Jesus doesn’t offer a realistic model of compassionate love. Christians aren’t really supposed to emulate Jesus. I know that’s the schtick, but it’s not the reality. Jesus exists to give Christians opportunities for moral self-licensing and self-stereotyping, which is the moral candy alternative to actually being a good person. He performs miracles and displays superhuman feats of equanimity (when he’s not cursing figs) not because we are supposed to actually emulate him, which would be impossible, he’s fucking GOD in a fake mustache, but because we are supposed to psychologically transfer his good qualities to ourselves by our association with him. That’s why Jesus stops at telling you what to do, and is silent about how to do it. He knows you’re not really going to do it.

Compassionate love is hard. It’s not just a matter of deciding to do it, you have to know how, and you have to practice. Other religions and creeds that preach and teach you how to practice compassionate love don’t do so for abstract moral reasons. Compassionate love serves the person who practices it.

Christianity offers people a way to feel like a good person without having to do anything, and Jesus doesn’t have very much of meaning to say about compassionate love.