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"13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick."
(Matthew 14:13-14, ESV)
"Before we eat, we are going to pray for our meal. Is there anything we can pray for you about?" I cannot count how many times I have heard this from my dad at a restaurant to our waiter or waitress. I have seen and heard him do this for my whole life. When I was younger, I found it annoying because I was hungry and wanted food (please don't judge me). As I grew older and more mature, I realized that my dad was always wanting to talk to people about Jesus, and it started with having compassion for people, which usually allowed my dad to have an engaging conversation with them.
If you look at the verse above, these verses are the ones that directly precede the feeding of the 5,000. In these verses, Jesus is trying to be by Himself but quickly realizes that these people are following Him and wanting attention from Him. I love verse fourteen because we see the compassion of Jesus. We then see Jesus meet many physical needs by healing the sick and eventually feeding the 5,000. Jesus' compassion for the people drove Him to meet their needs.
What about you?
How much compassion do you have for people? Are you an introvert who dreads the very thought of interacting with others? Are you someone who, at the thought of conversation and being around other people, you begin jumping for joy? ...or are you someone who is just indifferent about crowds and social situations? Whichever your personality type is, we, as followers of Jesus Christ, must have compassion for people! Why is this a "must"? Jesus had compassion for people, whether in big crowds or not, so we must do likewise.
When we have compassion for people, we are then driven to want to meet people's needs! As followers of Christ, we can meet physical needs, yes, but we also have the Good News of the Gospel that can meet the spiritual need that all men and women have: the need for a relationship with their Creator and Savior. We have to have a compassion that sees people, sees a need, sees the means to meet the need, and then actually helps meet the need.
Whether you are reading this in the beginning of your day, the middle of your day, or towards the end of your day, pray that God would give you a Christ-like compassion for people. Pray that you would have opportunities to serve, meet a need, and tell someone about Jesus. Let us be followers of Christ who imitate the compassion of our Lord and Savior.
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