True love is always observant, and the eyes of Jesus never missed the sight of need. Nobody could accuse him of being like the priest and Levite in his parable of the Good Samaritan. Of both it is written, ‘he saw him’. Yet each saw him without seeing, for he looked the other way, and so ‘passed by on the other side’. Jesus, on the other hand, truly ‘saw’. He was not afraid to look human need in the face, in all its ugly reality. And what he saw invariably moved him to compassion, and so to compassionate service. Sometimes, he spoke. But his compassion never dissipated itself in words; it found expression in deeds. He saw, he felt, he acted. The movement was from the eye to the heart, and from the heart to the hand. His compassion was always aroused by the sight of need, and it always led to constructive action.

—Dr. John R.W. Stott, Walk in His Shoes 6