Have you ever wondered if Jesus cares for you? We know from the Bible that Jesus demonstrated compassion for many people, but sometimes, when life’s trials assail us, we may begin to doubt whether Jesus truly cares. Some of you are there now, wondering if Jesus sees you and your situation.

But the Bible assures us that Jesus has never lost his heart of compassion. We read about a display of his compassion in Matthew 14 from verse 13. It was also a time when Jesus was dealing with his own pain; John the Baptist, his relative, had just been beheaded. Jesus was grieving and needed some time alone (see Matthew 14:13). He told everyone to go away, so that he could go and absorb his grief and contemplate his personal loss.

But the crowd followed him and found where he was. I am sure Jesus could be forgiven for being a bit frustrated; he was human, after all. However, we read in verse 14, “As he got out he saw the large crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

The Greeks thought that one’s stomach or inner core was the place where pity and love originated. The Greek word used here for compassion conveys the meaning that Jesus was moved to the pit of his stomach with compassion. This is the nature of Jesus.

Compassion and Wrath

But is Jesus all compassion? Is he a pushover who just overlooks our sin because we are too weak to resist temptation? No, he is also the God of justice, the mighty king who will one day destroy his enemies. We can fall into the danger of seeing Jesus as all compassion and no justice, but he is fully both. Something we need to always bear in mind, the mercy and compassion of Jesus is not at odds with the wrath of Jesus as judge.

Dane Ortlund writes, “The more robust one’s felt understanding of the just wrath of Christ against all that is evil both around us and in us, the more robust our felt understanding of his mercy.”

Compassion and Sin

With that in mind, we must never be tempted to abuse the mercy and compassion of Jesus. When we are tired, having worked hard or simply staying up too late, we are weakened to withstand temptation. Maybe someone has hurt us, and we are angry and offended. It is in these moments of weakness that we can be tempted to justify our actions and excuse our sin. We lean into the compassion of Jesus and rationalize our sin.

When we do that, we fail to remember, or we choose to ignore, what it cost Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus suffered more than any human in history, taking on the wrath of God for our sins. Jesus bore the weight of our sins on the cross so that we could know his presence and be restored in our relationship with the Father (see Romans 6:1-2).

But what about when we do sin? How does Jesus respond to sinners?

With compassion.

In the Bible, Jesus moved towards sinners. He went to the prostitutes and the tax collectors. He is moved with compassion towards those who are bound by sin, because he knows the pain that sin causes. Jesus moves and opens his arms towards sinners, to bring the invitation to repentance and grace through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Compassion and the Church

We read in Matthew 14 that a large crowd had gathered, it was getting late, and the disciples informed Jesus of the building problem. Jesus responds in an unusual way in verse 16, “But he replied, “They don’t need to go. You give them something to eat.

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When I ask people if they know Jesus, most people answer yes. But the reality is that their lifestyle and moral choices do not remotely reflect a relationship with Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to know Jesus? Is he knowable?

In Matthew 11, Jesus was teaching people in the region of Northern Galilee, a region where he had performed many incredible miracles. While the people had seen Jesus do amazing things, most of them did not know him. They loved what he did, but they had no desire to know him.

Many people today know what Jesus did; they can explain the Gospel and that salvation is only found by repenting of our sins and placing our faith in Jesus. But do they really know him? Do we?

Come to Me

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus offers an incredible invitation, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This invitation was so different from the teaching of the Pharisees, who taught a list of things to do and mandated endless rules to follow. Jesus knew the burden of the law of Moses. Instead of piling on more expectations, he invited the people—as he invites us today—to enter into a relationship with the God of creation, where he promises rest.

In 2025 it seemed that burnout was all too common within Christian ministries. I believe that the feeling of ministry exhaustion can be a result of laboring for Jesus rather than with Jesus.

At the start of 2026, Jesus invites us to come to him and rekindle our relationship with him—or perhaps get to know him for the first time. Take my Yoke

Jesus continues in verse 29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

A yoke allows two animals to share a load and pull together. The animals yoked together need to be close in size and weight for the cart or plow to pull evenly. In the Bible, the yoke is sometimes referenced metaphorically to describe the weight of a task or obligation (see 1 Kings 12:11 and Isaiah 10:27). When Jesus speaks of his yoke being “easy”, he means that when we let him share our yoke, our burden is no longer heavy because he is pulling with us. When you work for Jesus, it is a heavy yoke; when you work with Jesus, it is easy.

