How To Have Compassion
Jesus showed compassion by seeing the unknown.
Luke 5:17-26
On one of those days while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and also from Jerusalem. And the Lord’s power to heal was in him. Just then some men came, carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before him. Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before Jesus.
Seeing their faith he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them, “Why are you thinking this in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he told the paralyzed man, “I tell you: Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”
Immediately he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. Then everyone was astounded, and they were giving glory to God. And they were filled with awe and said, “We have seen incredible things today.”[1]
Jesus seems to see what a lot of people miss. Jesus sees faith. In the four guys standing up on the roof, he sees a faith that says, “We’ve got to get this guy to Jesus. We don’t care what it takes. We’ve got to get our friend to the Lord because he can help him.” Jesus also sees the faith of the man lying on the mat while everyone else sees the man’s physical limitations. Jesus sees beyond that. He knows this paralytic has a physical need that is not nearly as pressing as his spiritual need.
I sometimes wonder how often we miss out on opportunities. How often do we not see some of the things God wants us to see? We’re just blind to them. Or we’re not observant enough or perceptive enough. Things aren’t always what they appear to be. For weeks, a five-year-old boy kept telling his kindergarten teacher about the baby brother or sister that was expected at his house. One day his mom let him feel the baby kicking in her belly. The five-year-old boy was impressed, but he didn’t make any comments. He also stopped telling his teacher at school about the impending event. The teacher, after a couple more weeks, pulled the boy aside and asked him, “Whatever became of that baby brother or sister you were expecting at home?” The little boy burst into tears and confessed, “I think Mommy ate it!”
Our take on things may not be completely right. We miss out on so many things. But God sees the needs. And if we’re listening to God closely enough, maybe he’ll open our eyes to those needs as well. A couple of winters ago, we had a big snowfall overnight. So, I went out the next morning with my snowblower to clear the driveway and sidewalks. Have you ever wanted to do something nice for someone without that person knowing it – like an anonymous, random act of kindness? That’s what I tried to do that day. I decided to clear off the snow from my neighbor’s driveway and sidewalk without him knowing I was the one who did it. Well, somehow he found out I did it, and he put a thank you note in my mailbox that said, “Thank you for clearing the snow off my driveway the other day. It was a huge help to me. I’ve been having issues with my back, and I was in so much pain that I couldn’t get out to shovel the snow myself. You really blessed me.”
You just never know how far an act of kindness can go. Are there people in your life you could show kindness to and then who will look at you and say, “You really blessed me”?
Jesus saw something in this paralytic that no one else saw, and he blessed him by telling him, “Your sins are forgiven.” It’s kind of a strange thing to say since the man is lying paralyzed on a mat…unless you’re the Son of God. Jesus saw a deeper need and looked beyond the criticism of the crowd because he knew the true need of the paralytic. He forgave his sins and healed him immediately and completely.
And the onlookers? They saw a man do something way beyond their expectations.[2] They were amazed and praised God.
Jesus also showed compassion by befriending the unlikely.
Luke 5:27-32
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him.
Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Tax collectors in Jesus’ day were often dishonest, had no credibility whatsoever, and were hated by everyone.[3] The Jewish court system wouldn’t even consider a tax collector’s eyewitness evidence admissible in a court of law.[4] It seems no one wanted to hang out with tax collectors except for other tax collectors and sinners.
Here, Jesus decides to invest in this man’s life. He invites this unlikely candidate to follow him. Levi leaves his business to follow Jesus just like Andrew, Peter, James, and John left their fishing business. Then Levi throws this party and invites his friends so they can meet Jesus too.
Who are the unlikely people in your life?
A few years ago, when we were living in Northeast Ohio, my brother and I would hang out together on Wednesday nights at a local bar and sing karaoke. Well, you know the kind of people who hang out at bars, right? From the outside, many of us see only what’s on the surface just like how the people in Jesus’ day saw this tax collector – scoundrels, drunkards, riff-raff, sinners. But I discovered after getting to know some of them that beneath their hardcore shells lie people who are looking for answers and meaning and purpose in life. At first, it was just a great opportunity to hang out with my brother and have some good times together. Little did I know the opportunity God was laying out for me and a guy named Don. Don was not someone I would normally be friends with because he was a lot different than I was. Don was a much older man and had suffered a stroke early in his life, which was very apparent. He didn’t move around very well. He walked with a limp and a cane. His speech was slurred. He was slow. On the surface, he was an unlikely candidate to be my friend. After getting to know Don and revealing to him that I was a minister, he would sit with me and ask me questions about God, the church, and spirituality. He told me he used to believe in God and was really active in the church. But he blamed God for his stroke. And after his wife left him, he gave up on faith altogether. But God helped me to see in Don what no one else could see – a man who desperately wanted to believe again. After a couple of months of sharing my faith with this unlikely friend every Wednesday night, he came to believe in God again.
Now you might not get that kind of response all the time. But we shouldn’t be compassionate just to get a response. We ought to be compassionate because Jesus was compassionate. Journalist Cal Thomas once said, “Love talked about is easily ignored; love demonstrated is irresistible.”[5]. Whom could you befriend today?
Well, let me close with this: Sin makes us untouchable, unable to get into heaven.[6] A holy God cannot fellowship with that which is unholy.[7] Sin paralyzes us and makes us despised in the eyes of God.[8] But God loved us so much that he sent his only Son who touches us, makes himself unclean, and becomes despised for us so that we can be made clean, we can be made whole, and we can be loved by God.
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[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Frank Ely Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: With the New International Version of the Holy Bible /. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 6, 8. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1979), 881.
[3] Ibid., 883.
[4] Robert H. Stein, Luke. The New American Commentary, v. 24. (Nashville, Tenn: Broadman Press, 1992), 133.
[5] Cal Thomas, What Is Love? CalThomas.com, February 13, 2024, accessed July 22, 2024, https://calthomas.com/2024/02/what-is-love-3/.
[6] Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:27
[7] Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing… Habakkuk 1:13
[8] But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen. Isaiah 59:2