Read: Matthew 14:14
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
If you read through the gospels and pay attention to the flow of narrative, you’ll eventually begin to notice a pattern, that Jesus displays, of seeing and responding. He sees people in physical need and feeds them. He sees people in spiritual need and leads them. He sees people in emotional need and comforts them.
The writers of the Gospels are intentional about sharing the details of how he comes upon these people in need and chooses to see them. They could have just told us that Jesus fed a lot of people. Instead, they first tell us that Jesus cares enough to notice that they are hungry, and then they tell us what he does about it.
When we choose to see people, we give them dignity. In Jesus’ time, physical, spiritual, or emotional illness or need led to a lack of dignity. These people were labeled as less than, worse off, or sometimes even inhuman. But when Jesus chooses to stop, look them in the eye, and acknowledge their presence, he restores that loss of dignity alongside the healing he provides. Jesus’ compassion begins with a willingness and ability to see what is broken, cast off, and deemed “less” in society’s eyes. It begins with seeing.
We live in a distracting world. Inundated by bad news, we are often desensitized into apathy. We will not be able to extend compassion if we can not first choose to face reality. Are there people who you have a tendency to ignore or judge because they make you uncomfortable? Are there needs in the lives of those around you that you continue to brush off because their needs are inconvenient? Jesus’ invitation to us, through the pattern he models, is to choose to see the needs of those around us, and then choose to enter into that need. Only then can we truly extend compassion.
Prayer: Lord, I confess that I am easily distracted by my devices, by bad news, by my busy schedule. I confess that I have not always seen others as you see others. Open my eyes, Oh Lord, that I may see what you see, and respond with great compassion.
