Empathy’s Sweet Power

Having a masculine tenderness and empathy won’t keep you from lopping off a few heads, but it will teach you to approach the dirty task with greater moral justice. Popular images of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) justice are rife with modernized perversions. We all recognize how Israelis and Arabs go after each other, but we forget that Judaism, Islam and Christianity have all been heavily Hellenized. While specifics vary widely, the broad underlying effect is obvious. What we see in the Near East today often bears no resemblance to the ANE. When you read a wider selection of ANE literature, you realize most of the talk of severity was just that — talk.

Have you ever noticed how many capital crimes in the Law of Moses required being caught in the act by two or three witnesses? That’s not easy to arrange for most things. Going to judgment with only one witness requires some pretty strong evidence before a judge under the Law can justify a full sentence. Most lesser penalties were bad enough, but I dare say the Law of Moses was far more merciful than most Western governments are today.

This is the whole point in masculine empathy. It’s a shepherd’s care for the whole flock, the entire community under your dominion. You measured all things in terms of shalom: How does it build and preserve social stability? How do the actions threaten it? Virtually no one in the position to judge was eager for the authority. It was a burden of care that required far more energy than most men wanted to exert for the role. Real ANE men of justice weren’t eager to take the responsibility for God’s moral peace in a community. It invariably meant having to play hard with someone you loved. It meant you had to disengage for that one person the unspeakable joy of open communion with the cosmos. Those men had something Westerners can’t even comprehend.

Men, I assure you: Once you’ve tasted that cosmic empathy, you’ll discover what a cheap trick cathexis has been in your life. In cathexis, your ego boundaries collapse and you are in love with the whole universe. It’s euphoric, but it doesn’t last because it doesn’t involve the heart. It is just hormones and emotions. It’s not voluntary and the ego boundaries will reassert themselves. When you finally understand the resonance of your heart with all the rest of Creation, you understand the difference between a passing cheap thrill and the voluntary connection with God Himself through His Creation. To find within yourself the indescribable moral competence of having your empathy and tenderness properly attuned to your being, your calling, your role in God’s plan for His glory — there are no words. Yet we find evidence that a significant portion of Hebrew men experienced this when the nation was compliant with the Covenant.

David knew this incredible power. It made him both patient with human weakness and yet unstoppable in battle. You see how he was too often overly indulgent with his own kin, and you understand just how hard it is to execute God’s wrath on your own. It ain’t supposed to be easy. It gives us a sense of how God feels withdrawing His protective covering from us when we sin. David erred to the side of caution and it cost him plenty, but God said David was a man after His own heart. How much did it cost God to be so incredibly patient and long suffering with Israel?

Look for this symptom: When moral justice is joy and peace, even if you had no active role in creating, you’ll know. When doing justice is not merely a nagging conscience but a pleasure that tells you unfailingly when you have hit your boundaries, you’ll know. When significant portions of your humanity argue with that sense of justice, yet you find yourself able to discern the true peace of Christ, you’ll know.

Be warned that it will make you do some of the craziest things, perhaps some of the very things you once ridiculed. It makes a woodsman hug trees and a farmer lie partially naked in the soil. It makes a hunter talk nicely to his prey and a warrior respect his enemy. It is nearly impossible to explain to Westerners with dead hearts. Yet, once your soul has taken this path, you’d rather die on the Cross than turn away from it.