The Compassion of Christ

I’m sure many of you have seen the popular movie known as Passion of the Christ. It made box office history a few years ago by telling the story of our Lord’s journey to the cross. Jesus betrayal and public execution began the turning of the tide in Jerusalem, His love and sacrifice were put on gruesome display as this film portrayed the last days of Christ as a flesh-bound man on Earth. However, I want to cover a different viewpoint of His life’s work in this message, one that meant the world and eternity to those that it touched. The compassion of Christ.

Years ago, when my son was small, while I would do yard work, he would bring his little plastic lawnmower and follow me in the yard. He was probably only four or five years old and as I would use the real thing, he would follow in my footsteps making the noises like a little kid’s version of a walk behind mower. A few years later when he was older, he took over for me while we were again outside doing yard work. This time he took the reins of the real mower and I quietly watched from the side. He went straight down the line of cut grass turned around and kept going back and forth. As he mowed, small pieces of grass were left uncut here and there where he wandered back and forth. Like little cowlick hair follicles, they stuck up here and there across the yard. When he was done, he approached me and said, “how’d I do”? My answer was, “you did a great job”. We talked several times that day about how good he had done and how proud I was of him. For the next few days, I told anyone that would listen how good he had done and how he had stepped in to mow my yard. I was a proud bragging dad.

I think God looks at us with those same eyes, ears, and heart. He sees his children toiling about here on Earth with our trials and our hurts, and then we turn to him and we ask for help; we plead, we read books, we pray to connect to him, and sometimes we feel that what we do isn’t good enough, that our efforts somehow have to look polished or refined. That not spending enough time in the church might make God not want to listen to us, or by failing to have enough faith that he sometimes won’t answer our prayers.

I’m reminded of all the times that Jesus showed compassion and not judgment, which would have been his right, but was not His mission. Something that stood out the other day in my reading was his mother at the wedding party where he performed his first miracle. His mom knew that the party had run out of wine, which in those days would be a major insult to the wedding party and host. She directed the people serving to fill the jugs with water and present them to Jesus so he could bless them and presumptively do something “out of the box”. Jesus politely reminds his mother that it’s not his time and almost recuses himself of her request. But then, it seems, he does the compassionate thing and proves his mother’s faith and belief in her son to be well-placed. He not only turns the water into wine, but he turns it into the very best wine. In fact, Jesus publicly shows his compassion many times over the course of his ministry. Matthew the tax collector, a highly educated man in a hated position among the Jews. Come and follow me he told him, most assuredly against the “good judgment” of His current followers and the onlooking eye of the temple leadership. He dealt with Peter a notorious hotheaded fisherman and the rest of the disciples who at times could hardly understand his direction and teachings. He even stopped to discuss dangerous accusations with a woman on the street one day, noting that her accusers had all left once he asked them which one of them was without sin. He showed compassion on this woman all the while knowing that she had failed, not condoning her failure or telling her it was okay to keep on failing, but telling her to go and do it no more.

On his last day in the flesh here on Earth, Jesus used his final few breaths to show compassion to a man who had also been beaten and publicly humiliated that day. The thief on the cross who begged Jesus to forgive him and remember him when he came into his kingdom was there during the last minutes of Jesus life here on Earth. As his strength failed and his breathing became more and more difficult, he spoke to the thief and in compassion reassured him that “today” he would be with Him in Paradise. I want to impress on each one of us, Jesus was always first to dispense compassion, grace, and love on those who many times seemed unlovable. He taught us that the ambition of all Christians should be to learn to love one another, to show love as he had loved them, as He loves us.

 This is the way that we will stand out from the rest of the world, by our propensity to love, when loving isn’t easy. They will know that you follow Me, by your love.

