In this year of Dedication and Preparation, we are concerned with making ourselves ready to witness to others about Christ in 1976. Part of that witness will probably be preaching. If our preaching is to be effective it must come from an understanding of and feeling for the needs of others. One of the steps towards gaining this understanding and fellow-feeling is learning to show compassion.
Be Compassionate
What is compassion? Amongst the meanings of compassion given in the Bible are these:-
to be merciful, to pity, to love, to spare, to show mildness or kindness, to be tender, to suffer with.
If we consider all these meanings we could safely come to the conclusion that compassion has something to do with our feelings for others.
A Characteristic Of God
Compassion is something which we can see in God. Look at these verses – Psalm 78:38, 86:15, 111:4, 112:4, 145:8, Lam. 3:22.
God is abundant in His compassion toward us. Despite the fact that we are exceedingly sinful, He loves us, and cares for us and does not turn away from us. There is no limit to His mercy, for those who accept it.
A Characteristic Of Jesus
Compassion is often associated with the Lord Jesus. We will consider in detail some of the occasions when Jesus showed compassion; and see if we can learn something from them . . .
Matthew 9:35-38
Why is Jesus moved with compassion on this occasion? Can you feel what Jesus is feeling? Is his concern for the salvation of the multitude based purely on the academic realisation of their need, or does it come from a feeling deep inside?
Surely it comes from a feeling — Jesus CARES about these people. Jesus tells us to pray for people to be sent to preach to lost people in the world. Do we care enough to fervently pray that prayer?
But Jesus didn’t just ask for others to be sent. While he was here, he himself preached. Do we care enough not to just pray for others, but to get in and do our bit, too?
Matthew 14:13-14
It is important in understanding what Jesus did here, to realise what came before it. John the Baptist has just been beheaded and Jesus has just heard the news. He is deeply sorrowful and goes away to be alone with God and his grief. But the crowd follow him, because they had heard about him. And what does Jesus do? He puts himself aside and goes to them and heals them. He is so deeply moved by their needs that he can put his own aside. Such an act could only come from real emotional involvement in the people’s need.
Mark 1:41
Jesus healed the leper, because he cared about the suffering he was experiencing. Notice that there is no attempt to preach to the man. In fact, Jesus tells him not to tell anyone. So Jesus did not intend this healing to be a vehicle for preaching. He healed the man because he could not bear to see him suffer.
Luke 7:12-17
Again we see Jesus personally moved by the sorrowful plight of someone else. The foregoing are just a few verses. Here are some more to look up — Matt. 15:32, 20:34; Luke 10:33, 15:20; Mark 8:2, 9:22. You can use your concordance to look up more if you’re interested.
It should be clear that compassion was a feeling common to the Lord Jesus.
Something else should also be clear. When Jesus was moved with compassion for the multitude, or for an individual, he wasn’t just moved by their spiritual hunger, thirst, sickness, sorrow, loneliness and so on.
When the people came to Jesus they knew that in him they would find understanding and kindness. The Scribes and Pharisees spent all their time criticising the people or looking down their noses at them. But Jesus gave them warmth and love. He showed them God, he didn’t just preach at them.
What About Us?
Obviously, since God is our Father and Jesus is our Lord, we want to be like them. Compassion, therefore, is something we have to develop.
Are we known as a people concerned for the needs of others? Do people flock to us for our warm, loving, attitude to them? Are we moved by a desire to preach at people, and not by a feeling for them?
Having compassion doesn’t mean just feeling sorry for people either. It means being able to understand their feelings and feel with them.
Get Involved
You will notice from your reading of the New Testament that Jesus was actively involved with the people who needed him. He ate, drank, slept, spoke and lived with them. For this he received the scorn of the Scribes and Pharisees.
Jesus could not only be found in the synagogue arguing with the pious `God-loving’ people. He was found amongst the sinners. Is there a lesson here for us? No doubt the Scribes and Pharisees would have many elaborate and seemingly justifiable reasons for not being where Jesus was — but Jesus says to you — FOLLOW ME. Where does Jesus find us?
How?
Before we can be involved, our motives have to be right. You see, involvement is very time-consuming — many times Jesus went without sleep and proper food because of the demands of the crowd. To be able to give that kind of time and effort to others, we have to really care for them.
Hospitality
Opening our homes willingly to others is one way of getting involved. Look up these verses and consider them — Heb. 13:2; Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; 1 Peter 4:9.
These verses speak of our need for hospitality — a hospitality which has no limits, just as God has no limits on his compassion for us.
Have you ever heard people say they’d stopped helping and spending time with someone because ‘He didn’t seem interested in the meeting’. Is this a justifiable attitude?
Parable Of The Talents
Read the parable again in Matt. 25:14-30. What do the Talents represent? What did the wicked servant bring? Amongst other things it was the love his Master had given him. We have received much love from God — both in material foods and in spiritual treasures. Do we bury them and consume them on ourselves — or do they flow through us to others?
Are we a selfish people? Look at these words of Jesus. What do they have to say? Matt. 5:46-48; Matt. 5:14-16.
Being involved is more than just giving money . . it’s spending our time and effort for others. In this year of Dedication perhaps we could consider the need to turn our vision away from ourselves. Our community is small, our needs are few and God can take care of those, if we’ll let Him. But there is a dying world outside, full of people who need Jesus and the message he brings.
Let us pray for greater compassion and the courage for greater involvement in the trials and problems of others. We should do all we can for our brethren and sisters, yes, but not just for them. We should come to the fellowship of our brethren and sisters to gain strength and encouragement to do as Jesus wants us to do in the world. Then we should go out, with broader horizons and limitless compassion to show people that the Jesus who cared for the multitude is still alive — in us.
The Solution