Jesu Juva
DR. RONLAD H. LOVE
COMPASSION
LESSON SIX
THE RAISING OF THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN
LUKE 7: 11–17
“ASponge for Her Tears”
Isabella Baumfree did nothing wrong that she could recount. It mattered not, for her master was annoyed for some indiscernible reason. He dragged the adolescent into the barn, secured her hands to a post, ripped off her garment, and whipped her until she bled. Refusing to allow her overseer the satisfaction of a scream, Isabella stifled her pain by digging her fingernails into the palms of her hands until they too were bleeding.
By the age of 30 Baumfree was sold three times, because as a black woman she was only considered to be a piece of property. Baumfree’s only worth to a white aristocratic society is what she could contribute as a domestic servant and a picker in the fields.
Baumfree last owner was John Dumont who promised Isabella freedom.But Dumont failed to honor his promise to free her or to uphold the New York Anti-Slavery Law of 1827.Realizing she would always be a piece of chattel, Baumfree escapedin 1827 from the plantation located in New York County, New York, the county in which encompasses Manhattan. She could only manage to flee with her infant son, leaving behind her four other children.
Baumfree made her way to Northampton, Massachusettswhere she met the two prominent abolitionists,William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Under their tutelage she became an abolitionist.
After having a religious conversion experience, Baumfree became an itinerant Pentecostal preacher and in 1843 changed her name to Sojourner Truth. The word sojourn means to reside temporarily, before moving on to a new location. The reasonBaumfree chose for herself the new name ofSojourner Truth, as she explained it to Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote the classic bookUncle Tom’ Cabin, isthat God had called her to travel up and down the land “testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this ‘ere people.’”
ReviewingSojourner Truth’smany accomplishmentsthe best known may be aspeech she gave at the Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio. Assembling at Stone Church on May 28, 1851,on the first day Sojourner marched into the meeting wearing a gray dress and white turban. As all the pews were fullshe strode up the aisle taking her seat on the pulpit steps.
On the second day, now sitting in an obscure corner of the sanctuary,Sojourner listened to Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Universalist ministersspeak from the pulpit, decrying the resolutions of feminine equality that were presented by the convention’s committees. It was a women’s convention, but no woman had the courage to stand and speak publically before such an august body of men.
Sojourner, unable to bear this lambasting against women, mounted the steps, physically excused the male speaker from his pretentious place, and sounded forth an incriminating speech against the racist and sexist males who previously had thundered forth form the pulpit.
She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house, and even to the throng at the doors and windows.
In her speech she used the men’s own words against them.
Sojourner delivered what is now recognized as one of the most famous abolitionist and women’s rights speeches in American history, that has since been titled, “And ain’t I a woman?” The speech is so powerful and indicting that justice can only be done to it by printing the complete text:
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
Dehumanized. Disenfranchised. Disqualified. Depersonalized. Demonized. And so it is when we marginalize anyone who does not fit our cultural mold of perfection. Physical dissimilarities rank as being the easiest to condemn; these being race, sex, age.Then, individuals are ostracized by education, athletic ability, income, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, employment status, physical health, mental stability, all of which comprise an endless catalogue of “you do not belong.”
This is an index that began the day Adam and Eve stepped out of the garden, and since thencategorieshaving been added by each succeeding generation. It is a directorythat Jesus has torn asunder. If we had the maturity of Jesus we too would cease entertaining its lists of prohibitions. The compassion that Jesus taught and lived does not permit stigmatization.
Jesus was a ten minute walk from the east gate of Nain. As he walked he sawstone cemetery headstonesthat bordered each side of the road. At this juncture he happened upon a funeral procession. A widow’s only son had died and was being carried on a bier to his burial mound.
Most of the inhabitants of the community were in attendance,such was the outpouring of grief. Jesus understood the intensity of the bewailing for before him were two dead individuals, one physically and the other culturally. The first was a young man who had physically succumbed to death. The second was his mother and a now a childless widow. As the widow of Nain was absent of a male counterpart, being either a husband or a son, she would be cast-off in the community. By societal standards she was culturally dead.
