Variety: Matthew 14v14

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed those who were ill. Matthew 14:14

Among his other functions it is clear that Jesus functioned as a prophet. In both his teaching and his very presence, Jesus of Nazareth presented the ultimate criticism of the royal empire consciousness…. The way of his ultimate criticism is his decisive solidarity with marginal people.

Jesus in his solidarity with the marginal ones is moved to compassion. 
Empires live by numbness. Empires, in their militarism, expect numbness about the human cost of war. Corporate economies expect blindness to the cost in terms of poverty and exploitation. Governments and societies of domination go to great lengths to keep the numbness intact. 
Jesus penetrates the numbness by his compassion and with his compassion takes the first step by making visible the odd abnormality that had become business as usual.

Walter Brueggemann