#3 Caring people take time to PROVIDE

Notice a key phrase in this verse. The Samaritan “had compassion.” “Compassion” comes from a Greek word that literally means “a yearning in the bowels.” Jesus had that same “compassion” for the multitudes.

Oh how God’s people need “compassion” today, a deep empathy, a lump-in-the-throat, I’ll-do-anything-I-can feeling for others. You may think, “If I found a dying man on the roadside I would help.” I hope you would, but that’s not the point. Are we willing to help the wife that lost her husband, the dad who lost his job, the single mother etc…

Two men were heading by dog sled to their outpost in Alaska. They were both in danger of freezing to death. As they were going along, they came upon someone who was apparently nearly frozen. One said to the other, “Let’s stop and help him.”

The other said, “No, if we stop and help him, we will surely freeze to death and never make it.” The one who wanted to help said, “Let me off here and you go ahead.” He got off the dog sled as his companion continued. He tried to revive the dying man by massaging his arms and legs in order to get the blood circulating in his body.

The effort he expended in massaging the man’s limbs gave him the physical heat that he needed to keep from freezing to death. The snowstorm was soon over and the two were safe, but down the path was the other man, dead, with his dog sled… all alone. We are never more like Jesus than when we exhibit compassion.