“When
He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and
worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36 (Christian Standard Bible)
There is something unique about the emotional and spiritual dynamics of the intent of compassion. It is not something you can feel from a distance. It is not something that you can feel and then walk away unchanged. Compassion says that something must be done, and you may be the one to do it.
Jesus was moved with compassion. He got this as a part of his reflection of his heavenly Father. God saw man trying to reach beyond himself into that arena of life which he could not see, could not truly understand, and could not reach on his own. He saw man failing miserably at every attempt at trying to reach the Divine. So he decided that since man was incapable of reaching him, he would just come to man instead. We call that the Incarnation, Emmanuel, God with us.
This desire to be with man and to show man just what his destiny could be was in great part motivated by compassion. God created man with such potential, not only for this world but also for the eternal realms. Man in his weakness, his disobedience, and his open rebellion was missing everything that God knew would have made life here abundant and a true manifestation of the image of God that man carried. Man was falling far short of God’s original intentions. So God intervened, motivated by compassion.
Compassion has love as its foundation. It is marked by self-sacrifice. Compassion acts. Compassion suffers. Compassion makes the effort to change the situation even though it means personal cost. God in Christ gives us the living definition of compassion. He saw. He came. He became involved. He paid the price. He made change possible.
When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt compassion. That feeling was followed by action. In this particular case the action involved getting the disciples to be involved in prayer. It was prayer that would get people involved in taking care of the problem and not just any people. It would be people whom God would choose. He would see to the solution in his own way and time. It was up to the disciples to become first and foremost involved in the divine activity of prayer. The answer would be workers for the fields.
Jesus was motivated by compassion when he saw crowds that acted like a bunch of sheep with no shepherd. He had compassion when he saw the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dead, the tortured by self or by others. He had compassion anytime that he saw people struggling and losing in a battle that their Creator had never intended for them to have to fight.
Jesus’ compassion led him to take the only path that would offer mankind a way out of their trap of destruction. His innocent death revealed a God who had compassion, who would take whatever steps were necessary to make a relationship with man possible.
Compassion brings hope to the hopeless, strength to those who are weak, guidance to the lost, light to those in darkness, music to those who are deaf, and life to those who are dead. Compassion doesn’t offer empty words. Compassion offers itself even if it means dying.
Compassion doesn’t so much ask “Why are you like this?” as it does “Would you like something better and are you willing to pay the price to get it?” Compassion gives out of an appreciation for the inherent value of the other, but also opens the opportunity to move beyond what has been experienced before.
Compassion is in the business of healing. Compassion moves into the arena of broken relationships. In Christ the priority is placed upon the relationship between God and man because all other relationships must find their foundation in this Creator-creature bond. Agape love and compassion find their common ground in the divine revelation of Jesus Christ. Love must relate. Compassion must reveal itself within relationship. Both find their greatest expression in the event that is called the Incarnation.
