Compassion Under Every Circumstance

In the midst of His personal suffering and agony, He looks out for others.  This underscores His selflessness.  He cares for you in every circumstance.  What love!  If He would look out for others in the worst possible moments of His own life what do you think that He will do for you? 

From a crucifixion cross, there hangs Jesus with nails in hands and spike in His feet…groaning out words in great agony in order that He might fulfill Scripture.  Somewhere between the 3rd to the 9th hour He looks down upon His mother and has compassion on her.  It is conspicuous, that absent from the raucous crowd was Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father.  Tradition has it that by this time Mary was a widow and culturally her care fell to Jesus.  Now Jesus is dying and can no longer take care of Mary.  Though in great agony, He looks down upon her with profound compassion and makes a Christological connection when He in effect executed John’s adoption before the crucifixion crowd.  He says “Woman behold your son, son behold your mother.”  His personal predicament did not make Him forget that others were hurting as well.

George Truett was a tremendously effective pastor for decades in Texas. His heart was broken when he accidentally killed his best friend while they were on a hunting trip. His daughter said that she never heard him laugh after that day. Truett had a radio program, and each day when it came to a close he would say, “Be good to everybody, because everybody is having a tough time.” Because he knew personally what a heavy burden people could be carrying, he encouraged compassion toward them.

Sometimes we cross paths with people who seem to be course and not very easy to like. Yet there is usually a reason for their behavior, and often it is because they are hiding a heavy heart. If we take the time to understand what has happened, we may find that while they have a tough outer exterior, inwardly they are desperately wishing for someone to care about them.

If Jesus’ connection of His mother and His disciple teaches us anything, it teaches us that even in the midst of everything that you’re going through, we still need to show compassion on others. 

Too often we are so consumed with our own pain that we forget that there are others who do not know that God can bring them through.  When we remember that God has entrusted us with the responsibility of being His agents on earth then we will take serious our claim to follow Christ.  Because if we are His followers, let us follow Him even in this.

Christopher Sercye was playing basketball with his friends when he was shot in the chest. His friends helped him get to within forty feet of the hospital and then went inside and asked for help. The hospital staff refused to help Christopher saying that it was against the hospital’s policies to administer aid to those outside the hospital. Eventually a policeman was able to get a wheel chair and wheeled Christopher into the hospital where he was helped by the hospital staff. It was too late, however, and Christopher died about an hour later.

Many times it seems that churches are surrounded by people that desperately need to hear the gospel, yet Christians are content to share it only with those that manage to come inside their church.

Henri Nouwen writes the book entitled Wounded Healer.  Nouwen’s chief contention is that often times those who are being called upon to help are in fact, hurting themselves.  He goes on to intimate that it is only when we engage others in their pain do we find healing for ourselves.

He says, “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

 Put another way…“Compassion can’t be measured in dollars and cents. It does come with a price tag, but that price tag isn’t the amount of money spent. The price tag is love.”—J. C. Watts Jr.

Who will you help today?  What mission will you embark on today?  It’s not enough to take God’s salvation…to let His Son die in your place…if He died for you then you must live for Him!  Will you love Him enough to show compassion on others?