Compassion in Action

 

Today’s devotional begins with “Mercy is compassion in action.” My morning began with my husband saying how yesterday’s post affected him. (Yes, he reads it every day). He said, “Where would we be without God’s mercy?” and I sit here in tears thinking of possible answers to his rhetorical question. Where indeed would we be?

Mercy is God’s gift to those who seek Him. It is His compassion in action. Compassion according to Oxford is “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others” but the Bible goes farther by adding mercy. Mercy not only is concerned, but does something about it.

For instance, a TV ad shows a boy on a bus offering his chocolate bar to a crying girl sitting behind him. On a larger real-life scale, fearful people are flooding here from their war-torn homeland. Some arrive with only the clothes on their back. Mercy finds them places to live, jobs, and takes them shopping.

As for those overtaken in sin, compassion feels badly that they are in darkness and bondage, but mercy died on a cross to bring light and freedom from sin and guilt to their lives. Jesus is the best example of mercy in action.

Mercy is a verb. It means ‘to aid the afflicted,’ ‘to give help to the wretched,’ or ‘to rescue the miserable.’ It refers to anything done to benefit someone in need. It is also an adjective used two times:

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

Therefore (Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

Jesus is the source of mercy and our best illustration. He demonstrated it by healing the sick and enabling crippled people to walk. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the mute. He embraced sinners of all kinds, wept with those in sorrow, comforted the lonely, embraced little children and continually considered human need.

Yet Jesus received no mercy from His enemies who hated Him without cause, accused Him falsely, beat Him, spat upon Him, cursed Him, and nailed Him to a cross. Even then He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

In the spiritual gift tests, I rank low in mercy. I relate more to the prophets who called for reform and the teachers who want suffering people to ‘think right’ and they will feel better. These gifts are not a reason never be compassionate, nor to avoid the rejection Jesus received for being merciful. He was also rejected for calling the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs” and telling people to repent. Perhaps something in me resists empathy because compassion is a huge energy drain. However, God is teaching me to feel the sorrow and struggles of others. They do not need my judgment; they already feel useless, condemned, as if they don’t fit in and are not loved.

Weeks ago, my granddaughter said, “Everyone wants to be loved” and she is right. Even the most hardened heart got that way because of a failure to realize that God loves them. Mercy is the only way that His message of love can reach those who are in great need of it. Some will misunderstand us, or take advantage, or strike back, but in the long term, love wins — and those who show love, do it because we know that God loves us.

Jesus, You have convinced me. My heart values passages like this one:

 . . .  If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39)

Because You love me and are merciful to me, I can be merciful to others. Keep me alert to the needs around me, but also fill me with compassion and ideas of how to show mercy rather than just feel sorry for people in need.

NOTICE: Read John 5:1–18 paying attention to what Jesus said to the man before healing Him. What assumptions might I make about those in need? How can I approach them with mercy and compassion? How might others respond if I am kind to those they dislike?