Jesus invites us to take his yoke, and we will find rest for our souls (see Philippians 4:5b-7). When you are yoked with the Lord, you know the peace of God that passes all understanding (see Philippians 4:7).

Learn from Me

Jesus invites us to learn from him. As we come to Jesus,submitting to his leadership in our lives, we learn from him. We learn his ways, we learn his nature, and we find peace. Do you know what it means to learn from Jesus? The best way to learn from Jesus is by meditating on his word. The Bible is the revelation of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we see Jesus revealed in its pages.

Developing and growing our personal spiritual disciplines is good, but what if this year, our goal is to know Jesus more and to learn from him rather than trying to do more things for him?

His Yoke is Easy

In verse 30, Jesus continued, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The yoke that Jesus has for us is tailor made for us. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and when we are yoked together with Christ, it fits us perfectly.

However, Jesus does not mean that the Christian life will be one of carefree ease. The Greek word for “easy”, can be translated as, “suitable fit” or “kind”. Jesus is saying that his yoke is kind and a suitable fit for our lives, and it will not weigh us down. This does not mean we won’t have challenges in life (see John 16:33); rather, we will be yoked with Jesus through the challenges of life.

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Merry Christmas!

May the Lord bless you and your families this Christmas week, and may you know the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ over your homes.

As we continue our series on the “why” of Christmas, I have three more questions.

Why is His Name Jesus?

As Shakespeare once wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name?” We associate people or characteristics with names. Let’s face it; the reason we don’t like certain names is because we once knew someone by that name whose actions or personality ruined the name for us.

But the name Jesus is a name that means so much to us. Not because the letters grouped together carry any sort of power in themselves but because the man Jesus gives power to the name.

The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Joshua” meaning, “God Saves”. The Hebrew name Joshua and the Greek equivalent Jesus were common names at the time of Jesus’ birth. The name Jesus continued to be popular during the life of Jesus Christ, but after he died and rose again, the name became uncommon.

Historians have found that after the 1st century, the name Jesus simply vanished from use in that region, presumably because the name held controversial meaning following Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection. For early Christians, the name means so much that they felt that no child was worthy to carry the same name as the Messiah. For those who did not believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they did not want their child to be associated with such a controversial character.

The fact that God chose such a common name for His son demonstrates that Jesus came to the earth as a common person. The people of Israel expected their Messiah to come as a mighty warrior; they missed him because he came as a carpenter.

The name of Jesus holds profound meaning for us; we call on the name of Jesus for our salvation, and we pray in the name of Jesus (see 14:13-14 and Acts 4:12). The name of Jesus carries immeasurable power; there is no more powerful name in the universe than Jesus, not because of the name itself, but because of the One, the Christ, who gives the name power.

Why Did He Come as a Baby?

Why didn’t Jesus simply appear as a full-grown man and immediately perform miraculous signs and wonders? Why did he go through all the difficulties and challenges of youth and only begin his ministry when he was thirty?

The teachers of the day, when speaking of the promised Messiah, must have described someone who had the wisdom of Solomon, the charisma and authority of David, the leadership ability of Moses, and the military genius of Joshua. But instead, Jesus comes into the world as a little baby—weak, needy, and humble, just like any other baby.

But Jesus was both God and man. The virgin birth is proof that he was divine; he was not a product of this world—he was God. Being born as an infant shows that he was also human in every way. Jesus went through trials and testing of being a young boy, a teenager, and a young adult (see Hebrews 4:15).

If Jesus had not taken on the form of a man, his sacrifice would have been unconvincing because he would have been aloof and separated from the common man. If Jesus had been a mere man and not God also, he would have died a martyr’s death, just like thousands of others. We can trust this same Jesus with our lives because he knows what we are going through, yet he overcame the world and all its temptations (see John 16:33).

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