Love is Empathy

You guessed it… I’m writing about love again. There’s no question that love is essential for our Christian faith. In fact, love is a core tenant of every religion in the world. Even if you spoke to an atheist, I bet they would name how important love is. I do talk about love a lot, but I rarely flesh out what it means.

If we loved everyone equally, then we’d probably go insane. If I worried about everyone’s health the same way that I worry about my parent’s health, then I’d spend all my time worrying about everyone. I’d have no room in my brain to think about anything else. If loving everyone is impractical and impossible, should limit who we love?

Jesus addresses this question through the telling of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). It is not just an identifier to name the helper as a “Samaritan,” but it is part of the theological point that Jesus is making. There is a shared experience between the Samaritan and the man beaten-up on the side of the road. They have both been disregarded, mistreated, and judged by those with power and status. Samaritans were otherized; the poor were also otherized. This shared experience brought them together and allowed them to see one another. In this story, empathy led to love.

The priest and the Levit, those who ignored the abused man, were not evil people. I bet if you asked them, they’d even tell you that they love everyone. Jesus reveals to us in this story that love is not a mental excise. Love is what we do. If you’re struggling to love someone, then my advice is, to pretend as though you’re not struggling to love them. The Samaritan didn’t just love the poor man, he helped him.

It’s not about loving people superficially; it’s about walking alongside people in their struggle. To love requires a bit of risk, even sacrifice. My theory is… love will come naturally for those whom we have meaningful relationships with. To put it another way, the only reason we don’t love someone is because we don’t know them.

I invite you to examine the people around you. Do you know someone who is unhoused? Do you know someone in the trans community? Do you know someone who is an undocumented immigrant? Do you know someone bullied or mistreated? If not, work to change that. If you change that… I believe love will arrive. The priest and the Levit did not have hate in their heart, they were indifferent and blind. 

When we shield ourselves from the world, trusting the words of people trying to keep us isolated and divided, it becomes difficult to build empathy. If we cannot resonate with people’s lived experiences, then it is going to be impossible to love in any real way. Once we care about the poor man on the side of the road, then God will handle the rest. God is moving us, shaking us out of apathy and into communal living with one another. God struggles with us, this is how we know God loves us.  

With hope,

Pastor Lucas

Photo by Khadeeja Yasser