tell me what it felt like?
Spock replies, “It would be impossible to discuss the subject without a common frame of reference!”
McCoy exclaims, “You mean I have to die to discuss your insights on death?!”
In our Scriptures from Hebrews, this morning, the writer starts out by declaring that, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” The ‘many sons’ refers to all mortals… and unless some of you are much older than you look, that includes each of us!
The Life Application Commentary says that, “(God’s making Jesus) perfect through sufferings does not refer to Jesus’ sinless state. Jesus was already perfect before he faced suffering. Instead, it refers to Jesus’ perfect position before God. In God’s eyes, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for God’s people, pioneering their salvation through his suffering and death.”
Why should that matter? Well, when you study all of the laws and instructions of the Old Testament, God was very specific in what sacrifices must be made to atone for which sins. For example, in the fourth chapter of Leviticus we read… “If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.” The reason for this was very clear… in order for a sacrifice to have any meaning, it must be a true sacrifice. What does it cost someone to give out of their excess or cast-offs? If an injured or inferior animal was to be destroyed anyway, what cost, or sacrifice, has one made in offering it? None!
In 2 Samuel we read the story of King David traveling to a certain place in order to offer sacrifices to God for relief of a plague that is sweeping the nation. When he arrives, the owner of the property, Araunah, says, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”
Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.”
David knew the value of a sacrifice… he knew that it was not the act of sacrificing that mattered… it was the sacrifice that one made in doing so… for it is in this way that the Lord reads and knows our true love and devotion for Him! And so it is for this reason that a perfect sacrifice must be made as atonement for our sins… and the only perfection that exists is in God, Himself, and His Son… our Lord, Jesus Christ! And He existed in that perfection before He came to be one of us.
But… even though God created us, I’m sure He must look at our lives, sometimes, and just shake his head in disbelief. In the days of the Law of Moses, God had set down law upon law of very strict rules, and what to do to atone for each if it was broken. He spoke to the people through His prophets and priests, and worked very obvious and visible miracles for them. And still, these people would wander away from Him and sin at almost every turn! He had to wonder why! Yes, He was a God of love and understanding! And He could sympathize with their hurt and their anguish after their sins had driven them away from His protection! But He had to wonder why they kept doing it again and again and again!
And so He sent His Son to become one of us that He might know, first hand, what it is to be human… that He might empathize more closely to us and what it means to live each day one-at-a-time… and, yes, what it might mean to face death… and to suffer and die! Our verses state very clearly that, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity… For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Again quoting from the Life Application Commentary, “Because humans experience suffering and death, Christ became fully human and experienced these aspects of being human as well. That Christ both lived and died gives us confidence that we have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness. We have confidence that because Christ conquered death, he also can save us from death.”
Jesus… the Son of the Living God… was born to the Virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem and laid in a manger! Since the child was in danger of losing His life to Herod’s jealousy, the family was warned to move to Egypt, and wound up, later, moving and living in Nazareth. And all of these things were foretold by the prophets hundreds of years earlier!
But Isaiah also told us, in Isaiah 63, verses 7-9, this… “I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us — yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said, “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me”; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
‘In His love and mercy He redeemed them!’ … ‘In His love and mercy He redeemed US! He redeemed you… and me!
But you know what the very next verse of that chapter says? “Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”
Are we among the redeemed? Or are we among the rebels? And do we even know the difference? We’d better!
scluebbert 
Thank you God for your love and mercy.
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