Compassion and The Kingdom of God

This might seem to some as an given subject, it might even be considered normative.  Unfortunately there have been periods in the church’s history.  Why is it so important after all?

It is important because Jesus modelled compassion for us right throughout His ministry.  He didn’t just demonstrate it now and again, He felt compassion for all.  Certainly, in every instance, He was motivated from His main program promoting the Kingdom of God, but He also felt the pain of the people He as dealing with.

This should be our concern when people cross our path, feeling their pain and helping them to feel better about their lives while pointing them toward Jesus. Consider the story of the woman caught in adultery, the crowd that pushed into His face had all sort of motivations but at the crux of the issue was to stone or not to stone.  Jesus said to the crowd “if you are sinless go ahead throw the first stone” and then He resumed what He had been doing.  After a while Jesus lifts His eyes to the woman who had been accused all alone, where are your accusers He asks ... and then tells to go and sin no more.

The Master did not judge this woman; instead He acknowledged her fault when He tells her to “sin no more” and tells her to simply quit it.  The Samaritan woman was another example of this sort of compassion based encounter.  As a Jew people thought nothing of ignoring one of the despised Samaritan people, moreover He knew the woman’s history but He also was aware of the pain she was in.

Zach the taxman was another one who needed the touch of a compassionate Saviour who went against the expectations of the crowd who had been following Jesus along the road.  More than the recognition of the little man up in the tree Jesus calls him down because lunch was to be at the tax man’s house.  Sometimes offering compassion means going against the norm.

So then where do we go from here?  It takes more than compassion to make a difference in the lives of those that we encounter.  To impact a person’s life for the Master we need to meet them where they are instead of where we think they should be.  We need to employ positive reinforcement and active patience so that the person we are dealing with can come to the Master in their own and His time.

There is a time for using compassion as a means of bringing people to the master and there are times where using encounter will do the job.  We need the Master’s wisdom in our lives to discriminate which is the best in each instance; but in each instance we need to moderate our approach so that the law of love undergirds what we say and do.