Compassion of Christ
Jesus's deep emotional response to human suffering models and motivates Christian compassion.
The Gospels repeatedly describe Jesus being 'moved with compassion' (splanchnizomai)—a visceral, gut-level response to human need. He had compassion on crowds 'like sheep without a shepherd,' on the sick, the grieving, the hungry. This compassion always led to action: teaching, healing, feeding. Christian compassion is not mere sympathy but active mercy that moves to meet needs. Splanchnizomai comes from splanchna, the inward organs — the Gospels locate compassion in the gut, not the sentiments. Christ's compassion flows through his followers to a hurting world.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Henri Nouwen wrote that 'compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish.'
Gospel of Matthew
Written about in
- What Christianity says about grief
The Gospels' word for Jesus's pity, splanchnizomai, comes from splanchna, the inward organs. It places compassion in the abdomen rather than the sentiments. Whatever else this tradition claims, it does not depict God watching grief from a distance.