Compassion is vital to society

By Jeff Long

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

-- Matthew 25:45 NIV

The epigram is a quote preserved by the gospel of Matthew and has been used to fuel many works of justice, compassion and love on behalf of the poor and the marginalized.

There is a strain of scholarship that suggests the "least of these" refers not to people in general, but to Jesus' closest followers, his disciples.

Read Matthew 25 alongside Matthew 10 and the case seemingly is made well for this scholarly argument. Also, don't forget another quote attributed to the itinerant carpenter who went to the cross: "The poor you will always have with you, and you may help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me" (Mark 14:7 NIV).

I tell my Old Testament class at Southeast Missouri State University that ultimately what matters in reading the Bible is the "reader response," meaning the value the readers themselves take from these ancient texts is what ultimately matters.

I choose to see in Jesus' words not a narrow-focused beam of compassion limited to a certain group but a cloudburst, a widely- scattered desire that justice, mercy and humility be done to as many as possible, in the words of the prophet Micah.

Note the compassion shown to the lonely Samaritan woman. Note the compassion to the woman accused of adultery.

When such compassion is missing, run as far and as fast as you can.

If it is missing in a nursing home, don't put your loved one there. If it is missing in a church, don't join. If it is missing in a country, don't leave, but don't put up with cold indifference. Push back. You're a citizen and you have power. Just look at the lesson of history in nations where compassion was abandoned.

Last weekend, I watched once again the 2004 German-language film "Der Untergang" ("Downfall"). It is a historically valuable retelling of Adolf Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker with the Soviets closing in on the Nazi capital city.

The screenplay is based in part on the memoir of Hitler's private secretary, Traudl Junge, who died in Munich in 2002.

Junge was there for all of it, living in the bunker, present for the suicide of Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun. What is ultimately terrifying about Hitler -- and there is so much to condemn -- is that he had no feeling for his own people. They were tools to build the Thousand-Year Reich. That's all.

Note this quote placed in the mouth of the German chancellor from the movie: "If the war is lost, it is immaterial if the people perish. It is not necessary to consider the German people's primitive survival needs. On the contrary, we'd best destroy them ourselves. Our people turned out weak, and according to the laws of nature, they should die out. If people cannot endure this ordeal, I won't shed a tear."

Leaders must care about the people they lead. If they don't, the people should push back until a change can be made.

Hitler ordered a scorched-earth policy in early 1945, the destruction of Germany so nothing of value would fall into the hands of the advancing Allies. Several men close to him, notably architect and war armaments chief Albert Speer, ignored Hitler's command, and their resistance helped preserve some German culture and infrastructure.

This kind of pushback must always be an option in every time and place.

A society without justice, mercy and humility isn't worth much. A culture without compassion is not fit to be inhabited. Those who have eyes to see, let them see.