Jamin Bradley

As God takes his place in the divine council in Psalm 82, he declares judgment over the lesser gods.¹ They have judged unjustly, let the wicked get by with their sin, and ignored the poor and needy within their nations. This corruption moves like a virus, making its way from the gods to the authorities they oversee, until their citizens find themselves trying to scrape by in a new Babylon (Rev. 18).² These are the same gods that always rear their ugly heads whenever we give ourselves over to the domination systems of this world.³

The entirety of the cosmos is filled with injustice, so it’s no wonder that “God puts no trust even in his holy ones” (Job 15:15). We are born into injustice and we die in injustice—if not from injustice. False truths are offered to us by false gods and teachers everywhere we look. But as Christians who do not belong to the world, we turn ourselves to Jesus for truth (John 17:16-17) and carry out the countercultural wisdom he has given us. 

If we must face injustice, we long to do it rightly. Therefore, we incorporate empathy and patience into our fight, for the world is not always going to recognize our form of justice, for they are not citizens of Heaven like us (Philip. 3:20). They do not follow Jesus as King, nor do they subscribe to the same kind of Heavenly politics he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. We “proclaim Christ crucified,” which to us is power and wisdom, but to them is foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23-24). And without the Holy Spirit, they cannot always understand what we teach (Luke 8:9–10), nor can they produce his fruit (Gal. 5:22–25).

But our empathy will help us to understand why they think and act as they do. We must be patient with them, recognizing that it may take the Spirit some time to pry them out of the grip of their own worldview and bring them into ours. And we must entertain these dispositions while acknowledging that we, too, used to be in the grip of the gods and that we are still in the process of coming out of their false wisdom.

The Empathy of Jesus

Throughout the gospels, Jesus did ministry to the point of exhaustion. For example, he escaped great crowds by getting into a boat where he fell asleep as a windstorm swamped it, scaring even his fishermen-disciples (Matt 8:18-24). In Mark 6, his exhaustion was extra emotional. Having just heard that John the Baptist had been beheaded, he tried to take his busy disciples to a place to rest. As they got into a boat to find such a place, a crowd of over five thousand people formed on the shoreline and chased him down. After ministering to them, Jesus then sent his disciples away in a boat so he could pray in solitude. He caught back up with them later by walking on the sea, but “He intended to pass them by” (Mark 6:48). I propose that he was not done being alone and got spotted on his way.

Passages like these may seem the opposite of empathetic, but it’s actually these crowded situations that show us just how empathetic Jesus was. No matter how tired or burnt out he was, his splanchnizomai (that is, his “compassion, pity, deep empathy”)⁴ for the crowd won him over. Despite the fact that such crowds nearly crushed him in attempts to touch him for healing (Mark 3:9-10), his splanchnizomai moved him to his bowels or entrails,⁵ which we might today call the gut or the heart.⁶ Matthew identifies this disposition in Jesus in five healing stories.

It is this kind of empathy that can keep us ministering to others even when we don’t have the emotional capacity within us. Jesus did not need the selfish glory of the crowd (Mark 1:35–39; John 6:15, 6:66), but chose to minister to them because he empathized with them. They were “harassed and helpless” (Matt. 9:36), hungry (Matt. 15:32), blind (Matt. 20:34), and “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). He recognized their need and wanted to be the solution to their problem. Unlike the false gods, his great empathy compelled him to stop for the weak and the needy.

Empathy can be a tough disposition to grow in as many people stretch our limits. Sometimes just one person can feel like a crowd crushing us, be it a crying baby or a poor friend needing a few more dollars. Sometimes the person is in a mess of their own making, and it’s hard to empathize with them. Other times the person is our oppressor, and we don’t want to empathize with them for fear that we’ll humanize them. But when we practice this disposition, our hearts are grasped—and there’s no telling how far our hearts will go to care for someone, for hearts are capable of extremes that our minds can’t rationalize. When this happens, empathy has the ability to revolutionize the way in which we do justice, for it can lovingly engage both the oppressed and the oppressor.

The Patience of God

Jesus said he’d be back within a generation, causing Christians to raise some questions to Peter toward the end of the first century.⁷ Peter answered them with a poetic response: “do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” This eschatological patience is witnessed all throughout the Book of Revelation as God continually delays the return of Christ in hopes that more will accept the gospel. Even into Revelation 14:6, angels are sent out proclaiming “an eternal gospel” throughout the earth.

While many Christians pray that God will come and destroy the world, God continues to be patient, hoping for more to leave their false gods behind and become his children. Indeed, the only quality that seems to undo his patience is his drive for justice.⁸ Until that time comes, we are stalled in the patience of God, and we would do well to grow this fruit in our lives via the Spirit’s help. After all, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15), so we’d do well to empathetically wait for others, just as we were waited on first.

