The Great Need For Compassion!

I want to preach to you about compassion. We miss compassion when we do not have it and we admire it when we see it.

Illus: A pastor wrote, "I was in Time’s Square, in New York, during rush hour. Thousands of people were thronging and pushing at the corner, ready to cross at the intersection. Ten lanes of cars were backed up for blocks, racing their motors waiting for the light to change.

Suddenly, a mother cat came out of an alley followed by her four little kittens. She started across that busy intersection. The policeman on duty dashed out into the middle of the traffic, at the risk of his life stopped the cars and the people, and allowed that mother cat and her kittens to cross. Everyone stopped and watched this brave act exhibited by the policeman, and the calm manner in which that cat and her kittens crossed the busy intersection, all because of the caring of that policeman."

The policeman had compassion for the mother cat and her kittens, so he guided them across the street. Jesus has compassion for us as a shepherd does for his flock, and He guides us across the busy intersections of life.

WHAT IS COMPASSION? Let me give you two definitions:

(1) A BIBLE DEFINITION

Look at Matthew 10: 35-38, we read, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

Notice, the Lord went about teaching, and healing the sick of all types of diseases. In verse 36, the Bible says, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”

As a pastor, I can not tell you the times I have asked someone if they would do something for the Lord, and I knew what they were going to say before they said it. It is a stock answer that we hear all the time in the church that goes like this, “Pastor, I would love to do that for the Lord, but I already have so many important things to do and I wouldn’t have time to do what you are asking.”

The Lord could have said the same thing, but the Bible says that HE SAW THEM IN THE CONDITION THEY WERE IN AND HE HAD COMPASSION ON THEM.

(2) A REAL LIFE DEFINITION

Illus: The NY Times had a story about a little boy who was riding the bus. He sat so close to a woman dressed in a gray suit that everybody assumed he was her son and she his mother, until finally another lady sat down on the same seat with them.

When the little boy put his feet up on the seat and got the other lady’s dress dirty, she turned to the women in the gray suit and said, "Would you please tell your son to put his feet down because he is getting my dress dirty."

The lady in the gray suit pushed the boy away and said, "He’s not my son. I’ve never seen him before in my life."

The second lady looked at the little boy sadly for a moment and then started talking with him. She asked him if he was traveling alone.

"Yes," he said, "I always travel alone. My mommy and daddy are both dead and I live with Aunt Clara. But Aunt Clara thinks that Aunt Mildred ought to take her turn in taking care of me too. So whenever she gets tired of me, she sends me to Aunt Mildred. I’m going to Aunt Mildred’s now."

The woman said, "It must be tough traveling alone."

"Yeah," said the little boy, "it is. But I never get lost.” He said, "Sometimes I do get very lonesome. So whenever I see someone with a kind face I sit close to them, and pretend that I belong to them and that they belong to me."

He continued, "I sure hope that Aunt Mildred is home when I get there, because it looks like it is going to rain and I don’t like to be outside when it rains."

The woman reached over and grabbed the boy, hugged him so tight that it almost hurt, and wished for a moment that this little boy who wanted so much to belong, could belong to her.