As we continue our study on the attitudes of Christ, I want to talk to you about an attitude, a heart-posture, that summarized the totality of Jesus’ ministry. It is compassion. In the ancient world, compassion wasn’t valued. It was seen as weakness. Compassion was not something that would have ever been attributed to the gods of ancient Rome and Greece. No Greek or Roman god was involved in human suffering. Those false gods stood apart from the human experience, apart from human suffering. When Jesus came on the scene to model and express compassion, He created a stark contrast between the ancient gods of the time and the God of Christianity.
The God of the Bible is completely different from the gods of this world. The Latin root for the word, “compassion,” means “to suffer with someone.” Ours is the God who descends to suffer with us. Ours is the God who is moved by the difficulties and sufferings of His people. We see in Jesus, the sinless Son of God, fully God and fully human, a model of what it means to show compassion. It’s one thing to feel compassion, but to allow that compassion to find expression in ways that bring help and hope to other people is to be Jesus-like.
We see in Mark’s Gospel, the moment when a leper came and knelt down in front of Jesus. He said, “If you will, you can make me clean,” and Mark 1:41 says, 41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and said unto him, “I will (it). be thou clean.” (KJV) Lepers were the lowest of the low in that society. People ran from lepers, but Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched the leper. I wonder how long it had been since the leper had felt a human hand. I got a hug from Karen Browning this week, and she mentioned that we all need ten hugs a day. I’m not sure where she came up with that fun fact, but I like it. Human touch is powerful. The leper that encountered Jesus in this story was in a hug deficit, a touch deficit. He had been treated as an outcast, but moved with compassion, Jesus brought him close.
Compassion does that. It moves us close to those who are hurting. You can’t live life detached from others and be a person with Jesus-like compassion. Compassion will cause you to get involved. It will require you to move closer to people in need. The compassion of Jesus will involve getting close enough to touch people.
In Matthew 20, Jesus and the disciples were leaving the ancient city of Jericho and a huge crowd followed them. The text says there were two blind men who were sitting by the side of the road, and when they heard that it was Jesus who was passing by, they cried out to get His attention. They asked Jesus to have mercy on them. They called Him, Lord and Son of David. Both names represented a recognition of WHO Jesus really was. Interesting, right? Even though neither had ever seen Him, they had faith to believe that Jesus was the Lord, the Son of God, the Promised One, descended from David. They gave Him full honor.
Even though the crowd told them to “shut up,” they kept shouting, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David.” And Jesus stood still. He stopped. People with a Jesus-like compassion will stop for people in need. Matthew goes on to say that He called to them and asked them a question. He asked what He could do for them. Their need was obvious, but He gave them the opportunity to express what they wanted Him to do for them. They asked to be healed, and verse 34 of Matthew 20 says, 34 So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. (KJV)
The compassion of Jesus will move us to ask people how we can help them, and it will lead us to do His healing work.
In Matthew 14, we read about a time when Jesus would have been experiencing a personal crisis. He had just heard about the beheading of His cousin, John the Baptist. John had been a forerunner to Jesus, preaching about repentance, getting people ready to receive the message of the Kingdom of God and salvation that Jesus would usher in. No one would easily accept and process the beheading of their cousin, especially someone whose death could have been construed to be due in part to his connection to Jesus. I don’t know how “responsible” Jesus would have felt for John’s death.
So, Jesus made an effort to withdraw, to get away, to privately process the death of His cousin, but the crowds followed Him. When Jesus saw the large crowds, we read in verse 14 that He had compassion on them and healed their sick. Somehow, Jesus set aside His need for alone time to process, to deal with large crowds. Listen, we’re not talking about a one-on-one encounter with someone that He could sort of manage and cut off in a timely manner and then have His quiet time. No, we’re talking about a crowd of people, many who needed to be healed. Even though He was hurting, even though He was grieving, Jesus still made Himself available to minister to a crowd of sick people.
In addition to that, it was getting late, and the crowd wasn’t near a village where food could be found. Matthew calls this story the “Feeding of the 5,000,” but there were even more people there than that. There were about 5,000 men there, but there were women and children present in addition to that already huge number. Jesus looked at the disciples and said, “Feed the people.” The disciples were instantly overwhelmed by the circumstance. Where do you come up with food for 5,000 men plus women and children? Even if they went into the village to buy food, which would take forever, how could they ever cart that much food back to where the people were? That would have been a catering nightmare. Am I right? Jesus instructed them to bring whatever resources they could find to Him.
