Years ago at a railroad station in NJ, a little girl stepped up to a shackled criminal and looked tenderly into his face and said, “Oh man, I am so sorry for you.”
It made the man angry and he tried to hit her. The girl’s momma came over, drew her away, and told her to leave the man alone.
As they waited for the train, the mother’s eyes were distracted and the little girl wandered back over to the criminal. She whispered to him, “Poor man, Jesus Christ is so sorry for you.”
The man started to move toward her, let out a low groan, and did nothing further.
The train came, took them all to their destinations, but the two never saw each other again. But years later, the man left prison a Christian and a preacher. He would often tell how the compassion of Jesus Christ, from the lips of a little child, broke his heart, subdued his spirit, and led to the salvation of his soul.
Family, it is not ultimately our sympathy that men need; it is His!
THE SCOURGE OF LEPROSY:
The leper who came to Jesus would have had some type of skin condition. He would have been isolated from his family and friends. He could not go to the temple to offer animal sacrifices. I suppose that he would have been believed incurable, otherwise, he would have just waited it out.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE LEPER TOWARD JESUS – Mark 1:40:
This leper ignored the conventions of society and came to Jesus, breaking the taboo of social conversation. The text says he “beseeched” Jesus. This verb is used over 100 times in the NT; it is often translated “comfort” or “encourage.”
Notice this man’s humility: he falls on his knees. How much humility do you have to have to fall on your knees before someone else?
JESUS’ COMPASSION – 1:41-42:
Jesus was “moved with compassion.” This verb is used a dozen times in the NT, always in the gospel accounts, about Jesus or someone in a parable who represented Jesus.
What does compassion move you to do? What does compassion move me to do? Am I someone who would be characterized as a compassionate person?
Do I forgive?
Do I encourage?
Do I tolerate other people’s weaknesses?
Do I serve?
Do I help?
How can we be more compassionate?
By remembering what God has done for us, despite the fact that we don’t deserve it.
By remembering what others have done for us, when we haven’t deserved it.
By remembering that we will be judged based on whether or not we have showed compassion on others…
Let’s look at James 2:14-24. Please observe that James uses the verb “justified.” “To be justified” is salvation language. You could easily paraphrase that last statement by saying, “You see that a man is saved by works and not be faith alone.” Of course, the foundation for our salvation is not our works; its our response to the blood of Christ. But God will most certainly taken into consideration our eternal salvation whether our not we have worked to serve those who need our compassion.
JESUS’ FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS – 1:43-45:
Jesus did not need to be hindered in His work; He did not need to have His claims to be the Messiah brought into the public view too early. He was working on His Father’s time schedule, so He sternly warned this man not to tell anyone about His healing but Jesus sent him away, commanding him to follow through with what the Law of Moses had commanded (ver. 44).
However, the healed leper was far too excited and thankful to keep quiet about his healing (ver. 45). He “preached” (“proclaimed freely”) about Jesus all over Galilee so that the fame made it difficult for Jesus to enter publicly the city. He had to stay in “unpopulated” areas. Yet people continued to come to Him and He healed those who came to Him.
Isn’t that the ideal end result of us having compassion on people? They have to tell people about the Jesus who motivated us to have compassion on them. We make Jesus look good when we are compassionate. Of course, the opposite of that is also true; when we fail to be compassionate toward people, we make Christianity and the Christ look badly.
Christ leads us to actively show compassion on those around us.
Paul Holland
