Fostering Compassion

 

Fostering Compassion (Mark 6:30-44)

“When Jesus saw a large crowd, he compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mark 6:34)

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The more I walk with Jesus, the more I stand in awe of who he is, and of what he does for you and me. The more I walk with Jesus, the more I want to be like him.

It really was an amazing miracle that day – feeding five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two fish. And five thousand doesn’t even include women and children who were also there! Not only that, but there was more food left over than when the people started to eat. What a miracle, right?!

I can sense another miracle taking place, though. It is the miracle that takes place in my heart when I am realize that I failed to view the crowds of people in the same way that Jesus viewed them. To me, the masses of people are a distraction, an annoyance, even. To me, the people have interrupted our attempt at having some time alone with Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t look at the people that way. They aren’t an inconvenience to him at all. No, Jesus looks at people with compassion and kindness. While I saw the enormous crowd of people as an unwelcome interruption to my personal time with Jesus, Jesus saw them with compassion, because he saw they were lost.

My walk with Jesus often brings to mind the ancient words of King David, and this time is no different. As I think about how Jesus looked at the hungry people with compassion, the words of the psalm popped into my head: “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made,” and then, “You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145). These words not only underscore the goodness that the Lord shows to everyone, but they also convict my own tendency not to show equal concern for all or to extend compassion to everyone. No, if I’m honest with myself, I pick and choose those to whom I am good, those whose needs I will try to meet, those on whom I will have compassion.

But seeing Jesus showing compassion for all those people and nurturing them in body and in spirit makes me want to foster my own capacity for compassion. The more I walk with Jesus, I find myself looking at people differently more and more – not as interruptions to my routine, not as an annoyance that slows me down, but with compassion.

That is, after all, how Jesus looks at you and me: with deep, abiding compassion and love.

Dear Jesus, give me eyes that see people the way you see them. Help me to look at people, not as interruptions to my busy schedule or as unwelcome inconveniences; rather help me to look at people through the lens of compassion. Give me eyes that see the needs that others have, and foster in me a heart that wants to do something to meet their needs. Amen.