Jesus could have come into this world to judge and condemn wayward people, to create a kingdom of servants and followers, but he didn’t. We often think with horror of the torture and pain that Jesus endured during his last few days before he was hung on that cross, and rightly so, it was our actions that nailed him there. He could have called any number of angels or changed a single heart or circumstance to overcome His ruling of execution. But he didn’t. Jesus did not come to rule over a kingdom of servants, he came to save a world who were and are His children. When he looks at your life and mine, he sees that poorly mowed yard with the stitches of grass still sticking up here and there and the edges not sharply mowed. He sees the feeble attempts to paint the beauty of nature with the wrong colors, the areas where we’ve gone outside the lines. When we fail to love as we should or find the good in others and say the wrong things. When we seek possessions and power instead of loving our neighbor or giving the gift of compassion. When we step on the weak to get ahead in our own lives. When we push others out of our gatherings because they don’t look like us or act like us. When we think thoughts of lust for things that are not ours. When we finally and shamefully come to the realization that we have wronged others, ourselves or God and come before him with hearts that are broken, beaten, worn and trampled on; like a proud dad would, he gives his sons and daughters a big hug and tells us what a great joy we are. He encourages us to keep going, keep learning, keep pursuing and running the race.

It’s hard to imagine why God would continue to pursue us in His loving, patient way when we run so very hard in the other direction, but He does. No matter whether you’re the hated tax collector. No matter whether you are a hard-headed and hot-tempered person. No matter if you are involved with infidelity or sexual sin. No matter if you are a thief in your last few hours of life, Jesus has compassion and acceptance for you. Forgiveness is waiting for you if you’ll only ask for it, it’s definitely a step into the abyss of faith. You see the story of this thief and Jesus in those last hours on the cross did not go like this, ‘Jesus reached out to the thief and ask him if he wouldn’t please consider one last time believing in him’. No, the thief saw one last opportunity and took it. Paradise was his that day because he decided that the message of the Gospel was not a fantasy or just for those who were cleaned up and in the right club. His life in eternity changed direction on that day because the thief spoke up in faith, took that difficult first step and believed in the compassion of Christ.

John 13: 34-35

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A Child at Heart

 Mark 10: 13-16          

There is a commonly told story in the Bible about the disciples and Jesus, where parents are bringing their children to see Him, seeking an audience with Jesus and His blessing. While those closest to Him attempted to shoo them away, telling them to step back and leave Jesus alone. What happens next seems to be a popular lesson, both inside and outside of the church, Jesus steps up and says, “Stop! Let them come to me, don’t dare get in their way”. There is a little more to what He says in the passage, but during a recent Bible study, I found an interesting sidebar to this story, some things that make it even more personal to me, and perhaps to you also.

If you read prior verses to this incident, you’ll find that Jesus and the disciples had been ministering nonstop for weeks, perhaps months. Every manor of the question had been discussed and argued. The dialogue was often deep, and most times the disciples must have felt like they were grasping desperately to understand what Jesus was trying to teach them. From hiking through the mountains with nothing short of miraculous happenings going on all around them, to healing one person after the next; they dealt with every sort of illness and demonic encounter. The debate and instruction carried on and on, day into night.

In Mark 10 verse 10, they arrive at what is noted as “the house”. After further examination, I found that many scholars seem to think that this reference to a ‘house’ might have actually been a home owned by the group, a close follower, or at least was a home base of sorts. I had never thought about Jesus the adult and missionary traveler, having a home. A place where you might go to find Him on a Tuesday evening, sitting with His friends, having ‘Tora’ study. I would love to see that church flyer, “hey everyone, Bible study this Thursday night at Jesus’ house, 7 pm - dinner will, of course, be served”. We might laugh at that, but it sounds as if they were arriving home after a very long stretch of out of town ministering. Frankly, and not surprisingly so, the last thing on the minds of the disciples and His traveling companions was to have company over for the evening. But according to Mark 10, chapter 13 this is precisely what was happening. I don’t think that they were just random kids hanging out, like your friendly junior high and high school youth leader’s house, it says that the people were bringing their children over for Jesus to bless. Imagine this, if you believed that Jesus was a very high-ranking rabbi, maybe even heavenly connected somehow, and he lived in your village or a neighboring community, wouldn’t you try to slip by for a visit? And knowing the importance of having your children blessed by “the church” during this era, how could you blame any of these people for “dropping in”.

After all the long days of walking and discussions, nights sleeping here and there, you might understand now why the disciples were tired, and not in the entertaining mood. As ministers of His modern message, there is a clear lesson to us in this small story. Not just that Jesus valued children, if that is all you’ve heard about this story, then you are only halfway to the real illustration. Jesus angrily admonished His close friends and reminded them again, this is why we’re all here! Let these parents and kids in. The common lesson we hear from this is that Jesus so loved the children that he wanted to see them and that they were amongst the idealistic versions of what we needed to aspire to as Christians. The child-like faith and acceptance they had for Him was a teaching moment that Jesus could not resist sharing with the disciples, and us. The fact that we might need to ease up on all the technicalities of life; that simple faith was the answer to life everlasting, and perhaps the main focus of this whole story.

