Dear Rose Park,
“You see, I believe that Jesus gave us an eternal truth about the universality of feelings. Jesus was truthful about His feelings: Jesus wept; He got sad; Jesus got discouraged; He got scared; and He reveled in the things that pleased Him. For Jesus, the greatest sin was hypocrisy. He always seemed to hold out much greater hope for a person who really knew the truth about himself or herself even though that person was a prostitute or a crooked tax collector. Jesus had much greater hope for someone like that than for someone who always pretended to be something he wasn’t.”
Do you know who spoke these words? I’ll narrow it down slightly, they didn’t come from the pulpit of a preacher. It wasn’t John Calvin or Martin Luther. It wasn’t Barbara Brown Taylor or Tim Keller. It wasn’t Otis Moss III or Billy Graham either. It was the man who wore tennis shoes and cardigans. It was the man who had the most gentle spirit in the neighborhood. It was your friendly neighbor, Mr. Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers was a Presbyterian Minister, and he wrote those words in a sermon that was preached at Sixth Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA on August 27, 1972. Almost fifty-years later and those words still ring true; if Mr. Rogers were still alive, he could preach at Rose Park any time he’d like.
Jesus was fully-God and fully-human. This means that while being the Son of God and being equipped with all the righteousness of God, Jesus also experienced full-humanity. He knew what it was like to be sad, angry, hopeful, ashamed, and excited. He knew what it was like to grow up as a teenage boy. He knew what it was like to work, to attend worship, to serve, and to lead. Though Jesus displays the fullness of His humanity, specifically the breadth of His emotions, for some reason we seem to suppress our emotions to only a select few and then after doing so, seem to forget the universality of those feelings. Meaning, not only do we say, “I’m doing fine, thanks” when we know it’s not the truth, but we also forget that others have feelings as well. The ability to understand, share the feelings of others, and recognize the universality of feelings is called empathy.
Fred Rogers was a talented writer, a friendly neighbor, a passionate follower of Christ, and a champion of empathy. Perhaps if we, the Church, were more aware to the universality of feelings, we could be more empathetic towards someone else’s feelings. Perhaps if we were able to tap-in to empathy, we could more effectively bridge the widening gap between all of God’s people. The world is hurting and it needs helpers. It doesn’t need anymore hypocrites who are blind to the universality of feelings. It’s my hope and prayer the each and every one of us might have the courage to look towards Jesus as our model for empathy and service so that we might be able to fully and truly love our neighbor as ourself.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark