“Picture Jesus walking down the streets of Jerusalem. What kinds of things moved his heart? Where was His compassion revealed? I think we can all see where his compassion wasn’t aroused. For example, when people had turned His Father’s house (which was supposed to be a house of prayer) into what he called a ‘den of thieves.’ The temple was turned into a place of business, a place that glorified human economics and not God. That set Jesus’ righteous anger ablaze. Or what about the time when the so-called teachers of the law decided that the law was more important than the people the law was meant to serve. Seems like I remember him calling them things like whitewashed tombs.

Clearly, what attracted Jesus and received his attention consistently was this: the needs of the poor, the down and out, that handicapped, the orphan, the prostitute, the sick, and the widow in need. 

I think of the man with the withered hand that Jesus healed in Mark chapter 3. Other times he came across large crowds and had great compassion on them. Then He would turn and heal all their sick like in Matthew 14. Over and over again, this is how Jesus poured out his life. What about the woman with the issue of blood? Or the lepers, he healed?  Or His compassion for the adulterous woman? He never did these things as a sense of duty or requirement. It was because his heart was overflowing with compassion for the needs of the people. It’s who He was.  He made other men’s sorrows his sorrows and other people’s suffering his suffering. 

And we’re supposed to follow in his footsteps.