Having sympathy for another person is one thing; being able to empathize with them is another. Sympathy for and empathy with. To empathize with another person is a deeper feeling.
Sympathy has the potential to take us deep. Among several tragedies that happened this week, I saw that a 20-year-old was killed when a rock was thrown into her car window. My heart ached for her family. But only a person who has experienced the death of a child could empathize with her family. On a far less emotional level, I am beginning to have some empathy with others who are having/have had chemotherapy coupled with steroids. Before I could sympathize for them, but now I somewhat understand their plight. Steroids do two things to me. They wire me and they make me hungry. I have slept very little while I have been on them and this week has started as a repeat of last week. That means that I am up most of the night and I am hungry at the same time. The chemotherapy, maybe mixed with the hormone treatment, is expected to do two things: fatigue and loss of appetite. What I found after the steroids wore off (I am on five days and off two days) is that the fatigue came, but instead of having a loss of appetite, I had the urge to eat all day long because I thought that the eating would give me some energy that I didn’t have. I see the potential for the double-edged sword for folks on steroids and chemotherapy. The doctors don’t want me to lose weight nor gain weight. Strawberries might have to be the plan instead of Reese Cups and ice cream. All of us have circumstances in our lives where sympathy is as far as we can go. In some we can empathize. I pray for a willing heart for both as I am able. I don’t claim in any way to be a Greek student, must less a scholar. But as I pondered over some things in the middle of the night, I couldn’t help but think about that passage in Hebrews 4:15 that says, “we have a High Priest who is able to understand our weaknesses because He was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin.” Does that mean that He is able to sympathize for us or empathize with us? Before I did a bit of studying, I thought that surely the Father and the Son look down from heaven and have sympathy on their creation and the hardships that we often face. Love and compassion may be God’s greatest attributes. Even more after living in this world as a human man, I could see Jesus now being able to look back from heaven and sympathizing for us in our weaknesses and struggles. The Greek word is sympathēsai that is found only here in the New Testament. Obviously we get our word sympathy from this Greek word. I found it interesting that Greek scholars who have translated this word in Hebrews 4:15 are split between translating the word sympathize or empathize, though most on the former. Here is my take for what it is worth. I believe that Jesus was able to sympathize with our weakness while He lived in this world, but He could never empathize with our failures and sin and alienation from God. Until the Cross. Everything changed when Jesus died on the Cross. Before the Cross He could only sympathize with Peter’s denials or even the betrayal of Judas, but on the Cross Jesus was then able to empathize with sinners. He who knew no sin became sin, our sin and the sins of every sinner, when He died at Calvary. It appears to me that both translations would be on target. Jesus does sympathize for us, but even more deeply, He empathizes with us because He does understand. He understands our failures, our sins, our alienation from the Father. That is an understanding that heaven never knew until Jesus died, rose again, and ascended. Now He knows. No wonder He can help us.
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Chuck Cooper
Pastor at Daybreak Community Church Archives
February 2025
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