A friend asked me the other day what my favourite chapter of the Bible was. We were talking about our favourite memory verses and it flowed from there.

I found this quite hard as I love the Bible so much and I have so many favourites. In the end I had to choose Matthew 8 & 9 as a tie. Matthew 8 comes right after the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had taught some amazing truths and the people were amazed by His teaching and authority.

Jesus comes down the mountain has a number of amazing interactions with people. He heals a number of people, drives out demons, calms a storm, raises a dead girl and finishes with a call to pray for workers to enter the harvest field.

I just love the way Jesus interacts with people as He moves around in these chapters. He meets people where they are at and at their point of need. He listens, responds and then He moves powerfully. Nothing is too great for Him to handle.

A few years ago I did a sermon of these two chapters. It was titled, “Bring your problem to Jesus”. It looked at each of Jesus’ interactions and the results of them. At the end we prayed for people who issues they wanted to bring to Jesus.

If you are interested you can find the notes of the sermon here.

I was reading Matthew 9:9-13 just now. It is the call of Matthew and how Jesus goes to eat at his house with “tax collectors and other sinners”.

The Pharisees found out and could not believe Jesus associated with such people. When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do” (v12).

As I dwelt upon the idea of spending time with outcastes I prayed and asked God to help me with this. He then reminded me of something we did many years ago fairly as new Christians.

Some friends and I were at the Australia Day fire works in Kings Park Perth. After it ended we decided to hang around as there were lots of people and cars trying to go home.

As we sat and talked we noticed a homeless man lying under the bushes near us. We heard him moaning and groaning. My friends and I looked at each other and without a word went over to see if we could help.

At first the man yelled at us and told us to go away. But we said we were Christians and we were worried about him. He rolled over and began to talk to us. We talked about his life, his troubles and his battle with alcohol.

The sadness of his story made us want to bless him right at that moment. My friends looked at each other again, and without a word, we said can we help you get you home. He had a place in a mens shelter he could stay at, He agreed as he could not get home by himself.

Once the crowd had cleared we got him up and took him to my car. He looked and smelled like he had not showered in months, but we got him in the car and headed towards his temporary home.

As we drove and talked we asked if he had eaten. He said no. So we took him to a local drive through that was still open. We got him whatever he wanted from the menu. And we sat and ate in my car. We talked for more than an hour.

After this we drove around the city some more and we eventually took him home. He was feeling better after haven eaten and was able to walk more by himself. We took him to his room and got him settled in bed.

As we were about to go he got up and looked us in the eye and thanked us for treating him so well. We sensed it had been a while for him. He then stood very upright gave us a military salute. Without thinking we did it back, even though none of us had been in the military.

As we drove away we did not say much to each other. But we knew we had made a real difference to him. And the truth is he made a real difference to us. We got to experience what it is like to see someone through the eyes of Jesus and just helping because he needed us to help.

As I type I have tears in my eyes thinking about this. I have not thought about this homeless man for many years. I do not know what happened to him or even if he is still alive. But I know Jesus does. He was with us that night giving us the love and compassion needed to do that task for Him.

Right now I am reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:40, “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

As I reflect on this night way back. I think this is the night Jesus turned on compassion in me for people who were really struggling. I am so glad we stepped out to help this man and not just walked on by. It turned on a compassion that moved me to action and still moves me today.