Jesus’s time on Earth was spent in a mission of redemptive love and compassion for all humanity. But he absolutely did not shy away from controversy or confrontation. He worked miracles and preached openly, and when his messages were ignored…

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” (Matthew 11:21-24)

How can we reconcile the infinite love of God with the condemnation he speaks to sinners? How can we see his compassion in words like these?

Bruce Marchiano faced these same questions, but in a much more personal manner. He had to play Jesus in The Gospel According to Matthew, had to find a way to express the love in those words. In his book In the Footsteps of Jesus, he explains how this led him to pray a very dangerous prayer.

“Lord, show me what it all looks like through Your eyes. 

… And what I ‘saw’ in that moment was not with my eyes – it was something in my heart. And the only way I can put it into words is to say it was

 A sea of people living lives in ways He didn’t plan.

People living lives away from His love, away from His care; outside of His goodness, His embrace, His plans, purposes, and hopes for them. It was so awful a thing – I don’t have words to describe to you how incredibly awful it was.”

“‘Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” I screamed through trembling lips, with sobbing eyes and a gash in my heart. It was killing me. These people were all going to their death – they were all living in death – and they had no idea; and all they had to do was take His reaching hand. It wasn’t, ‘You heathens are damned!’ It was, ‘Open your eyes! Save yourselves! Come to Me!’

It was the desperate scream of a parent watching his own child step off a curb in front of a moving car. If you can imagine that pain, that is what it was. That’s the heartbreak. That’s the compassion.”

“For the first time in my life, I understood what the word ‘compassion’ means when it comes to Jesus Christ. I understood that it isn’t just feeling sorry for people; it’s a heartbreak so intense, so deep it’s like your gut is getting ripped open. It is a heartbreak that screams in utter agony for the needless, pointless pain of people–people who need only turn to him.”

At the heart of everything God does is his great love for us. The love that we can barely begin to grasp or understand. The love that beckons us back to him.

Art: Paula Nash Giltner via GNPI and College Press Publishing Co. / FreeBibleimages.org