Sunday Notes: Jesus and His Compassion

Last week, we talked about Jesus and how He dealt with temptation when He was in the wilderness and had fasted for forty days.

Satan came up to Him and tried to test Jesus but ultimately, Jesus overcame the temptations.

He did it by having a greater power within Him which is the Holy Spirit, a greater purpose beside the physical survival of man, a greater devotion for God as He had referenced Scripture in the second temptation to worship the Lord your God only, and a real humility before God the Father as Jesus submitted His own will to follow the will of the Father in heaven.

We also see here how Jesus represented man through these trials and eventually broke man free from the chains of sin. Jesus made the greatest sacrifice for us so that we can have a way to the Father and become right with the Father through the righteousness of Jesus.

He gave up His life and took it up again; He came down from His throne and went back up again, in order for us to have eternal life.

When Jesus came down to the earth, He was down to earth. He showed true humility when He became born as a child  in a manger and into a poor family.

At the age of twelve, He knew exactly what His purpose was in the world and His heart was focused on the mission that God the Father had sent Him to the world for.

When He began to minister to the people of Jerusalem and Galilee and other surrounding cities, He went from town to town and mingled with ordinary people. He cared for them, healed them, preached to them, and He showed tremendous love for them.

Jesus had compassion for people who were hurting, and poor, and those who were afflicted with all kinds of diseases and disabilities; He even took the time to talk with a Samaritan woman and to tell her the way to have peace and have life that is full and satisfied.

He revealed Himself to those who humbly came before Him and acknowledged that they needed help from God. Jesus loving nature and sincere compassion and care for the people's problems and struggles was really what drew the people of that time and even people of today to Jesus.

And that is exactly what Jesus wants His followers to be - to have that characteristic of showing genuine love and being moved with an urgency to meet the needs of people who were desperate and had no other solution and no other person to turn to.

That is who Jesus is to us - He is our Counselor, our Healer, our Protector, our Comforter, our Prince of Peace, and our Great Provider and even much more. What Jesus wanted and what God wants was to be close to His people and that His people would approach and entrust Him with our problems.

The passage of Scripture that we looked at was Matthew 9:35-38 which says:

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.'"

There are a few reasons why Jesus went to the sick, helpless, harassed, and those who are disabled and need restoration and rest and some of them are because He had the sense of purpose given to Him by the Father, the Father loves the world, and the world needed a Savior.

But the utmost reason why Jesus preached and healed people was that He had compassion on them and He cared for their needs and wanted to satisfy those needs because only God can do that and so Jesus did.

At the end of the passage, Jesus actually gives a command to His disciples that they pray and ask the Lord to send out carers for the sick and people who had genuine compassion to sacrifice their own comfort to give comfort to those who are unfortunate to be lacking in comfort.

The passage in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 actually gives account of this:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

Not only does Jesus need people who have compassion for other but also people who are willing to give up their own comfort so that they can give comfort to others.

We need to be moved with the same urgency that Jesus had because who else will go to those hurting people and give to those who are in need but us, we who have personally experienced God's mercy and grace.

We have been extremely blessed by God and so His love should compel us to act upon the needs of others as God has given us what we need and more.

I have actually been urged by the message that our pastor had given to us today to set aside my own comforts and my self-interests so that I can serve God and serve His people.

I have decided that I would give generously to anyone who would need it as the Holy Spirit moves me to do so.

I hope that each one of us, who believe in Jesus and who have experienced His love as a way of giving back to Him out of love for Him, would give selflessly to those who are in need and care for those who are hurting and spend time with them as we spend time with God, with our friends, and with our family.

Let us see the hand of God moving through us and let us be not just hearers of the Word but also doers of the Word. Let us put our faith to action.

As a concluding statement, I would like to share this passage of Scripture for you to ponder on and to meditate on:

"Praise the Lord, O my soul; 
all my inmost being, praise His Holy Name.  

Praise the Lord, O my soul, 
and forget not all His benefits -  

who forgives all your sins 
and heals all your diseases,  

who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion, 

who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. 

The Lord works righteousness and justice
for all the oppressed. 

He made known His ways to Moses,
His deeds to the people of Israel: 

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love. 

He will not always accuse,
nor will He harbor His anger forever; 

He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities. 

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His love for those fear Him; 

as far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 

As a father has compassion on His children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; 

for He knows how we are formed,
He remembers that we are dust."
Psalm 103:1-14