Jesus - Compassion Embodied

I was thinking on this whole idea of compassion again and was reminded of a certain story, found in John 11. Lazarus had died, and Jesus was on His way to Bethany to eventually raise him from the dead:

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone."

Jesus saw the anguish that death brought to this household. He saw the sorrow and the weeping. And when He saw Mary and the Jews who were with her weeping over the situation, He groaned and was troubled. It pretty much broke His heart to see these people crying and broken over Lazarus's death. And do you know what's written here in the margin of my Bible? It's the word, "compassion." I can see here Jesus aching for these people. He cries for them in verse 35. Those Jews then said, "See how He loved him!" I don't know if they perceived that possibly He was crying for all these people...how that His whole creation was subject to sin and death, and that this broke His heart. Jesus was hurting because His people were hurting.

Question to ponder:

Are you hurting? Do you think Jesus aches for you because you are hurting?

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One of my favorite verses is Revelation 21:4: "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Why is that? Because Jesus had compassion on us.