ESOCS Devotional 16 January 2025 – Jesus os Merciful, Compassionate and Loving
MEMORY VERSE: “And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Matthew 9:2
TEXT: MATTHEW 9:1-22
So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7 And he arose and departed to his house.
8 Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.
9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.
10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”
15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” 19 So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.
20 And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. 21 For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” 22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
Read Other ESOCS Devotional Here
Imagine you and a bunch of your friends are spending time together in someone’s living room, and suddenly you hear a loud thump on the roof. And then, you hear some more noises from the roof and you all look up, and suddenly a little bit of plaster falls down, then a small hole appears in the ceiling. The hole keeps getting larger and larger, more and more plaster keeps falling and you can see hands ripping the hole in the ceiling. Then as the hole gets larger you see faces looking down through the hole. You would never forget that day…
The scriptures says, “Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying” (Mark 2:4); and “But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus” (Luke 5:19).
The guy on the pallet might have been trembling with fear, thinking the owner of the house might attack him. Or thinking Jesus might be angry for interrupting Him. But our passage says, “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” But when Jesus saw “their faith “… He sees the faith of the man’s friends, the paralytic may have had faith too but he may have been struggling with fear or doubt… he had been a paralytic, probably for years and never gotten any better, so he may have not had a lot of faith. I can picture his face… Fearful, doubtful, not knowing what’s going to happen.
Jesus said to the man “take heart, my son …” This shows Jesus’ compassion. What a picture of our God! He is merciful, compassionate and loving.
Have you lost heart? Jesus cares for you, and has pity on you on your circumstances; and looks upon you with infinite tenderness. When He saw the crowd, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt. 9:36). As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him (Psalm 103:13).
Do you believe God is merciful and compassionate toward you? You believe He cares about you? He does. He’s so gentle and kind and merciful. He loves you and longs for you to come to Him.
CHALLENGES
- God will never leave you nor forsake you. But you have to bring yourself close to Him always.
PRAYER POINT
- Lord Jesus, in all my weakness, I pray for your compassion which ceases not. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 21:1-end; 22:1-15; Matthew 9:23-end
ESOCS Devotional 16 January 2025
