Even Then

The compassion of Jesus in the book of Luke

By Nathan Dilley, Box 54

 The compassion of Jesus truly boggles the mind. Any other person when put into His

shoes would walk away sourly bitter, vengefully hateful, and full of piercing spite. Christ was

used, taken advantage of, reviled against, gossiped about, beaten, spat upon, accused,

interrogated, whipped, betrayed, lied to, mocked, stolen from, nailed to a tree, and killed. Even

upon evil men, the world has never shown such hate. It is breathtaking to realize that even in

the midst of all of these sins against our savior, he never sinned in return. Not with a thought,

attitude, or action. He remained perfectly good and full of love every minute of His life. This was

an accomplishment unconquerable by any other. How could the world hate one such as this?

John 3:19-20 tells us. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people

loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does

wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”.

The world spat our savior out of its mouth because He was good, and it was evil. Even then, our

savior loved the world. A theme throughout all of the gospels is Jesus loving humanity in spite of

their reviling Him. Even after every time He was taken advantage of, after every time being lied

to, hated, and backstabbed, after every stroke of the whip, clashing of the hammer against the

nails in His flesh, mockery, and curse, He loved them. Even then.

Jesus Christ is all that God desires us to be. Imagine the world if every man and woman

had His love, patience, compassion, care, and kindness. He is the example we must strive to

follow. Though while stuck in our body of flesh we are plagued by our sin nature, God has given

us His Spirit to help us become as much like Christ as is possible while still in this condition. We

see in Jesus how we ought to respond to every situation this evil world throws our way. We see

how to respond when taken advantage of, how to respond when weighed down by such hate,

how to respond when betrayed. There are many other ways as well that we learn from Jesus in

the area of how to respond, but in the following paragraphs, we will see how Jesus responded
to each of these three listed situations, and learn how we can in turn respond ourselves when

confronted with ones similar.

Taken advantage of

We see in the book of Luke time after time of people coming to Jesus simply to take from

Him. Oftentimes people weren’t interested in hearing the wisdom from God, they just wanted to

see miracles, be healed, have spirits cast out, and be entertained. They only wanted to take

advantage of Him. How did Jesus respond? Exactly in line with His character. He would take the

opportunity to teach them while still meeting their needs. He didn’t become bitter that people

were only interested in Him because of what He could do for them. Instead, out of love, He took

the opportunity to meet their needs and teach them. How do we respond when confronted by

someone wishing to take advantage of us? Do we selfishly turn them away, offended by them?

Or do we use the opportunity to be a light and bring them one step closer to Jesus? People will

take advantage of us whether we fight it or not. What matters is how we handle it. When the

situations come, we need to be like Jesus and make value come from it. We can use these

times to either pull people in or push people away. Jesus pulled people in. Even after they made

it clear that they just wanted to take advantage of them, He showed compassion. Even then.

Weighed down by hate

Constantly Jesus faced hateful opposition. As soon as people realized His goodness

and authority, they sought to kill Him. No doubt this was troubling for Jesus. He was their God.

They were people He nourished since He knit them together in their mother’s wombs. He loved

them immensely. Yet they reviled Him so much that they eventually crucified Him. What a

heartbreak that must have been! We see a glimpse of this in Jesus’ heart when He says these
words in Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those

who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her

brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” How did Jesus respond to the hate He was

experiencing? Compassion. Even then. Even after all of the hate, mockery, and reviling, He

showed compassion. Even after they crucified Him, His mission is the salvation of their souls.

What a God. What a savior. What an example. How do we respond when we are hated? Do we

hate back? Get bitter? Revile in return? Or do we show compassion, as Jesus did? Let us follow

the example of Jesus, and love those who hate us. Let us show compassion on the most hateful

of souls, as Jesus did. Even after the whippings, torture, mockery, and shame, our savior

exhibited compassion. Even in the midst of the worst the world could do to Him, during their

murdering of Him by nailing Him to a tree, as they gambled away His clothes while laughing and

scoffing upon His hanging body, He cried out “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they

do.” (Luke 23:34a) Compassion. Even then.

Betrayed

Jesus called Judas, knowing that Judas would betray Him for money. Jesus washed

Judas’ feet, knowing that Judas would betray Him for money. Jesus talked with, taught, sat with,

and loved Judas, knowing that he was going to betray Him for money. How many of us would

act that way toward someone we knew was going to betray us? We may feel that it is pointless

to love somebody that is going to end up like that. We may feel like pouring into him would be in

vain. Was it in vain for Jesus to pour into Judas? We aren’t ones to tell. The fact is though,

Jesus loved on and poured into Judas whether it was in vain or not. He knew what the outcome

would be, yet He chose to show compassion upon Judas. Even as Judas betrayed Him with a

kiss, Jesus exhibited compassion. He could have spoken one word and have Judas drop
lifelessly to the floor. Instead, Jesus let Himself be taken into custody and went to die for Judas’

sins. Compassion. Even then.

What gave Jesus the strength to show such vast amounts of compassion and love in the

midst of such crushing circumstances? Yes, He was God, but He was also man. His humanity

caused Him to need to turn to the father in prayer and read His word very often. We see Jesus

turn to the father in prayer many times throughout the gospels. It seems to have been an

essential part of His life. We know that He also was very familiar with the scriptures because He

had many parts of them memorized and spoke of them often. In order to gain the strength that

He needed to function properly, He needed to pray and turn to God in His word all the time. In

other words, He needed to draw near to God. He couldn’t live the life that He did without the

Father. If Jesus needed to draw near God very often, how much more do we? In order to have

the strength to react correctly to the adverse scenarios we talked about earlier, we must draw

near to the Lord and be filled with His Spirit. We will only be able to function properly in this life

and follow Christ’s example of compassion if we also follow His example in drawing near to Him.

We must turn to Him as Christ did. Meditating upon His word and talking with Him often.

Spending authentic serious time in devotion to our father. Not out of legality, but from a tender

heart wishing to live a life pleasing to Him. If we do this, as we face circumstances of being

taken advantage of, being hated, and betrayed, we can show compassion. Like Christ did, even

then.