Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Mark 1:41 (NLT)
This man had leprosy; he came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. He said. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” Mark 1:40
Jesus’ response wasn’t “oh I can see your suffering, I’m sorry for you, God have mercy on you”
It’s worth noting that Mark doesn’t record that Jesus ‘had compassion’ but rather Jesus ‘was moved with compassion’. It’s one thing to have a virtue or passion and totally altogether another to be moved by that virtue or passion.
Compassion is not merely seeing, talking about, or even feeling what another person is going through, it’s being moved to act to help that other person out of that predicament.
Jesus was moved to act to help that man suffering with leprosy to free him from that disease. That’s how the man got healed. Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed-Mark 1:42 (NLT)
God is compassionate, He sees, feels, is touched, suffers with us, and is moved to act and help us out of all our distresses. Isaiah 63:9 (NLT) In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.
Now we are urged to be compassionate just as our Father is. Luke 6:36 (NLT) You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. It’s the very exact compassion we see in Jesus.
The love of God which is the womb of compassion has already been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit -Romans 5:5. Therefore all we have to do in order to act and walk in compassion is simply pay attention to and yield to the stirrings in our hearts.
Compassion is already in your heart, yield to it, don’t ignore, stifle, or quench it.
All of us have compassion shouting in our innermost being, we only choose to choke it in.
1 John 3:17-18 (AMPC) But if anyone has this world’s goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him? Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).
Compassion is love in action. It is love expressed to those who need it most.
Yield to the compassion in you, reach out, touch, heal, help, and make another whole.