My sermon from Sunday in a blog.
Today I want to talk to you about a guy named Jesus. Have you heard of Him?
Jesus has many characteristics. He is a man unlike any other.
– He is wise
– He’s very straightforward with people, and, at times, even gets sassy with the Pharisees
– He works miracles, healing, casts out demons, and restores people’s lives
But WHY?
That’s what I want to talk about today, is WHY Jesus did what He did, as recorded in the gospels.
– For this blog, I want to focus on the compassion of Jesus.
There are so many examples in scripture where it says he is “moved with compassion,” and that’s why he does what he does.
I would like to think I am a pretty compassionate person, usually when someone asks me for money or food I give it to them, right? I’m starting a homeless ministry for crying out loud. That’s compassion, right?
However, when I’m mad, sick, or depressed, I’m thinking about me and me alone. The person begging for a meal on the side of the road can go deal with his own problems. I have enough to worry about without him.
But thank God Jesus is not like me.
The true test of Christ-like compassion is if we STILL have compassion for people when we are hurting.
Matthew 14:13-21
Context: Jesus just found out that his cousin, John the baptist, a man he grew up with, the man who baptized him, the man who ushered in Christ’s ministry, was murdered in cold blood because King Herod didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of his dinner guests (but that’s an entirely different teaching).
So at this moment, Jesus is distraught to say the least. He has to leave the mass crowds of people to be alone to pray and process what has just happened.
13-14 “When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed Him on foot from the towns. As He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick.
Following this, in v15-20, He proceeds to feed the crowd with only five loaves of bread and two fish. However amazing this is, this miracle of provision is not the point of this blog, so I digress.
Verse 21 reads, “Now those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.”
The number 5,000 there only counts the men, so there is no telling how many women and children were there too. Even in his time of need when he was trying to be alone to process the murder of a close family member, He was so overrun with compassion that he healed all of the sick people in a crowd of most likely 10-15,000, or maybe even more people, no one really knows, when all he wanted to do was be alone to mourn.
Could you imagine? Trying to be alone and 15,000 people show up in desperate need of your help? What would you do? I would probably have a panic attack and run for the hills.
Even when Jesus was deeply hurting, he still poured out compassion on people.
Do we let compassion for people guide our lives? Or is it just something we think about every once in a while, when we are feeling up to it, or around the holidays?
In part two of this blog I will go a little bit into the compassion of the Father. Stay tuned.
Jesus said in John 5:18-19, “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way.”
