Broken Femurs

Margaret Mead, a noteable anthropologist, was once asked by a student to describe the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. Expecting her professor's answer to deal with clay pots or primitive tools, the student was surprised when Dr. Mead answered, "a healed femur." She explained that a healed femur meant that somebody cared for the injured biped. Someone else had to do the injured person's hunting and gathering until the leg healed. Compassion, then, is the first evidence of civilization.

If you had only one word to summarize Jesus' ministry told in the Bible, you might choose the word: compassion.

The English word, "compassion," is from a Latin word meaning, "to bear or feel the suffering" of another. This goes beyond an intellectual connection but to that place inside us that hurts which doctors cannot fix. The Hebrew (and Aramaic) word for compassion is curiously the plural form of the noun: "womb." There's something about compassion that, like a mother's womb, is life-giving, safe and all embracing.

You might not think so, but compassion can sometimes get you into trouble. It sure did for Jesus. During the first century, some Jewish holiness laws had become so strict that they stifled compassion (good thing that never happens today). For example, Jesus and his friends were once seen plucking some heads of grain in a field on a Saturday (Sabbath) because they were hungry. Jewish law prohibits work of any kind on the Sabbath, so they were confronted. The law prohibited hungry people from eating?!?!

Another Saturday, in the synagogue, Jesus healed a man's deformed hand. Confronted again for working on the Sabbath by the mainstream pastors of the day, Jesus explained, "What if one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; wouldn't you lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep? Of course it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Very simply, "our actions of love are more important that the expression of our beliefs or keeping of the law." I can think of a number of occasions in which this lesson is missed in today's world. Look at the way we often treat people who are gay, homeless people, women and migrant workers. The list goes on. If your first reaction to an illegal immigrant or a homosexual is judgment, then perhaps you have an area for learning and growing. Nobody ever said compassion is easy.

A while back, a man shot and badly injured a boy before turning the gun on himself. He wound up in the trauma bay at my hospital. Doctors in the trauma bay were cynical toward the man, and nurses were looking for their largest guage needles before inserting an IV. Though everyone remained professional, I must say, it was a hostile environment.

Later, in the ICU, my fellow chaplain had a chance to visit with the man and was faced with the delima of showing compassion to a man who shot a kid. (Love your enemies. Anyone?) As I listened to her recount the visit and procoess her feelings surrounding him I knew I had much to learn. Well, I got my chance.

Months later, after I had learned some things, I was called to visit with a woman who, hours earlier, had in a drunken stupor driven her car the wrong way down the interstate causing a head-on collision which killed one and badly injured an 8 year old girl. I will not try to replay the visit or describe my innards except to say that I was able to find a place in me that saw how broken this woman was. And it was from that place that I moved toward her and did my best to demonstrate that God still loves her. That's right, God still loves her, the driver of a car that killed and devestated lives.

Our civil laws and our social codes demand judgment upon this lady, and she deserved it. But she also deserved a bit of compassion. I hope I gave that to her. Jesus was not primarily a teacher of moral codes or correct belief systems. He was a teacher of authentic human relationships. For me, that's one reason why he's so worth following.