What’s the Bible say about compassion of a friend?
No matter what culture we live in, it’s common for us to have friends. Some we grow up with and others we meet later in life. They may differ in compassion, but what’s the Bible say about the Living compassion of a friend?
Jesus encountered compassionate friends
Not long after Jesus started preaching, teaching, and healing people, He entered into Capernaum. Capernaum was a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee that was a center of trade. Jesus had spent much time in the area preaching in synagogues and was known by the people. However, there were religious leaders that were not happy, so He left but later came back.
When Jesus came back, He entered a house and there was excitement. So much excitement that crowds pressed in to hear Him. This left no room for them to fit inside the house as follows:
Mark 2:1-2. “And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.”
Four friends that showed compassion
Before long, four men carried a man to the house on a stretcher that was sick with the palsy. Palsy is a condition where someone suffers from paralysis. Often palsy is caused by an injury to their head and spine, or it might be from a stroke. In any case, this man could not walk.
Since they could not enter the house because of the crowd, they literally climbed up on the roof. Once there, they made a hole in the roof and lowered their friend down until he was in front of Jesus as follows:
Mark 2:3-4. “And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.”
We can imagine what it would be like if someone came to a gathering at our house and made a hole in our roof. But if someone made one big enough to lower someone down to the floor, it would probably cause a very unfriendly response.
What would motivate a friend to do anything like this?
There are two things to consider about these friends. It is obvious, they must have known the man, or they would not have carried Him on a stretcher in the first place. What would motivate a friend to have the compassion to do this?
- Friends don’t look at the circumstance, they look at the needs of the individual. In verse three, they carried him there on a stretcher. We do not know how far they walked, but they were devoted friends who had compassion for their friend. So, they covered the distance and navigated through the crowd.
- Friends are not deterred by obstacles. In verse four, they demonstrated they had faith in Jesus to heal their friend. They were determined to overcome any obstacle to bring their friend to Christ.
What can we learn from the man with a palsy?
The man with the palsy was disabled by a condition that physically paralyzed him. We can imagine how he suffered from it. Some of us may even have a similar disabling condition while some of us may even be able to do amazing physical things. However, what we all have in common is that every one of us have been Spiritually paralyzed. Jesus spoke about this as follows:
Luke 4:16-20. “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down.”
We can read on about what was said next, but it resulted in the local religious leaders losing their minds. They rose up to throw Jesus off the top of a hill, but He escaped right through them. Their behavior is reflective of being Spiritually paralyzed.
What does it mean to be Spiritually paralyzed?
To be Spiritually paralyzed means that we cannot help others or even ourselves if we will not let God help us. We see this played out in the account of Jesus raising a friend named Lazarus from the dead as follows:
John 11:30-33. “Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. 31 The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. 32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.
We see here that Jesus was headed to the town of Bethany to meet the friends of the family of Lazarus when He heard of his death. Martha, a sister of Lazarus, met Him before He got there and told Jesus what happened. Her sister, Mary was at their house where Jewish friends were comforting her but she left to go to the grave of her brother Lazarus.
When Jesus approached, Mary fell at His Jesus’ feet and said that if Jesus had been there, her brother, would not have died. Jesus saw them weeping, which caused Him to groan, and He asked where Lazarus was buried:
John 11:34-45. “And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! 37 And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? 38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. 40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. 45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.”
We see that there was some doubt about what Jesus could do, despite many witnesses being there of His previous preaching and miracles. This doubt left them Spiritually paralyzed, and He was about to deliver them from it.
How does Spiritual wholeness affect our care for others?
We see that Mary and the people knew Jesus. They wondered aloud if He could have healed Lazarus to prevent him from dying. This did not deter Jesus. Much like the devoted friends that brought the sick man with the palsy to Jesus, He was devoted, not deterred.
We see Jesus was devoted to healing His friend and not letting the obstacle of the grave; four days of rotting stinking flesh; or the graveclothes and wrappings stop Him. We also see that these people of faith believed Jesus could do what was needed to save Lazarus. They did not know how, but they trusted in what He said. They were not Spiritually paralyzed, because Jesus had a “Living” compassion for them.
How can we have a “Living” friendship?
We have a Living friendship, when we trust Christ as our Saviour. Trusting Christ as our Saviour results in the Holy Spirit coming into our lives, and makes us born again into the family of God. This makes us friends with God and He enables us to do all things through Christ to included. This includes having a “Living” compassion for others that may not even be our friends. In other words, the Living compassion of God heals us and makes us seek the same for others. For more, see the following articles:
What can we do as friends with Living compassion?
Once we are free and healed from being Spiritually paralyzed, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled with Living compassion to do the following:
- With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are no longer unable or unwilling to associate with the Spiritually paralyzed we don’t get along with. Instead, we develop an interest to help them and become devoted to their well-being (Mark 2:1-2)
- With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are no longer unable or are unwilling to do what needs to be done to help the Spiritually paralyzed to overcome obstacles. Instead, we can make personal sacrifices to not just say we will help with their needs, but commit to doing whatever is needed to help them (Mark 2:3-4)
- With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit to not be afraid, but to rely on His power, and make our thinking sound (2 Timothy 1:7-8)
- With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to amaze people by helping them to rely on the power of God in their lives and see their reactions to the visible changes they experience like those in the same story (Luke 5:18-26)
- With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to guide the Spiritually healed in leaning together how to live daily with our believing brothers and sisters and friends (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
- With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to see the Lord overcome doubters as He did in the rest of the story of the healing of the man with palsy (Mark 2:6-12)
Final thoughts
We are enabled to have a Living compassion of a friend because we have a Friend in Jesus. His friendship is a “Living” friendship that never ends. This is why we are called to liberty as follows:
Galatians 5:13-14. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
The relationship we have with Jesus is also the theme of the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” We can learn and sing this hymn to remind us of His Living Compassion as our Friend. Click on the image below to see the lyrics then you can find the music to sing it with:
Dr. Michael L. Williams, Head of Ministry Operations and Technology at Christianity Every Day, is a Christ-centered Author, Educator, Biblical Counselor and Advisor. He is ordained in Pastoral Ministry and formerly the founding Pastor of Selah Mountain Ministries, a church started along with his wife, Pamela Rose, after several years of pastoral experience and training in Biblical Counseling. Selah Mountain provided Biblical counseling and education to the public on how to overcome life issues Biblically on topics such as anger management, marriage, addictions, and other subjects – often referred to as mental illnesses. To learn more about Dr. Mike visit the About page.
