Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord Jesus Christ,
The key word
for our message this morning is compassion.
I found a dictionary definition that offers a useful guideline.
Compassion means sympathetic awareness of the distress of other people along
with a desire to relieve the distress.
In other words – seeing our neighbors problems and taking steps to help
them. This is Jesus’ frame of mind.
The apostles
have just returned from their first independent missionary journey. They have a lot to talk over with the Lord,
but so many people are coming and going that they can’t have a really fruitful
conversation. Besides, they’re tired and
need something to eat. Jesus understands
their situation; he knows they need rest and privacy. He take steps to provide for them.
Jesus knows
everything and his knowledge never fails.
He knows all there is to know about you and me. You may recall these verses from Psalm 139:
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts
from afar. Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me. If I ascend to heaven,
you are there! I praise you,..wonderful
are your works. Search me, O God, and
know my heart....lead me in the way everlasting!”
Our Lord’s
knowledge is filled with compassion. He
knows out situations – our worries and fears as well as what brings us
joy. He takes steps to relieve our woes.
Anyhow,
Jesus and the apostles found the quiet place they wanted, but they didn’t get
to enjoy it very long after a crowd descended on them. A wise person once said to me that there are
always interruptions, and they can come as great tests, especially if they call
out to us when we’re trying to concentrate on something. Jesus dealt with the interruption of the
crowd in a way that only God could manage.
He didn’t go into hiding, nor did he call for security guards to chase
the people away. He understood their
distress: they had spiritually and hadn’t found anyone to bring their troubles
to. It was at this time, by the way,
that Herod had John the Baptist killed and the murder of a great leader may
have been on their minds as well. As it
was, Jesus understood that the people were like sheep without a shepherd or a
ship without a rudder. He wanted to help
them.
He isn’t
like a highly placed politician or celebrity whom you and I would never dream
of approaching, because they build protective walls around themselves, and
often with good reason. Jesus is
available to us and to everyone at all times.
“Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.” Now, we shouldn’t expect our
earthly leaders to be different from the way they are. They are not God. They are limited like ourselves. If we want someone to talk to at any hour of
the day, we may talk to our Lord and Savior, who knows us and will hear us and
who won’t disappoint us. His compassion
will never falter.
Now, Mark
tells us how the Savior expressed his compassion. He taught the crowd. We make a connection between teaching and
understanding and compassion. We often
associate teaching with school, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Though it may not look like it at the time,
the things we learn in school benefit us for the rest of our lives. Even reluctant students like myself most of
the time come to see later in life that the learning we receive in school is an
act of compassion from God and our society to us. Anyhow, Mark tells us that Jesus expressed
his compassion by teaching. We don’t
know what he said to them, but we do know the sorts of teaching he offered at
other times – about righteousness and sticking with God, about hope and love
and endurance, and the difference between the kingdom of the world, which is ruled
by Satan, and the imperishable kingdom of heaven, which is full of love and
mercy, governed by God, that Jesus brought with him when he was born with our
flesh.
While I was
putting this message together, I thought about how wonderful it would be to have
Jesus as our teacher. Then I realize
that he is our teacher, especially when we choose to pay attention. He knows about the stresses and strains of
daily life, the temptations we pass through, the sins that need to be washed
away, and our questions about death.
“God sent the Son into the world,” he said to Nicodemus, “not to condemn
the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” And later, he said to the disciples as he was
on the way to Calvary, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father’s house
are many rooms...I go to prepare a place for you...I will come again and will
take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Jesus’
compassion for us means that he wants us to have everything that he has –
friendship with the Father, faith and wisdom in our hearts, peace and
rest, and the hope of joy in
eternity. He carried out his plan to
relieve our distress and the distress of the whole world, not only with a
generous nature and loving words, but also with action. He knew that sinfulness stands between us and
God, so he took all the world’s sins upon himself and died to pay the penalty
we can’t pay. He took away our condemnation;
the Heavenly Father seeks peace with the world, not war; the gates of heaven
are open wide to every believer.
We live in
the world; it knocks us around. We may
ask how we can be sure that we’ll stay in touch with God’s compassion. Partly by remembering that faith is God’s
doing, not ours. We don’t come to faith
on our own but by the actions of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord wants everyone to be saved and come
to the knowledge of him, including you and me.
His Spirit will keep us in faith and open our minds and hearts to listen
to him.
We do one or
two things to help ourselves. We cast
our cares and our worries and our sinfulness onto Jesus. We don’t let the troubles or the delights of
the world take us over. Nor does the flutter of the world get the best of
us. The Lord has his reasons for keeping
the church and his people on a humble path.
If we experience hardship and adversity, we know that we are blessed in
the eyes of God.
Another
thing we do with God’s help is to focus our wills on our Savior. Someone said centuries ago that distraction is the greatest
problem anyone faces. There must be
fifty times more distractions in the world today than in the 18th
century. God’s Spirit brings us to
worship and guides us in reading the Bible.
In addition, he blesses us with quietness of heart, persistence, and day
by day faith in God. “Your word is a
lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” one of the Psalmists wrote. “Your testimonies are my heritage
forever....the joy of my heart. I
incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.” Our compassionate Lord makes a steady walk
with him possible for us. He guides us
safely through the vanities and distractions of the world around us. He brings us rest and peace even though the
devil tries to vex us and interrupt us and tear away at our centers of
repose. We are calm in the midst of
storms.
The Lord
changes our minds and wills to want what he offers and then he softens our
hearts to extend to others the compassion he showers on us. Paul wrote that the God of all comfort
comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who
are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by
God. We show compassion to our neighbors
in material ways as we are able. We pray
for our neighbors. We help them carry
their burdens. Companionship often does
a lot. Here’s a story to illustrate. A
farmer was once plowing his field in the spring thaw. After he chugged into one of many muddy
places, his tractor stuck. The harder he
tried to get himself out, the deeper he got stuck. He finally walked over to his neighbor’s
place to ask for help. The neighbor came by, he looked the situation over,
shook his head, and said, “It doesn’t look good, but I tell you what. I’ll try to pull you out. If we can’t move the tractor away, I’ll come
and sit in the mud with you.” We can
define Christian compassion, then, as sitting in the mud with a friend – having
his pain in your heart.
So, to sum
up we say that compassion includes fellow-feeling for others in their suffering
along with a desire to relieve distress and eagerness to spread the word of
God.
Jesus looked
about him and saw thousands of lost sheep who needed spiritual leadership. He carried their pain in his heart. He brought
healing by the word of God. Every
problem has a spiritual root, which the Bible addresses with the truth about
human nature, about God and the work of his Son. There are plenty of lost sheep in the world
today and we help relieve the distress of some by sharing the hope of the
gospel with them. We speak the truth
about God’s love to folks who are spiritually injured, to the troubled, to
wanderers in search of a compassionate guide.
Our Heavenly Father assures us that his word never returns to him empty,
so he invites his to bring his comfort to the folks around us. What a joy to teach the love of Christ. If we want to show our compassion and our
love for others, we do what our Lord did: we make ourselves available to
listen, to help, to encourage, and to share God’s Word, as we’ve all been
doing, I suspect. The point is to keep
on going, trusting that the Lord will sustain us. In his name we rejoice. AMEN.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge of
Christ Jesus. AMEN.
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