August 2

Divine Sympathy

Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha. — Mark 7:34

How it must have saddened the heart of Jesus to walk through this world and see so much human misery! There is a story of a sculptor who wept as he saw at his feet the shattered fragments of his breathing marble, on which he had spent years of patient, loving toil.

Jesus walked through this world amid the ruin of the noblest work of His own hands. Everywhere He saw the destruction wrought by sin. So His grief was twofold — tender sympathy with human suffering, and sorrow over the ruinous work of sin.

It is a precious thought to us that we are so dear to Jesus that the beholding of our grief touches and stirs His heart. What a wonderful revelation it is to us that we are thought of by Him, and that He cares enough for us to be moved to sorrow by our woes and sufferings!

Then Christ’s help does not end in the thrill of sympathy. That is about as far as human help usually goes. People stand over us when we are in misfortune or trouble, and heave a sigh, and then pass on. Sometimes this is all they can do. Human sympathy in suffering is a wonderful help; but the assurance of divine sympathy is infinitely more uplifting. Then Christ gives real help. He was moved with compassion as He saw the widow of Nain in her lonely sorrow, and restored her dead son to her. He wept with Mary and Martha, and then raised their brother. He sighed as He looked on the misfortune of this deaf man, and then opened his ears. He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and then gives “grace to help in time of need.”

Not only does He pity us when He finds us deaf to all the sweet voices of love and grace contained in scripture, but He is ready to open our ears. We have only to bring to Christ our infirmities, and He will take them and give us back in their place souls with all their lost powers restored.