Contra-Compassion

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
- Mark 9:22

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
- Matthew 14:14

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
- Mark 6:34

Like so many other things in this world, the word Compassion has been hijacked. When I say compassion, probably what comes to mind is walking in a city or town, feeding homeless. While that is true, the original greek in Mark 9:22 indicates a deep sense of pity, the problem here is the sense of pity that causes action is often spurring the wrong kind of action. I surmise that the reason behind that has to do with the source of the compassion we feel. There’s a whole lot of talk about compassion in the sense that “we are all a part of the human condition, we should take pity on those less fortunate than ourselves.” While that is true for the unbeliever, there is a real difference between the compassion we feel naturally, or from social pressure, and the compassion that Jesus felt.

Understand this: Jesus had and has the answers to all our problems. Jesus describes himself as “The way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). When Jesus saw people and felt compassion (deep guttural pity down in his guts is how it’s described in the original Hebrew), part of his response was an awareness of just how far we have fallen from the original plan of God. But also, Jesus had the answers to every problem they faced and then went ahead and solved their problems.

Recently, I was honored to go and speak to some colleagues in my industry in the biggest city in my state, Seattle. One of the nights, my team was driving back from dinner and were going to make a quick stop at a Walgreens in downtown to get a contact lens case for one of the team members. As we got closer, we saw 50-80 people on one side of the street and probably another 40-50 on the other side. Just milling around, trading drugs, doing drugs, probably talking about and thinking about drugs and getting high. My first thought was “why are they here?” Most of them could work, they seemed fit, other than the drugs, so why not get a job? They were all firmly gripped by the throws of addiction and steeped in sin.

I then thought about how we got to this position in Seattle. Liberal policies to “let them have their drugs” because “They aren’t hurting anyone” or whatever social justice nonsense reason they pushed at the time. The issue here is the problem is not solved, it’s indulged. Imagine someone drowning and a lifeguard doesn’t give them a ring to float and get them out, they instead throw a bucket of water on the person. This is the kind of compassion is not the same as what Jesus showed.

To get to this what I will call “Contra-Compassion” (meaning it’s not the way the world looks at it.), we have to begin seeing compassion the way Jesus did. Instead of indulging, we need to give them the answer to their problems. Jesus.