The Compassion of Christ

Rev.Debbie Cato  
Peace Presbyterian Church
Matthew 14:13-21
August 3, 2014

Our passage begins with “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.”   Whatever “this” was, Jesus wanted to go off by himself;  he needed to be alone.  What was the “this” Jesus had heard?  

Jesus had just heard the news of the brutal murder of John the Baptiser.  At the whim of Herod's wife,  John, Jesus'own cousin, was beheaded and he was sick with grief.  There can be no doubt that Jesus was tired and distraught.  His withdrawal “to a deserted place” was a strategy for self-preservation. Jesus was human.  Grief-stricken and shaken, he needed to get away for a bit.   He needed to withdraw to a deserted place away from the crowds.  Someplace where he could have time to absorb all that had happened.  Someplace where he could grieve the gruesome, pointless death of his counsin John in private; get his thoughts together.  So Jesus gets into a boat, planning to cross the Sea of Galilee, away from the crowds.  

We've all been there before, haven't we?  Bad news.  A difficult situation.  We want to withdraw; isolate.  Be alone.  We need space to think; to grieve; to be angry – maybe even to pray.  I hold really good pity parties for far less reasons than Jesus had that day.  And if I'm really honest, I have to admit that when I'm in the midst of my own grief and pain; when I'm feeling so low or exhausted that I want to be by myself; my primary focus is on me.  Not on others.   Not now, I think.  I have my own problems.  Save yours for later.  What about you?  Can you relate?

The crowds, motivated by multiple personal needs and interests, follow Jesus. When Jesus gets off the boat, the crowds are there with their sick and suffering in tow.  He can't escape.  They find him.  Matthew says that “Jesus saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and he cured their sick.”  Jesus; tired and distraught had compassion for the people and he cured their sick.1             He didn't turn them away.  He didn't tell them to go home; that he was taking a sabbatical.  Jesus own grief and exhaustion did not diminish his compassion to care about healing and feeding those in need.  Jesus had compassion.

Most of the time when we read this passage, we focus on the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  We focus on the five loaves and two fishes turning into enough food to feed five thousand men plus the women and children who were present.  But I think we miss something by jumping ahead.  We miss the reason that Jesus fed the people.  We miss the reason Jesus healed the people.    Remember, he had gotten into a boat to get away from the crowd because he was reeling in grief and disbelief. He wanted to get away to a deserted place where he could be alone.  But the crowd followed him.  Jesus could have sent them away.  He had good reason to.  But when Jesus saw the crowd, he had compassion.  Even his tremendous grief and exhaustion did not take away Jesus' compassion for those in need.  

When it becomes late,  the disciples want to send the people away.  It had been a full day.  

After all, they were in a deserted place, away from the city and sources of food.  Surely the people were hungry.  “Let them find a village so that they can buy food,” the disciples say to Jesus.  But Jesus would have none of this.  “YOU give them something to eat,”  Jesus tells the disciples.  “You give them something to eat.  It's up to you to meet the needs of the people,” Jesus announces.  

The disciples are shocked!  We can understand  because it also shocks us to understand that as disciples of Christ, we too are called to meet the needs of others.  The disciples look around but they can only find two fish and five loaves – hardly enough to feed themselves, much less a crowd of thousands.  Nevertheless, Jesus instructs them to feed the crowd.  Not only does everyone get enough to eat, but there are twelve baskets left over!  The disciples must have been quite surprised that evening at the miraculous power of God's love!2

I think there are several lessons for us to learn in this passage.  Most importantly is Jesus' compassion.  It is a compassion that cares deeply about the most basic needs of all of us.  God, who is the ultimate power of the universe, intends peace in the world, an end to hunger, the well-being of families, and spiritual wholeness for all people.

The second lesson is about being disciples – about the awesome responsibility that God has entrusted to us.  Jesus did not feed the five thousand.  He told his disciples to do it.  God has entrusted us to be the body of Christ – the hands and feet through which God's work is done in the world.  God does not work alone, but through people like you and me.  To follow Jesus is to express our faith in concrete acts of love, justice, and compassion toward others.  It is no accident that Matthew tells us that we will meet Jesus in reaching out to the “least” of our brothers and sisters – the hungry, the thirsty, and the imprisoned.3

Opportunities to be about the work that Jesus calls us to don't necessarily come at the most convenient times.  They are likely to come when we find ourselves most busy, most tired, most fearful about the future.  Often we just have to start.  We may not be able to see the ending – in fact most of the time we can't.  But if we don't at least start, we will certainly never get there.  For the  disciples in this story,  the only logical thing to do was to send that hungry  crowd away.  They could not fathom the possibility that all those growling stomachs would be satisfied with what began as a meager meal.  But they trusted Jesus enough to hand him the five loaves and two fish.  They handed him everything they had and pretty soon it was a party.4 

And finally, this story reminds us that we are doing God's work, not our work.  God will give us the power to work for good in the world.  When Jesus told the disciples to feed the five thousand, the disciples thought it was impossible.  The needs were so great and the resources were so few.  Haven't we felt the same way?  But when the disciples worked together and followed Jesus, they had more than enough.  There was a basket left over for each of them.

Too often we live out of our scarcity.  We think we don't have enough.  We don't have enough money; we think we don't know how; we're scared; we might fail....  we can go on and on with the reasons why not.  But we serve a God of abundance.  We are called to offer our limited resources to him to bless and multiply; not to hoard them for ourselves. We are called to obey Jesus' daring, ridiculous commands and trust that he will provide.   

This miracle of feeding the crowd occurs in all four gospels.  It must be important!  We should probably pay attention.  It is recorded in all four gospels because we need to hear it over and over again.  Why?  

Because over and over again in life, we stand in the shoes of the disciples in this passage:  surrounded by human need, faced with a challenge; thinking the need is too big; thinking we do not have the resources to stand up to the challenge.  Sometimes we feel our only option is to sit in our living room and try not to see the needs; to ignore the challenge.5    That is certainly easier.  But is it the right thing to do?  Does it show compassion?  The compassion of Christ?

The events that took place on that hillside in Galilee 2,000 years ago were a miracle to the disciples and to the five thousand+ people gathered together that day.  However, the deeper message is the miracle of God's love for the six billion people on our planet today and the miracle that we are called to be partners with God. 

   Partners in loving the people he puts in our path.   

        Partners in having compassion and meeting the needs he puts before us.6 

Not out of duty or obligation.  But because of the love and compassion Christ has shown us.  Over and over again.

May His kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.