I’ve been thinking a lot about compassion and how much it depends upon understanding. This comes up a lot in my job, in which I interact often with folks from varied walks of life including generational poverty. I have worked hard to understand the realities of generational poverty, it’s causes, it’s culture and with this increase in knowledge, my empathy for people trapped in poverty has increase exponentially. Still, I wonder if this is always the case.
Christ seems to have modeled, not only compassion, but also real understanding of the plights of man. It could be argued that this was one of His primary reasons for coming to earth, to be in it with us! If this is the case, if Christ Himself felt compelled to not merely sympathize but also empathize, then shouldn’t we follow His example?
Nonetheless, some people just have it, a God-given, Spirit-breathed desperate love for a people or person that they know very little about. Perhaps it wouldn’t be sustainable or particularly effective long-term if they didn’t add knowledge and understanding to it. But it’s there, inexplicably, before they’ve learned much of anything. Perhaps we have an intuitive understanding of certain groups or individuals and because of that the seeds of compassion start growing. When they are watered with an increase in understanding, great things happen. 

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.