In Benjamin Warfield’s essay The Emotional Life of Our Lord, he states that the emotion most often ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels is compassion. This is no mere emotion either, compassion is a movement of the heart and body as an act of love. It was Jesus’ compassion that healed the humble leper in Mark 1:40-42. It was Jesus’ compassion that fed the 5,000 hungry men who had traipsed around the Sea of Galilee in an attempt to keep up with Jesus (Mark 6:34). For the lepers, tax collectors and ‘sinners’, Jesus’ compassion overwhelmed them to the point that they became His most dedicated followers (witness the man born blind standing up to the authorities in John 9:13-34!). Even when Jesus was met with a proud, rich young ruler, it is said, ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him’ (Mark 10:21 NIV). 

It was Jesus’ compassion for poor, lost sinners that led Him into this world to die on a wooden cross. Warfield says: ‘Love lies at the bottom of compassion.’

Sometimes it seems like the emotion most missing from Christian hearts these days is compassion (and I include my own heart in that too). Whether it be the beggar we hurriedly cross over the street to avoid (Luke 10:31-32 should convict us here) or simply our inability to listen before we speak (James 1:19), we should examine our hearts and lives daily to see if we are in-tune with the compassion-filled Christ of the Gospels. A few quid slung into a charity box from time-to-time may assuage your conscience but that is not the self-sacrificing love of Jesus.

We live in a world that obsesses over growth and progress, yet whose only metric for the wellbeing and success of a country seems to be GDP per capita. It can be difficult to escape the individualistic mindset. It might just be me, but it seems the prevailing response to most issues in this country is that ‘it’s not my problem’. When did we stop caring?

‘The weightier matters of the law’

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy’, says Jesus in Matthew 5:7. The Greek word for mercy comes from the same stem as that of compassion. ‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,’ Jesus teaches his disciples to pray (Matthew 6:12 KJV).

In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus gives us an impression of the opposite: a servant is forgiven an enormous debt through the mercy of his king, but then the same servant fails to show the same mercy to another servant who owes him a far smaller sum, beating and choking him before having him thrown into prison. When this is brought to the king’s notice, the king is enraged and puts the first servant into prison until he can pay back his debt completely.

An unmerciful, uncompassionate Christian is a contradiction in terms (James 1:27; 1 John 2:6). This cannot be; ‘every good tree bears good fruit’ (Matthew 7:17 NKJV). God our Father in His boundless, compassionate mercy has forgiven us a beyond-imaginable debt. The least we can do is to offer our fellow human beings something of the same.

The love of God is the first, greatest commandment, and ‘the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22:39). Jesus asked: ‘“Which of these three [the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan], do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise”’ (Luke 10:36-37). Yet how many of us can be like the priest and the Levite, caring more for their own ritual (or doctrinal) purity than for a fellow human being? At least the priest and the Levite had an excuse – albeit a pathetic one – but what excuse do we have for avoiding the poor and needy at all costs? I don’t know what our equivalent of the Samaritans are today, but do we let Muslims, atheists and Sikhs put Christians to shame?

Too much of practical Christian religion today seems to be a box-ticking exercise: give some money to the church, tick; fill a slot on the tea and coffee rota, tick; help out on the music team, that’s more than most do, bonus points! Without wishing to downplay any of these activities, sometimes church can feel less like ‘[making] disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28:19) and more like just a slightly spiritual social club. 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Matthew 23:23

There are many ways we ought to show compassion, firstly to our own families (1 Timothy 5:8) and to our fellow members of the body of Christ (John 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). In this post, however, I want to consider a very neglected group of people in much need of our compassion (Matthew 5:47).

‘The least, the last and the lost’

Throughout history, the Evangelical faith centred on the Gospel has primarily manifested itself in the faithful preaching of the Good News but also in radical, self-sacrificing love for the lost. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave us William Wilberforce, Hannah More, William Booth, Elizabeth Fry and George Müller. Full of compassion for slaves, orphans, prostitutes, widows, prisoners, the illiterate, the oppressed and the poor. They did justice, loved kindness and walked humbly before their God (Micah 6:8) in service to marginalised and deprived people such as these. Today it seems their legacy is mostly only a distant memory.

Mez McConnell, founder of 20schemes, says that the poor in the UK are ‘the least, the last and the lost’. In his convicting book of the same title, Mez says that the largely educated, middle-class Evangelical church is abdicating its responsibility to the needy in society, to those on benefits, to those living in council housing estates. If there is a ministry to such then it is a pop-up soup kitchen, food bank or other relief work, which he suggests – whilst good in the short-term – are ultimately sticking plasters and not long-term solution. Helping a family with some groceries for the week is one thing. A great way to help no doubt that makes you feel good too. But supporting that family through relationship breakdowns, domestic abuse, mental health crises, drug addiction, finding employment and leading them to Christ and ministering to them through many a difficult year as part of a local church is another matter altogether.

Based on his own background and experience working in Scotland’s housing schemes, Mez’s call is to radical action. To stop sugar-coating and white-washing the problem (Ezekiel 13:10). To cut out the virtue-signalling, paternalistic and patronising ‘mercy ministries’. To get back to the basics of local churches preaching the gospel and meeting those in their communities where they are at with the patient and compassionate love of Christ. To take on the task of discipling people, even ‘stupid and annoying people’! McConnell argues that British Christians have become soft and complacent. How many of us would be prepared to uproot our comfortable middle-class lives ‘to live and die on our council estates and schemes for the sake of Jesus’?

‘Start right here’

‘We keep our missions overseas, but for the hurting in our cities would we even cross the street?’ asks the Casting Crowns song:

But church if we want to see a change in the world out there
It’s got to start right here
It’s got to start right now

There is a whole class of people in the UK who are untouched by the church and the wondrous good news of Jesus Christ. Thousands of young people are dying of drug and alcohol abuse each year. ‘“No man careth for our souls” is written over every forehead.’ ‘How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?’ (Romans 10:14). Who will take the gospel to them (Isaiah 6:8)?

Jesus is our Lord, our Saviour and our example. He has promised the help of His Spirit to His church (Acts 1:8). Our efforts may seem feeble and we need to work hard to cultivate that Christ-like compassion, but Jesus assures us that ‘even a cup of cold water’ will not be without its reward (Matthew 10:42). We are the body of Christ, His hands and feet on this earth. ‘Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (Amos 5:24).

So many testimonies of those who have come to faith mention various ‘chance’ encounters with followers of Christ (how many people do Pilgrim and Christiana meet along the way in Pilgrim’s Progress?). Whether it be a kind word in season, a gentle pointing to the Saviour, a simple gift of food and hospitality, a sympathetic ear or the long-suffering love of a local church family, let’s all do our part. It’s better to start small than not to start at all. Let’s pray and ask God what we can do.