The Person of Christ Series
As we read the Gospels, we are grabbed by the impact of Jesus’ personality. Previously we considered Jesus as a person of humility and meekness. But He was by no means a weak person. He was not a quiet, withdrawing kind of person nor was His a colorless personality. His manner gripped people and compelled their attention. His force of personality was seen when He took a whip of small cords and singlehandedly drove out those who were making the temple a place of merchandising. Various qualities combined to make Him the person we find captured on the pages of Scripture.
Feeling others’ sorrows
This week we remind ourselves that Christ was a person of incomparable compassion. The Bible calls much attention to this aspect of His person. “Compassion” is a term that conveys the idea of being able to feel others’ sorrows and needs. It expresses the capacity to weep with those that weep or to feel with those who hurt. Christ’s caring and compassion was a distinctive aspect of His personhood.
Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that part of His qualifications to be a great High Priest was that He could be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The Bible urges us to cast all our cares upon Him, “for He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). Those of us who have experienced His help in times of need can identify with the hymnwriter’s words, “No one ever cared for me like Jesus.”
Needs of people touched Christ’s heart and He typically responded by ministering to them. For example Matthew 9:36 records in summary fashion that in the midst of a ministry of teaching, preaching and healing, Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd, people who were weary and scattered. While needy crowds tugged on His heart, needy and hurting individuals did also. Luke 7 tells of His compassionate response to human sorrow.
The only son of a widow was being carried out for burial when the Lord’s attention was drawn to the grieving mother. “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her” (v. 13). Our caring Lord restored the son to life and to his mother. Toward the end of His earthly sojourn, Christ was entering Jerusalem. The record says, “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41).
His compassionate caring for individuals found demonstration even when their needs interrupted Him. The phrase “as He went” introduces such an occasion when Jesus was on the way to the house of the Jairus where the synagogue ruler’s daughter lay dying. “As He went” a needy woman dared interrupt His progress by touching His robe and finding healing virtue pass into her body. Jesus stopped along the way to minister to the woman (Luke 8:42–48).
‘Passing by’
On other occasions, the phrase “passing by” introduces what were almost incidental occasions when Christ displayed compassion. Christ was passing by when His heart went out to a man blind from birth, declaring, “I must work the works of Him who sent me” (John 9:4). He was moved to give sight to the man. Such was Christ’s commitment to a ministry of compassion and caring that interruptions and delays were treated as unplanned opportunities to help people. This aspect of His person sets an example for us to walk in His steps by increasingly becoming persons of compassion and caring.
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