All that showed up in that crowd was five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus took the loaves of bread and the two fish and gave thanks for them. He broke the bread and gave each of the disciples a morsel to start passing out. A miracle of multiplication took place, and all of the sudden there was provision enough for the crowd. Everyone ate and got full. There were even leftovers, to-go boxes, 12 of them, one for each of the disciples.
Listen, Jesus-like compassion will set the stage for miracles, miracles we will never experience if we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed by the needs of the crowd. To move in compassionate ways is to move in faith. Compassion will take us to the crowds, where we are in over our heads. Compassion will move us into the realm of the impossible where God has to show up if any help will be received. Compassion will compel us to get involved, no matter how big the task is and how little the resources are.
Compassion, however, has to go beyond someone’s physical or financial or practical earthly need. The compassion of Jesus was displayed for people who were impoverished in their souls, people who were living in spiritual darkness. Listen, there are lots of people who don’t know Jesus who will be moved by a human need. There are many decent, kind, and compassionate people who will “do a good deed,” but only Jesus’-people will be broken-hearted over those who are disconnected from God. Unbelievers won’t be concerned over someone’s spiritual predicament. They won’t be moved to act because someone is captive to Satan and sin and is bound for Hell.
It is believers who will have compassion for and about someone’s spiritual condition, and that might only be a one-sided compassion. By that, I mean, when someone’s house gets blown to smithereens by a tornado, which happened in parts of the country this week, people who are close or even people who just hear about it on the news, will feel sad over that situation, along with the person who is grieving the loss of everything they own. Both parties are going to feel something.
But people who are walking in spiritual darkness, don’t even know they are in bondage. They don’t know the god of this age, Satan, has blinded their eyes and captured their affections and is keeping them from a life-giving, transformational relationship with God. You won’t be meeting them on an emotional level, but if you are walking with Jesus, He will be the One prompting your heart to be bothered by and burdened by and broken for those who don’t know what they don’t know about Jesus. It will likely be one-sided as you will be the one to feel something in that situation. They won’t be able to tell you what they need because in most cases they won’t even be aware they have a spiritual need. They won’t know they are spiritually sick.
Matthew 9:35-38 35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (ESV)
When Jesus saw the spiritual needs of the people in every town and city, He was moved with compassion. His prayer for laborers to join Him was a prayer for God’s people to be filled with compassion for the spiritual needs of those around them. They were like sheep without a shepherd. They had to be led, to be guided to the truth about Jesus. The harvest speaks about people becoming Christians, about people having their hearts converted. Jesus was concerned about those who were lost spiritually, but He was also troubled by the lack of laborers, the lack of people who have concern for the spiritual well-being of others. Friends, until we have the heart of Christ for the souls of others, our compassion will stop short with a cup of cold water, a warm blanket, and a hot meal. The world engages in those charitable acts. The Lions Club and the Rotary Club and the Community Cupboard and Heart and Hand, and so many social and community organizations get that we should respond to the basic human needs of our fellow man.
We should as well, but none of those acts of compassion will take care of the most pressing problem people have. We’ve got to be moved with compassion by people’s spiritual predicament and share Jesus with them. It ought to mess with us that people that we work with and live near and are friends with are going to Hell unless their receive salvation and forgiveness through their faith in Jesus. Do we have a Jesus-like compassion about those needs? When Jesus prayed for more laborers, He was praying for more people to have His compassion about the spiritual depravity of those without Christ.
I personally think Jesus showed next-level compassion when He was on the cross. It was one thing for Him to put off processing John the Baptist’s death until a more convenient and private time, but it was another thing to be displaying compassion when Christ was being betrayed, tortured, mocked, and crucified. And the weighty matters He dealt with from the cross were huge in consequence. When someone can be compassionate in the biggest crucible of their life, you know it is genuinely who they are.
