When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was tempted in all things. He felt pain when He suffered; He felt sorrow when He was misunderstood. He experienced a great deal of suffering and encountered many persecutions. When He experienced these temptations, He had the same feelings as we do. Therefore, He can sympathize with our weaknesses.
The Lord sympathized with man’s weaknesses, but He never sympathized with sin. The Lord Jesus was tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin. He never said, “I sympathize with your sins; therefore, I forgive you.” He sympathized with the weakness of man’s flesh. What is the weakness of the flesh? It is the weakness in our soul. He sympathizes with this kind of weakness. When we suffer in the flesh, our soul feels uncomfortable. The Lord can sympathize with this kind of discomfort.
For the Lord to express sympathy means that He feels what we feel. Do we ever feel what others feel? Have we ever sympathized with others? Many times we can help others, but not have sympathy for them. We do not feel others’ sufferings. When we see them in want, we can render them material help. But we have never felt the suffering in their life. When we see a sick person, we can give him food and clothing and serve him. But we may not feel his pain. Outwardly, there may be the grace, but inwardly, there is no sympathy. This means that we do not feel what he feels.
The Lord is the Lord of grace; He is also the Lord of sympathy. The Bible has two titles for the Lord: the sinners’ Savior and the sinners’ Friend (Matt. 11:19). The title Savior speaks of His redemption of sinners, and the title Friend speaks of His communication with sinners. He can feel all the pain and sufferings of sinners. Thank and praise the Lord. The Lord Jesus is not only the sinners’ Savior, but also the sinners’ Friend! Here we see a little of the riches of His glory. Sometimes we may encounter difficulties. Sometimes we may be lonely. Many people may give us a bad face; many voices may cause us sorrow. Everything around us may seem gray. But we have to know that when the billows roll over us, the Lord is not just our Savior; He is also our Friend! He feels the suffering that we feel. He sympathizes with us and goes through our experiences together with us.
Sympathy was a characteristic of the Lord when He was on earth. The Bible records many examples of the Lord sympathizing with men. He sympathized with the sick and healed them. He sympathized with the hungry and fed the five thousand and the four thousand with the loaves. He heard the cry, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” and He healed the blind. When He saw the grief of those whose relative had died, He resurrected the dead. If our hearts are open, we will see the Lord’s sympathy poured out upon us. Before He was the sinners’ Savior, He was the sinners’ Friend.
We know that our Lord came to the earth to die. If it were us, we would have thought that since our mission was to die, all we would have to do is go through our ordained death. We would not worry about anything else. But our Lord was not like this. Although the cross was in front of Him, before His time had come, while He was on His way to death, He sympathized with those whom He met and who had need of Him. Oh what a loving Lord He is!
If anyone wants to sympathize with others, three things are indispensable: the first is experience. In order to sympathize with others, one must first have the experience. If you are in sound health and have never been sick, you will not be able to sympathize with sick patients. If you have never experienced a toothache, you cannot sympathize with those who suffer from a toothache. If you have never had a headache, you cannot feel the pain of those who suffer from headaches. If you have never experienced a certain suffering, you cannot share the feelings of those who experience such suffering. Therefore, you cannot sympathize with them. Experience is necessary; it helps one to sympathize with others.
A sister once said, “I have many things which are hard to overcome and many things in which I have failed. Eventually, I sought help from those believers who were better than I. But they did not understand my problem. It seems that they were born ‘holy persons,’ and they had never felt the annoyance of failures.” This shows that a person without experience cannot sympathize with others.
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