Christ's Empathy for Us

I read an article called The Healing Power of Empathy, by Daniel Harrison in which he wrote: "This type of love [empathy] Jesus commands His followers to possess (John 15:12–14)—the type of love that, once it understands what another person is going through, actively seeks that person’s well-being." http://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2008/September/the-healing-power-of-empathy.html

The article was about cultivating empathy to heal the divides between people.  What I took away was the significance of the snippet I quoted above.  It prompted me to look up the passage from John 15, and I found the below, John 15: 1-13 to be very insightful as I read it with a new perspective.

I focused on the word abide.  I read the passage below with the concept of abide meaning - to dwell within, to live within, to be within - which is very much connected to the idea of empathy.

John 15:1-13

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

2 Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away, and every one that bears fruit, he cleanses, that it may bear more fruit.

3 You are now clean, because of the word that I have spoken to you:

4 abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me.

5 I am the vine, you the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.

6 If any one abide not in me, he is cast out as the branch and withers, and they gather it and throw it into the fire, and it is burned.

7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

8 In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: abide in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

11 These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and your joy may be fulfilled.

12 My commandment is this, that you love one another as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this...  http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=36&chapter=15&lid=en&side=r&verse=12&zoomSlider=0

 I don't think I really understood or contemplated "I am the vine, you the branches," even though I've heard it so many times.  Now I think of it as the vine and the branches sharing life, sharing the same water, sharing the same nutrients as they flow within one another.

This is exactly the relationship we can have with Christ, and it is characterized by empathy.  His empathy for us - "These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and your joy may be fulfilled."  It is also what Daniel Harrison said was required to heal divides among people - "the type of love that, once it understands what another person is going through, actively seeks that person’s well-being."