Upper Loft Meditation - Mark 6

“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

There is a lot of talk about compassion today. Everywhere you look there are broken lives and disaster remnants. Daily you can hear multiple cries for help and compassion. With this clamor for attention, it would be easy to become callous and fall into compassion burn-out.

The greater danger is that one loses sight of the meaning of compassion. ‘A compassionate response to suffering requires that one be moved by the suffering of the other, act to remove the immediate effects of the suffering, and respond at length to correct the structures which may have given rise to the suffering itself.’1

Our struggle is usually with the second and third part of this definition. Here is some guidance in addressing this struggle.

• The starting point is always to pray. Pray that the Lord would show you clearly what you are to do.
• Remember that compassion will always include sacrifice. It will cost you more than you expected or budgeted.
• It is easier to be compassionate from a distance, but everyone will at some point be confronted with a face-to-face opportunity. Will you open your heart and your hands or turn away?
• Compassion must confront the structural causes for the suffering and seek their change or removal.

Compassion must always come with the hope you have in Jesus Christ.
New Dictionary of Christian Ethics, ed. D.J. Atkinson & D.F. Field [Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press], p. 244)