Oh, to be like Him--sympathetic, reaching out to others in distress!Jesus

 called Himself "the Son of man." He showed compassion toward 

all kinds of people . . . the sinful . . . the rejected . . . the brokenhearted . . . 

men and women . . . little children. The hopeless and the helpless 

looked to Him, and He never failed to meet their needs. As you 

study Dr. Luke's record of the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, you

 will better understand God's compassion and thereby be motivated

 to a greater degree to show loving concern for others . . . and to do 

what you can in God's power to help them in their distress. As never

 before, Dr. Wiersbe believes, God is calling His people to BE 

COMPASSIONATE"Pity is a depressant," wrote the eccentric philosopher 

Friedrich Nietzche. "A man loses power when he pities."Nietzche went 

mad in the year Adolph Hitler was born, but Hitler carried 

on that philosophy. He despised other people and stood apart 

from them. He especially despised the weak and the handicapped,

 and he developed programs for exterminating them. Robert Payne

 wrote, "Even on festive occasions he remained singularly alone,

 the flow of emotion ceasing abruptly when it came in contact

 with him. . . . He demanded for himself an immunity from 

people" (The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler, Praeger, p. 461). 

What a contrast to Jesus Christ, the compassionate Son of Man! 

In his Gospel, Dr. Luke describes our Lord as one who mingled 

with people, including publicans and sinners, and who shared the 

burdens of the afflicted and the weak. Jesus has proved 

conclusively that pity is a sign of strength, not of 

weakness; and that God's power flows through loving hearts.

I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said that if the 

other planets are inhabited, they must be using the earth 

as their insane asylum. Our world is filled with hurting

 people who need a loving touch and a word of encouragement. 

Jesus has put His people here to let the world

know that He cares. His command to us is, "Be compassionate!