We are all in process both before and after salvation. We may be justified overnight, but we are metamorphosed to Christ slowly. Therefore we need patience to engage in justice issues with Christians who are not yet convicted as they should be, and with non-Christians whose convictions are not our own. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a seed, and seeds take time to grow (Mark 4:26–29). A Christian who is impatient with their seed is a Christian that will not see fruit.

Practices to Grow in Empathy and Patience

Mae Elise Cannon reminds us that, “There is a direct correlation between one’s relationship with God and actions of kindness, mercy, compassion and justice.”⁹ Evelyn Underhill demonstrated this truth as well, showing us that, “As one’s interior life with God grows, so also should one’s compassion and love for humanity.”¹⁰ This is how spirituality should be. If our spirituality causes us to pull back from the world and see nothing good in the people around us, we will find ourselves embracing a legalistic religion incapable of empathizing.

Imaginative prayer can help us grow in empathy for those around us. My friend Nathan Foster has found this discipline to affect how he sees strangers. “The rude cashier at the grocery store turns into a wounded person spewing venom on anyone willing to take it. The guy who cuts me off in traffic is pitied for the frantic pace he lives. The woman scantily clad in inappropriate clothing is just baring a deep longing for a love she can’t seem to find.”¹¹ Likewise, pastor and theologian Greg Boyd replaced judgmental thoughts with prayers of blessing at the mall one day and said, “I felt as though I would explode with love.”¹²

Be it friend, enemy, or frenemy, prayer has a way of convicting us to see the world in another way. Even if we don’t agree with the other party, the Spirit can teach us to empathize with them until we can see them more clearly and love them. Like Thomas Merton, we must practice solitude and grow in compassion to become “more open to the world, less condemnatory of everything outside the monastery, notwithstanding a critical stance toward Western secular values.”¹³

Likewise, prayer and solitude can teach us much about patience, for such practices force us to wait upon the Lord. When our prayers become more conversational with the Holy Spirit, we pause before we act, looking for input as to what to do. We might also commit to a vow of silence in which we refuse to talk about something until we have brought it before God. There are also many practical ways to grow in patience, such as choosing parking spots far from stores and standing in long checkout lines.¹⁴

Conclusion

There are many suggestions as to what justice looks like, but there is only one truth, and he happens to be a person (John 14:6). If we do not listen to Jesus or practice his ways or love people the way that he did, we will quickly find ourselves spiraling into a form of justice that is not actually justice. Without spiritual disciplines and connection to the Holy Spirit, we will surely lose our way. Perhaps we might start the journey toward Gary Burge’s conversion of biblical justice, but if we leave the journey while still in disbelief, anger, partisan activism, or despair, we’ll never reach the phase of constructive contribution.¹⁵ If we are careful to practice empathy and patience while on the journey, we will be much more apt to come out the other side with a Jesus-centered justice.

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¹ For more on this subject, see, Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2015).

² For more on this, see, Tim Mackie and Jon Collins. “The Divine Council.” YouTube, 14 Mar. 2019, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1rai6WoOJU. 

³ To learn more about Walter Wink’s domination theology, see, Walter Wink, “Part 1,” Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992).

⁴ John Frederick, “Mercy and Compassion,” Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, and Rebekah Hurst, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

⁵ Spicq, Ceslas, and James D. Ernest, “σπλαγχνίζομαι,” Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 3:273 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994).

⁶ Frederick, Lexham Theological Wordbook.

⁷ Christopher M. Hays, When the Son of Man Didn’t Come: A Constructive Proposal on the Delay of the Parousia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016), 88, Kindle Edition. 

⁸ It seems he is only willing to put up with so much martyrdom (Rev. 6:10–11). One day enough of their blood will have been shed (Rev. 14:18-20) and Jesus will draw attention to it, prompting “the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Rev. 19:15). As to how the blood of Revelation 14:18-20 represents the martyr’s blood, see Tom Wright, “Revelation 14:14–20,” Revelation for Everyone, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2011).

⁹ Mae Elise Cannon, Just Spirituality (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 12, Kindle Edition.

¹0 Susan Roakoczy IHM, Great Mystics and Social Justice: Walking on the Two Feet of Love (Mahwah, N.J., Paulist Press, 2006), Kindle Location 2244, Kindle Edition.

¹1 Nathan Foster, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2014), 146. 

¹2 Gregory A. Boyd, Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2004) 14. 

¹3 Roakoczy, Great Mystics and Social Justice, Kindle Location 2564.

¹4 The lives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. have another way of teaching us about patience, for they entered into burning social justice issues that were far from over. Bonhoeffer would boldly stand with the Confessing Church against the nationalistic church of the Third Reich, patiently hoping to win Germans back to true Christianity. Martin Luther King Jr. would have to win the hearts and minds of racists by loving them even when they oppressed him, by chiseling away at their consciences via displays of nonviolence, and by striving to make his enemies his friends. None of these efforts would see the desired results overnight. They would need to stay constant in spiritual practices with God, lest they lose their souls in their fight and appeal to the tactics of worldly gods.

¹5 Cannon, Just Spirituality 98-99.