Drawn by compassion!

Reflecting on Mark 3:7-12

“When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him.’ (Mark 3:8)
As a Jesus follower, I am also drawn to Jesus and what He did.
This is the reason why I focus so much on the four Gospels.
I come to these Jesus stories because what I see inspires and compels me.
Some might saying I am ‘crowding’ Jesus too much.
That I am too close to Jesus, and should pull back from the Gospels.

The thing is, I can’t pull back.
Like the people of Jesus’s day, they had plenty of religion and law.
Their whole lives were prescribed by ‘church’ (synagogue, sanhedrin).
But this was not inspiring or compelling them – it was crushing them.
Yet Jesus came healing, helping, serving and blessing.
When He spoke about God, He stressed God as Father, not as Judge.
When He did stress God’s judgment, it was against the religious leaders.

I am drawn to Jesus, like a sick person is drawn to a doctor.
Or like a thirsty person is drawn to a well.
Or like a person in bondage is drawn to a liberator.
Or like a sad child is drawn to their loving parent.

In my experience today, the crowds are not drawn to the church.
Too many have been burned by it, felt crushed by it.
For too many, churchianity has sucked life from them, not given life.
This is not simply because they are worldly, or just looking to sin.
The people around us are desperate, thirsty, but don’t know where to turn.
Many turn to false sources of hope because the church didn’t help them.

When I see the crowds of people around me, I do not seem them negatively.
I see them with Jesus’s eyes, seeing their desperation and need.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)

Jesus does not see the crowds as wolves, He sees them as lost sheep.
It is not that there are no shepherds, but the shepherds are not caring for them.
They’re sheep without a shepherd because the religious shepherds are failing them.
Jesus does not condemn the crowds, He has compassion on them – and they sense it.
He sees their struggle and need, harassed, helpless, and offers them hope and help.

If we would spend more time with Jesus, crowd in on Him, we too would be impacted.
It would heal us of religious arrogance and apathy, and fill us with compassion.
As we experience His compassion more, we would express His compassion more.
And maybe the crowds would actually be drawn to us as well.
Maybe people would be drawn to church if they received compassion, not condemnation.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, may I experience Your compassion so much, that it spills over in my life towards others. May we become more and more a community like You, that draws the crowds because of our compassion.

Silence the demons of condemnation speaking through us, and multiply the workers of compassion working through us.