Have you ever seen someone else’s suffering and felt a visceral reaction to it, like a sucker punch to your gut? The suffering may not be your own, but it still hurts, and you want to help alleviate the pain. This is what the Bible calls compassion, and it literally means to co-suffer with someone. The compassion of Christ is not feeling sorry for someone in hard circumstances and moving on. Jesus’ compassion moves him to feel with us and act. It was Christ’s compassion that moved him to reverse the curse and bring life from death for a grieving widow in the town of Nain.
In Luke 7:11-17, Jesus and his disciples enter the town’s gate and find themselves in the middle of a funeral procession. A considerable crowd gathered, and mourners surrounded the poor, widowed mother who followed her only son’s death bier toward his burial place. When Jesus saw this scene, he felt it—deeply—in his bowels.
Do you think of Jesus’ compassion that way? He doesn’t just feel sorry for us or pity us, but he feels our suffering with us. Your suffering is his, and he wants to lift it for you in his Word. I don’t think our limited experience with human compassion comes close to fully knowing or understanding the compassionate heart of Jesus. It’ll take us eternity to plumb the depths of his compassion, but until that time comes, here are 20 Bible verses to start your study.
20 Bible Verses About the Compassion of Christ
- Psalm 103:13 (ESV)
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. - Isaiah 53:3-5 (ESV)
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. - Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. - Matthew 9:36 (ESV)
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. - Matthew 14:14 (ESV)
When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. - Matthew 15:32 (ESV)
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” - Matthew 20:34 (ESV)
And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. - Mark 1:41 (ESV)
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” - Mark 5:19 (ESV)
And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” - Luke 7:13 (ESV)
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” - Luke 19:41-42 (ESV)
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” - John 11:33-35 (ESV)
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. - John 16:33 (ESV)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” - Romans 8:1 (ESV)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. - Ephesians 4:32 (ESV)
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV)
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. - Colossians 3:12-13 (ESV)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. - Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. - James 5:11 (ESV)
Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and
you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. - 1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
All the sad things will be made untrue
When Jesus saw the man who had died, the only son of his widowed mother, he had compassion on her. Perhaps someone in the crowd told him who she was and how this was her last remaining hope of survival. Or perhaps, Jesus, being the God-man, just knew. He knew exactly who she was and the terrible mix of emotions she felt that day. But, looking upon the scene, he felt deeply and approached the grieving mother, saying, “Do not weep” (Luke 7:13).
Under any other circumstances, that would’ve been nonsensical and insensitive, but Jesus knew what he was going to do. He came near and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still, and he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise” (14). And the dead man sat up and glorified God!
The widow in Nain foreshadows our future. Someday, Jesus will make all the sad things untrue. He will reverse the curse that causes us so much heartbreak and pain. But until then, we have a compassionate Savior, who not only loves us but shares in our suffering and provides us with his Word to lift our burdens.
O the depths of the compassionate heart of Jesus! How good is he!
Cara
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