I think there is also another very valuable illustration here that we often miss. After telling the disciples to let the children and parents in, He took the time to meet each one separately. Talking to them, lifting them to His lap so they would know he was interested in them personally. Hearing the concerns of the parents. One at a time, each of them came to see and talk to Him, and He prayed over them and gave them encouragement, one by one, working His way through the crowd. There was no rebuke of the guests. No ‘come back tomorrow when I am not tired from my mission’. Not even a hint of bragging about how important and great His trip had been. Just Him spending time with them, listening and praying over their needs.

I hope that you can see the subtle message here to all of us in ministry. And dare I say, we all have a mission field to minister in, so don’t miss this point; God calls us to be His eyes, His hands, His feet. No matter our status, energy level or emotion, we need to be willing and open to being used by God. Certainly, we can all only do so much, but sometimes we think, “I’ve done enough” or “let someone else take care of that”. Occasionally, I find myself thinking that I can’t take on anything new or out of my comfort zone, or that I am not equipped to do what I hear God calling me to do. But how do you justify those excuses when it is God who has called us to “let the children come”. Moses, Jonah, David, none of their reasoning let them off the hook with God either.

And that brings me to the center of my thinking surrounding this passage and story. Perhaps on the alternate side of this lesson, Jesus has an illustration that says, “Come to me, climb up on my lap. Tell me what you’ve done, and where your heart is”. “Let’s talk about you, me and us for a bit”. Jesus tells the disciples, in verse 15, anyone that does not come to the kingdom with the faith and acceptance of a little child, those people will not enter heaven. That’s a pretty direct statement to make, throwing out a profound question right into the hearts of His disciples, and us. Jesus is saying, if you can’t freely and openly trust me as these children do, you won’t get to heaven. Lay off those ideas you have about what good things you’ve done, or how many Bible books you’ve read. Never mind your doctorate degrees in theology or your successes at work, can you trust Me He asks as if you were one of these small children?

I believe they struggled with this question there in that house, just as you and I do. It’s a simple plan God has for our relationship with Him, but we’ve complicated it with emotions and sin. We are too proud to think He loves us just because. Too afraid that He can’t forgive our personal legacy of squandered chances. However, nothing could be further from His truth. He was trying to tell us all that very thing through this story, from His home with the children. To us, He is saying, come on by. Stop in and visit with me, tell me your concerns and cry on my shoulder about your pain. His interest is individual and specific to each and every one of us, just like those children and parents on that day. We each should know that He is attentive to our call, one by one, listening and spending the time to know us, bless us and hear our hearts cry.

In my mind, I see the lesson of this story as much bigger than Jesus loves kids and wants them to be included. I sense that Jesus is showing us a glimpse of ourselves and saying, “you are all my children, in you I will invest my time, my grace, and my love. If you will only come to me and seek me out as a child would seek its parent”. The kind of circumstance where there is no judgment or fear, but acceptance and pure love, without rules and man-made hoops to jump through. It was and is, an important lesson to drive home with His disciples and each one of us, that unless we simply accept His love and grace, as young children do, then our own pride, selfishness, and greed may very well keep us from knowing the real potential of His selfless gift to us. Forgiveness. Sometimes we may need to just stop, put down our false armor of adulthood, and climb up into His lap of understanding and grace, and remember that He is our father, our Abba. He always makes time to listen and know our doubts and fears; He is ready to bless us with His goodness and mercy. The road to real peace and blessings may look different for each of us, but isn’t that just another sign that He listens intently and covets our individual relationship with Him? Imagine that for a few minutes, the God of creation longs to have a specific and personal relationship with you, and with me. He says, “Come and sit with me, let's talk and get to know each other. Bring me your concerns and let’s work them through together”. He told us what it takes to have that kind of bond with Him. He said that we must seek Him with the faith and heart of a child. Nothing fancy, no long and flowery introductions or fanfare suited for a king, but rather an offering. An offering simple in thought and concept. The trust and expectation of a hopeful heir to the King, and the faith and commitment of a child at heart.