It really surprised me when I learned that empathy or sympathy was under attack from some “Christian” church leaders. Such rhetoric smells of Nazi collaborators or those who rationalized slavery, and that is being nice. There are many, many passages where God commands us, even warns us, against losing a sense of care for the disadvantaged.
First, let’s get terminology straight. Empathy is when you have had a similar experience to someone who is suffering. Sympathy is having compassion on someone’s suffering even if you have never experienced anything like their situation. Using those definitions, I have never lived in a war zone. I cannot have empathy for those in Ukraine, Gaza or Sudan. I have never had my government try to wipe out my people, so I don’t have empathy for those in Myanmar or Venezuela. My parents weren’t rich, but we were never impoverished. I can’t have empathy for those who see no economic future for themselves or their children, though at some point people in my family tree lived in dire enough circumstances to risk dangerous cross-ocean trips to go to America. I may not have empathy, but I must have sympathy.
The target of the anti-empathy rhetoric seems to be immigrants, specifically illegal immigrants. In American history, new groups were always the target of suspicion and resistance. It is the human thing to do. Not a good thing, but human. Often it was about losing jobs. In our current economy we have a low unemployment rate. If we are honest, nobody wants the jobs that immigrants are taking. That includes being a doctor. It is wrong to be illegal, but government gridlock and migrant scapegoating is in part to blame.
Throughout both the major and minor prophets, the second biggest complaint of God against Israel (after idolatry) was their perversion of justice. Here, what was in view was the lack of compassion/sympathy for the poor. There are many passages about this, here is one:
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?Isaiah 58:6-7 (ESV)
It is one thing to fail to do this. It is quite another to try to bend God’s Word to justify it. That is just asking for it. Their argument is that sympathy can stand in the way of proper judgment. It is the infiltration of “wokeness”. Using that word is “poisoning the well”.
Violent criminals should be incarcerated. Criminal migrants can be deported. Yet, arriving at the truth takes some due process. Even with due process we make mistakes. We must remember that we are dealing with people’s lives and the lives of their families.
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
Hebrews 13:3 (ESV)
This passage speaks of our sympathy for fellow Christians, which many immigrants from Latin America are. We suffer as one since we are all part of the mystical body of Christ.
The classic Judgment Day description is the sheep and the goats analogy made by Jesus.
32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Matthew 25:32-40 (ESV)
People are not saved by the acts of sympathy. In this story, those on the right are not called out for their sins, and everybody sins, because they are covered by Jesus’ death. That said, those who are led by the Spirit will feel the sympathy of God for others. When they show sympathy, it is received by Jesus as care for Him.
Opponents of sympathy for migrants can always pull out a few bad actors and make a stereotype of it. This is untruthful. God is less concerned about laws regarding proper border crossing that He is about care for people. Don’t be sucked into convenient rationalizing. Listen to Christ.
Giving Christ 