Legal rights were not allocated to Hebrew women. A woman could not secure property.Employment was unattainable for her and food could be grasped only by begging. Jesusrealized the woman, as she was presently slumped before him,had now been adjudged by society as a nonentity. Luke records Jesus’ response to the widow with this descriptive, “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her ‘Do not weep.’” Touching the bier the boy sat up “and Jesus gave him to his mother.”With an act of compassion life wasbestowed upon the two.
Ephrem the Syrian (306-373), was a leader in the early church. He was held in esteem for his hymns, poems, homilies and biblical commentaries that expressed a practical theology for a persecuted church. Reflecting on this biblical story, Ephrem wrote, “The Virgin’s son met the widow’s son. He became like a sponge for her tears and as life for the death of her son. Death turned about in its den and turned its back on the victorious one.” Compassion, which in the Latin means “to suffer with,” is to absorb the tears, sorrows, hurts, sufferings and disappointments of another as if they were my own because, in solidarity, they have actually become my own.
The word Lord, which in the Greek is kyrios, is the earliest confession in the first century church that declares the divinity of Jesus. The climax of Peter’s speech at Pentecost is a confession of faith that “Jesus is Lord.” It is a declaration that Jesus is our Savior. “Jesus Christ is Lord,”as recorded by Paul in Philippians, is a stanza from a hymnthat was sung in Christian worship within a decade after the resurrection of Jesus.Paul reproducedthis stanza in his letterconfirmingJesus’ absolute sovereignty over all creation. When John the Seer, the author of the Book of Revelation, wrote “King of kings and Lord of lords,” heacknowledged Jesus’ultimate dominion over all of creation, where at the end time both earthly kings and satanic beasts will be subjected to him.
When Luke wrote, “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion,” it was the first time his gospel that he introduced Jesus as “Lord.” Luke purposely placed the designation of Jesus as Lord in alliance with a compassionate act to authenticate that Jesus alone embraces the attribute of compassion.
Luke is referred as the ‘beloved physician” by the Apostle Paul in the book of Colossians. As Luke was Paul’s travelling companion on his missionary journeys, Paul would be very aware of Luke’s benevolence. Luke, with his tender disposition, wanted to establish that Jesus came to minister to the marginalized in society. This is why we so often read in Luke’s gospel about the care of “widows and orphans,” for if they were not brought under the guardianship of the church their fatewould be as vagabonds and urchins for life.
This is a first century message that challenges the twenty-first century church. Any individual that suffers expulsion from society due to a physical limitation or social degradation will find acceptance and redemption within a congregation of believers who comprehend the meaning of compassion as demonstrated by Jesus.
During the war he frequently visited hospitals located throughout the Capital, comforting the stricken soldiers. The lanky man happened upon a young trooper whose leg had been amputated; the soldier was not expected to live until morning. Sitting beside the bed the tall man inquired if he could be of assistance. The grateful soldier requested the stranger to write a letter to his mother.
Obliging, the black suited gentleman carefully recorded the dictated words. Finishing the correspondence, he handed the letter to the young man for approval. After proofreading the short note, the lad studied the postscript, words not spoken yet penned by the kind caller: “This letter was written by Abraham Lincoln.” Astonished, the soldier stared at the visitor, meekly asking, “Are you our President?” “Yes,” was the gentle response, “and now that you know that, is there anything else I can do for you?” Feebly, the youth requested, “I guess you might hold my hand and see me through.” The large hand of the rail splitter, firm enough to guide the Republic through a bitter Civil War, was soft enough to embrace the sufferer.
It is the calling of every Christian to be a concerned and caring companion. Our calling is to embosom the heartache of others, not allowing anyone to be alone in personal agony. We are summoned to be aware of human misery, and we are to answer that summons with compassion.
Soli Deo Gloria,
AUTHOR
DR. RONALD H. LOVE
B.A.; M.A.; M.ED.; M.LIS.; M.DIV.; D.MIN.
PO Box 3609; Florence, South Carolina 29502-3609
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