Empathy
“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and
feeling with the heart of another.”
Empathy is simply to come to understand the feelings of others. It makes living life a
richer and fuller experience, according to some, but not to Friedrich Nietzsche. He
believed that “empathizing with others’ sufferings drags the strong down to the level of
the weak.” When objectively analyzed, his view of empathy was a negative one
because it stopped a person from being all he or she could be on their own apart from
God.
Had Nietzsche known God, he would have known that He is both empathetic and
sympathetic. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without
sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Being here in the flesh, Christ knew the potential fragilities of His
physical creation, though He never sinned. He fully understood the feelings of those
who were in the process of living in this world while coming out of it.
In the parable of the prodigal son, Christ used the father of the prodigal to exemplify His
own mind. The wayward son had blown his inheritance in sinful living – besmirching his
own name and dishonoring his father’s. But the father saw his repentant and humbled
son returning. “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed
him” (Luke 15:20). The son had set a new course, intent on coming out of the world.
When any person does that, they struggle with guilt and shame. The father could see it
and sense it from a distance and, out of empathy, he was moved to compassion. The
fatted calf was killed and a celebration of the son’s return began.
The faithful, obedient and hard-working older son did not have the same attitude as his
father, however. He was angry about his brother’s treatment and let his father know it.
But his father had empathy for his older son as well. He sensed his feelings as well and
responded accordingly. “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was
dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found’” (Luke 15:31–32).
Their father’s empathy made each of their lives richer and fuller. The father had the
pleasure of guiding both sons to a better understanding of God’s mind. The prodigal
son’s life would become spiritually stronger as he overcame in the fear of God. The
older son’s spiritual life would take a giant step forward as he grew in understanding
and application of his father’s empathy.
Nietzsche was wrong.
Marshall Stiver
