When you take Jesus up on his offer of mercy and compassion, you are beginning to understand how things are done in his house. You speak to him more often, with more confidence and boldness. You notice more of the sufferings of others. You pray that other sufferers would know the comfort of Jesus, and you ask them to pray with you. So enter into the compassion of Christ, and pray that you would know it more.

When one of my daughters was three years old, our extended family gathered for a large reunion. At some point, my daughter had a mishap that ended in tears, and she was on the lookout for someone to comfort her. As she walked through a room of adults, Uncle John rescued her. He picked her up and said, “Sweetie, I am so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?” Compassion, of course, makes a difference. She was comforted. Tears ceased. From that moment on Uncle John became her go-to person for all things tragic. He loved her, she loved him back, and I loved him for loving her.

Compassion means that you love the person and are affected by his or her hardships, no matter how transient those hardships might be. They leave their mark. You remember them and are changed by them. Such a response takes you into the very heart of God, who chooses to place compassion at the fore­front of how we know him.

To an unlikely and unruly group of people, he revealed himself as, “The Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious God” (Exodus 34:6 NIV). Later, after generations of his people rejected him, he proclaimed, “My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused” (Hosea 11:8 NIV). His compassion is so prominent that it would not be dis­suaded even by betrayal. So we expect compassion to be on full display when God comes in the flesh.

Jesus was, indeed, moved by the misery that sur­rounded him. His compassion was certainly aroused. He searched out the leper, the lame, a woman shamed by her bleeding, a woman rejected because of her reputation, and the father whose daughter had just died. Compassion guided his ministry.

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