Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Matthew 1:41
Working for a non-profit, you often use and hear the word "compassion." However, on this Good Friday, I wondered what would happen if I prayed, "Lord, today, for one day, open my eyes and allow me to see others as Christ saw them."
I truly believe that we, as humans beings, are incapable of fully seeing with the eyes of Christ. Not only because our pride too often gets in the way but also because the burden of that compassion would be unbearable.
When Christ looked out over the multitudes of those gathered to hear Him speak, He didn't just see their motives and their attitudes, the secrets of their hearts. He saw beyond what they were to what they had been. To what they could and should have been. He saw them as children, full of potential and possibilities. He saw the gifts they had been given. And how those gifts had been squandered. He saw the paths they had chosen. And how every step had only taken them further beyond even the hope of rescue.
The scars of sin...what ugly marks they must leave on the human soul. And those are the scars that Christ took upon Himself, for us, on the darkest day in human history.
Praise God that in the moment when the full ugliness of man's heart was revealed to His creator, Christ did not turn away. He spread His arms in surrender and bore the weight of that ugliness and the consequences of our sin on the cross. He dragged that darkness into the grave and left it there when He rose again.
So that we could know rescue. Because Jesus Saves. Only Jesus Saves.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:8-13
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