Encountering Jesus | Calling, Compassion & Authority
Encountering Christ: Calling, Compassion, and Authority in the Gospels
There are moments in the Gospels that don’t seem dramatic at first glance—tired fishermen after a failed night of work, a restless crowd trying to make it through another day, a small synagogue full of curious listeners. Yet in these ordinary scenes, people encounter Jesus Christ in ways that change everything.
Across the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, and Gospel of Luke, three themes consistently appear whenever people truly meet Christ: calling, compassion, and authority. Together, they reveal a unified picture of who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him.
Calling: When Jesus Redefines a Life
When Jesus walks along the shoreline and tells fishermen to follow Him, He isn’t offering a side project or a spiritual hobby. He is issuing a call that reshapes identity and purpose.
In Luke’s account, Peter encounters Jesus in exhaustion and failure after a night of catching nothing. The miracle happens not in Peter’s strength but in his emptiness.
Peter’s response isn’t celebration—it’s humility. He recognizes the gap between Jesus’ holiness and his own brokenness. Yet Jesus doesn’t tell him to fix himself first. Instead, He simply says:
“Follow me… and I will make you.”
That is the heart of Christian calling. It isn’t flattery; it’s mercy that tells the truth about us and invites us forward anyway. Discipleship begins with availability, not ability.
Like those fishermen, we all cling to “nets”—sources of security, control, and identity. Encountering Jesus means loosening our grip and allowing Him to redefine our direction.
Compassion: The Heart of Jesus Moving Toward Us
Again and again in the Gospels, Jesus is described as being moved with compassion. He heals the sick, touches those no one else will touch, and gives time to people society overlooks. His response to human pain isn’t distance—it’s nearness.
When Jesus sees crowds described as harassed and helpless, He doesn’t react with irritation. He sees people who need care. His compassion interrupts schedules and challenges comfort. He moves toward messy situations instead of away from them.
This reveals something essential about God: His holiness isn’t fragile. Broken people don’t contaminate Jesus—His presence restores them.
For followers of Christ today, compassion can’t remain abstract or symbolic. Real compassion costs time, attention, and resources. If our faith never nudges us toward inconvenient people or difficult situations, we may be missing the very rhythm of Jesus’ life.
Authority: The Power of Jesus Used to Restore
When Jesus teaches, listeners immediately sense a difference. He speaks with authority—not borrowed opinions, but lived truth. Even spiritual forces and sickness respond to His word.
Yet Jesus’ authority is never used to dominate. It is always used to restore—reuniting people with families, communities, and hope.
Strikingly, Jesus also shares this authority with His followers. But it flows from closeness to Him, not from volume, status, or charisma.
Authority without compassion becomes harsh
Compassion without authority becomes exhausting
In Jesus, the two are perfectly joined
For us, this means the power to influence others grows out of abiding with Christ. Our decisions, conversations, and acts of service gain spiritual weight when they are rooted in relationship with Him.
The Pattern of a Real Encounter with Jesus
An authentic encounter with Jesus often follows a pattern:
His calling disrupts our old assumptions
His compassion heals and reshapes our hearts
His authority sends us back into the world changed and purposeful
We don’t meet Jesus and remain the same.
We don’t follow Him and stay fully in control.
And we don’t receive His compassion only to keep it to ourselves.
The same Christ who stood on that shoreline still meets people in ordinary moments today. He still calls, still moves toward us with compassion, and still speaks with life-giving authority.
The enduring question remains personal:
What is Jesus saying to you—and are you ready to follow?
