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The Compassion of Jesus, Once Again

Daily Reflection / Produced by The High Calling
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Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed him.

Matthew 20:34

When the two blind men kept crying out to Jesus, those in the crowd around them tried to shut them up. Their emotional response to these men was embarrassment, perhaps even anger. Jesus, on the contrary, "felt sorry for them" and healed them. The Greek verb translated as "felt sorry for" means "to have compassion for." It's related to the noun meaning "internal organs." We might paraphrase as "Jesus' heart was moved." When he heard the desperate cries of the blind men, he sensed their pain and felt drawn to them.

Sometimes our image of God does not include compassion. God's care for us can seem like a matter of fact alone rather than of feeling. But Jesus, who, as God in human flesh, is the ultimate revelation of God, shows us that God is compassionate. God feels with us and for us. God's heart is tender toward us. When we hurt, God hurts with us. When we cry out in desperation, God feels sorry for us. What good and comforting news this is!

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Do you believe that God feels compassion for you? What helps you to believe this? What makes it hard for you to believe this? When, if at all, have you felt God's heart for you?

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, for some strange reason, I find the notion that you have compassion for me to be a hard one to believe. Maybe it's because you seem distant sometimes. Or maybe it's because I know my sin so well that I can't imagine your feelings toward me would be positive. Or maybe it's because I'm so wary of the tendency in our day to reduce faith to feelings.

So I thank you for the fact that you felt compassion for these blind men and for so many others throughout your ministry. This fact helps me to realize that you also feel compassion for me. You are moved by my struggles. You rejoice in my victories. You are with me, not just in truth, but in heart as well. Thank you!

Help me, dear Lord, to live with the confidence that you feel compassion for me, that you are with me in Spirit and in heart. Amen.