Full of Compassion
The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. Psalm 145:8
For most Christians it’s not unusual to read over a passage in the Bible and not really grasp the full intent of the writer right away. We read it a second time – often much later and see something that we wonder where it was the first time we read it. I always chuckle remembering a woman who stood up at the end of the year in Bible Study Fellowship. She was in her eighties and we had just finished a year of studying Genesis. She was waving her Bible saying, “I don’t know who does it but someone slips new stuff into my Bible every time I study it!”
This week I saw something new. I had just heard a good Sunday sermon on the compassion of Jesus Christ as He looked at the crowds in Matthew 9:36. The verse says, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” In the next verses Jesus sends His disciples out to be laborers for the harvest.
As we talked about this later Sunday evening in our small group we were reminded that Jesus is God. When He looks at the crowd He does not just see worn out, tired people in need of a good meal. 1Samuel 16:7b tells us what God sees when He looks at man, “For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
This is how Jesus knew He needed to send out the disciples for the harvest. He could see their lost hearts. He wasn’t concerned nearly as much about their physical state as He was their spiritual state. They were like sheep without a Shepherd. Sheep without a Shepherd are absolutely lost and in big trouble, protected from nothing. Sheep are dependent on their Shepherd!
The Lord’s ways are higher than our ways and I have continued to think about these verses and lessons from Sunday. You see, I’m not all that compassionate and I am seeing how really compassionate Jesus was…and is. I am not unmerciful if I see a problem – it just seems that I don’t always see people as the merciful do – you know, like Jesus would. Sometimes I feel very justified in this because I’m one of those pretty independent people. I don’t think to rely on others and so it doesn’t occur to me that someone else may need me.
Last night as I was pondering these things I remembered Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” As Jesus was looking out on the multitudes He knew who was sick and who needed to be healed of demons, He knew who was tired and needed rest, and who was hungry for spiritual food. But with all of that He also knew that every single heart before Him was deceitful and desperately wicked – He could see the wickedness and He had compassion on them.
Romans 8:29 says that we are to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. He was compassionate to the crowds that followed Him. I had to really think about this last night. If I were to consider all the Bible has to say I had to include the fact that though I can’t look at a heart and know if it is saved or lost I can often hear the wickedness of the heart coming out of the mouth of another person. Matthew 15:18 teaches, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.” And Luke in Luke 6:45 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
When I hear things that defile or are just evil coming out of a person’s mouth what is my response supposed to be? How much mercy must I show to the one who is doing wrong or speaking evil? First of all I know there’s no mercy in leaving anyone in their sin and subject to the wrath of God. Secondly, if I do I am not being at all like Christ. He often pointed out sin, the woman at the well, the Pharisees that he called a brood of Vipers, and the man who he told to go and sin no more would all testify that Jesus didn’t ignore their sin to be nice to them.
Here’s what I found – Jesus, in His mercy – forgives confessed sin (1 John 1:9). The Lord God is happy to remove our transgressions as far as the east is from the west. Look at these two verses about our God: Psalm 78:38, “But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath”; and Psalm 86:15 “But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.”
When Jesus sends out a disciple it is to “make disciples”. His last instructions to those who would be His disciples were these: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Mat 28:19-20 They were going to have to be as forgiving as He is.
Compassion is not just feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. It shows a concern for spiritual well-being. When I hear wickedness coming from the mouths of the multitude I want to be able to pray and follow the Lord to show them the path of righteousness. Only by the mercy and grace of the Lord will I actually be able to – but compassion for others is a worthy goal for one who wants to be conformed to the image of Christ.
“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.” 1Peter 3:8-9