Sermon Title: Called to Be Compassionate.
Occasion: 6th Sunday before Easter, February 22, 2026.
Bible Readings: Ruth 2:4–20 | Psalm 145 | Ephesians 4:25–32 | Mark 1:40–45.
Original Language Reflections (For deeper study, refer to the Table of Hebrew and Greek Terms in Section VIII. of the sermon).
Website: www.reverendbvr.com
Theological Thesis: Biblical compassion is not sentiment but costly, embodied faithfulness. Across these readings, compassion emerges as God’s own life shared with the world: steadfast, covenantal, and transformative. God’s compassion moves toward need, touches what is broken, and creates new community. Those who receive such mercy are reshaped to practice it; not as moral achievement, but as participation in God’s redeeming action.
I. The Coherent Narrative of the Readings:
- Ruth shows compassion as faithful presence in ordinary labor and social vulnerability.
- Psalm 145 names compassion as God’s enduring character, not a passing mood.
- Ephesians 4 calls the church to embody compassion as a new way of life shaped by grace.
- Mark 1 reveals compassion in Jesus as holy touch that restores the excluded, even at personal cost.
Together, they testify: God’s compassion gathers the vulnerable, heals the broken, and forms a people who live differently in the world.
II. Exegesis and Theological Insight.
1) Compassion in the Ordinary (Ruth 2:4–20)
Ruth, a Moabite widow, who is ethnically marginalized and economically exposed gleans behind harvesters. Her survival depends on the mercy of landowners. When Boaz notices her, the text does not describe a grand miracle but a quiet turning of the heart.
Boaz blesses his workers, “The LORD be with you” (2:4), grounding daily labor in covenantal faith. He goes beyond legal obligation and practices ḥesed i.e., steadfast, loyal love; by ensuring Ruth’s protection and dignity.
Naomi recognizes the theological depth of this kindness:
“Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness (ḥesed) has not forsaken the living or the dead!” (2:20)
Theological significance: God’s compassion often arrives through faithful people who make space for the vulnerable within ordinary systems such as fields, workplaces and communities.
2) Compassion as God’s Name (Psalm 145)
Psalm 145 is not a private prayer but a public confession of who God is for all generations.
“The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (145:8)
Here compassion (raḥûm) is womb-like mercy. God’s deep, generative care for creation. This mercy is universal (“to all”) and active (“The LORD upholds all who are falling”).
Theological significance: Compassion is not an exception to God’s justice; it is the very way God exercises power.
3) Compassion as Ecclesial Ethic (Ephesians 4:25–32)
Paul shifts from doctrine to discipleship. The community formed by Christ must now live Christ-shaped lives.
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” (4:32)
The word eusplanchnoi (“tenderhearted”) refers to the deep inner organs, the seat of emotion in ancient thought. Christian compassion is not surface politeness; it is a re-formed interior life.
Theological significance: Compassion is not optional spirituality. It is the visible evidence that grace has taken root.
4) Compassion That Touches (Mark 1:40–45)
A leper approaches Jesus, violating social and religious boundaries. Jesus does not heal from a distance.
“Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” (1:41)
The verb splanchnisthēis reveals visceral compassion that moves the body before the law. Jesus absorbs the risk of impurity to restore the man to community.
Theological significance: Divine compassion crosses boundaries that fear and purity codes enforce. Healing is relational before it is physical.
III. Integrating the Collect
The Collect rightly prays that we may be cleansed, transformed, and sent. It frames compassion as:
- Gift (cleansed by mercy),
- Formation (transformed by grace),
- Vocation (stretching out hands and hearts).
The prayer names Ruth and Jesus together, reminding us that compassion unfolds both in quiet faithfulness and courageous touch.
IV. Contemporary Human Challenges:
In a world shaped by efficiency, fear, and exclusion:
- Compassion resists reducing people to problems.
- Compassion refuses digital outrage that replaces embodied care.
- Compassion chooses proximity over purity, presence over performance.
This is not naïve kindness; it is costly faithfulness shaped by the cross.
V. Life Applications:
- Practice nearness: Be present to someone whose need is inconvenient.
- Re-shape speech: Let words heal rather than fracture community (Eph 4).
- Reclaim touch: Appropriate, respectful presence still heals in isolated societies.
- Trust slow grace: Like Ruth’s gleaning, compassion often works quietly before it bears fruit.
We do not manufacture compassion; we participate in the compassion that has already found us.
VI. Let us Pray:
God of mercy whose compassion precedes our repentance and outlasts our fear,
stretch out your hand once more, touch what we avoid, heal what we hide,
and gather those whom the world has left behind.
Form in us hearts made tender by grace, hands made courageous by love,
and lives made faithful by your Spirit.
May our compassion mirror yours. quiet yet costly, gentle yet brave,
until your healing mercy is known in every field, everybody, every community.
Through Jesus Christ, the Compassion of God made flesh. Amen.
VII. Key Biblical Terms for Teaching & Sermon Notes
| S.No | Passage | Verse | Original Word | Language | Transliteration | Meaning |
| 1 | Ruth 2:20 | v.20 | חֶסֶד | Hebrew | ḥesed | Steadfast love, covenant loyalty |
| 2 | Psalm 145:8 | v.8 | רַחוּם | Hebrew | raḥûm | Compassion, womb-like mercy |
| 3 | Psalm 145:9 | v.9 | טוֹב | Hebrew | ṭôb | Good, beneficent |
| 4 | Eph 4:32 | v.32 | εὔσπλαγχνοι | Greek | eusplanchnoi | Tenderhearted, deeply compassionate |
| 5 | Eph 4:32 | v.32 | χαριζόμενοι | Greek | charizomenoi | Freely forgiving by grace |
| 6 | Mark 1:41 | v.41 | σπλαγχνισθείς | Greek | splanchnisthēis | Moved with deep compassion |
| 7 | Mark 1:41 | v.41 | ἥψατο | Greek | hēpsato | He touched |