Let’s look at those moments. Pay attention to how this account begins in Luke 23:34-38 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Impaled to a cross, bloodied and bruised from beatings, hardly able to breathe, hanging in public almost naked, having been abandoned by most of His friends, these were the early words from Jesus’ lips. Maybe this was one last attempt to help them see their need for forgiveness. Maybe there was the thought that if they could hear Jesus praying for them to be released from their wrongdoing, they would be able to see just how much God loved them and wanted salvation for them. Like, if Jesus was willing to pray for them in the condition and circumstance He was in, maybe they would finally get what was really happening. But what happened next was shocking.
And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
They were totally dismissive of the compassion and kindness of Jesus to pray for them as they perpetrated despicable acts of violence against the innocent Jesus. Surely evil had gripped their hearts. This was a game to them. Violence was a sport. The stark contrast between them and Jesus is astonishing. There was no compassion from those who crucified Jesus and there was deep compassion and concern from Jesus about the real need those people had to be forgiven for their heinous actions. He never lost sight of other people’s spiritual needs even in the darkest moments of His life. How did He process what He was seeing from the cross? The game they were playing for His clothes, the way people were mocking Him from below, the way they disregarded Jesus’ compassion for them…Would He decide to be done with compassionate acts after praying for His abusers?
Going on in Luke 23:39-43-39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Jesus suffered more emotional abuse from one of the criminals that had been crucified next to Him, but then, in an act of compassion, the other thief, actually took up for Jesus. Maybe it was a moment of reprieve for Jesus. Maybe it was a moment of validation, a reminder that He hadn’t done anything Himself to deserve the punishment He was receiving. Maybe it was a reminder of the greater mission Jesus was on. It wasn’t a self-saving mission, but a world saving one.
And that criminal asked Jesus to remember him in eternity. And Jesus’ compassionate response was, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus, just moments away from His own death, was still granting life to one who recognized the sinlessness sacrifice of Jesus. That thief was putting his faith in Jesus’ ability to take him beyond the grave, and Jesus willingly accepted even this last-minute confession. That very act confirmed the grace of God yet again. The thief wouldn’t be able to serve Jesus. He wouldn’t be able to witness for Him. He wouldn’t be able to worship Him. There was no time left, but because it was never about what we could do for God, but what He alone could do for us, another soul came into the Kingdom of God, even in the darkest circumstance.
Jesus could have been tempted to turn a deaf ear, to shut out any noise in that moment, so as to concentrate on His own breath, to focus on managing His own pain, maybe even thinking about how to hasten His death, but the compassionate Jesus was willing to reassure a dying thief that he would be Ok in the life to come.
The third act of compassion from the Cross was expressed in the way Jesus looked after His mother. I can’t imagine watching my son go through what Mary watched her Son endure. Jesus was the One who was suffering beyond comprehension, and yet He was moved by the immense pain His mother was experiencing.
John 19:26-27- 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Scholars believe Jesus’ earthly father was deceased by this time. Jesus was concerned about her going forward. He appointed John to look after her, and John took on that role. Jesus wasn’t taking His last breath until He knew His mother would be cared for.
Compassion is more than a feeling. It requires action to truly be compassion. Jesus took action from the Cross. His body had been decimated, but His heart was still moving Him to action. From the Cross, Jesus prayed for those who were taking His life. He talked with one who wanted to receive eternal life, and He made arrangements for His mother to have support for life. People with the compassion of Jesus move to act in ways that give people life.
Compassion is a radically personal act. Moving closer, getting involved when someone needs a physical touch. That’s compassion. Stopping when you hear the cry of someone in need…That’s compassion. Engaging people in conversation and asking what you can do to help…That’s compassion. Doing what you can, even when the need is greater than you can resource, with the faith that God will intervene and provide the miracle needed…That’s compassion. Praying for and witnessing to every unbeliever you know…That’s compassion. Ministering to your enemies because of their deep spiritual need…That’s compassion. Getting to people in their final moments to make sure they are right with Jesus…that’s compassion. Making sure those you love are taken care of…that’s compassion.
I like a definition for compassion that I read online this week. Here it is: Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you, too.
Jesus came and experienced what it was like to live in human skin, to be vulnerable, hurt, stressed, tired, physically and emotionally injured, and out of that compassion He was moved to give His very life to ensure we could have real and lasting peace and joy. Jesus wasn’t an insane martyr who chose to die for a random cause. He was the compassionate Savior who willingly died so that we could live. What greater compassion has ever been displayed?
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