The Compassion of Jesus

Let’s look for a moment at Christ’s life. Beyond the disciples, who did He spend His time with? Tax collectors and sinners. He had a heart and a compassion for those who were lost. His time was not only spent behind the walls of the local synagogue or temple, but was spent out where the people were. His attitude was not “come and get it”, it was “go get them!” He went where the lost were because He had compassion for them and, as a good shepherd, did not want them to be without the directions to find Him.

Do we truly have compassion for our friends and neighbors and relatives? Compassion enough that we are willing to risk fear, rejection, being misunderstood, and having the tough discussions? Do we see them as Paul did in Ephesians 2:1 where he described them as literally “walking corpses.”

A friend of mine told the story of a conversation he was having one day at a table with another Christian friend and a mutual friend who was not a believer. The discussion was rousing and pointed at Christianity, when the unbeliever turned to my friend and said this about the other Christian. “Do you know what my friend here thinks about me? He thinks I am in a burning building and he wants nothing more than to show me the way to safety. Though I disagree with him, it means a lot to me that he cares that much about me.”

The compassion of Christ says we see our friends as they truly are and want desperately for them not to stay in that condition any longer. If we lose sight of the fact that they are still in a burning building, then we lose the compassion for them that motivates us to share the exit map. The old saying is true, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. No matter how they might view you, compassion says, “Go get them” and show them the way to Christ.

by: Mark Rae