Good Morning All!
Mark
6:34; “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them,
because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
This is one of my favorite verses in the
Bible. A little strange I’ll grant you that,
but it really catches Jesus’ response to the people who had contact with him
during his ministry here on earth.
This verse occurs shortly before the feeding
of the 5000. Jesus and his disciples
were taking a break from their ministry work.
The people around saw Jesus and began to gather on shore where his boat
was going to land. There were thousands
and thousands of people. The feeding of
the 5000 only counted men who were fed.
It doesn’t count women, children, those who went home early; it does not
count the people who “don’t count”.
Jesus looked out on the people as if they were sheep without a
shepherd. Sheep without a shepherd do
not know where to go and not to go. A
flock with no shepherd would have been battered, bruised, bleeding, hungry, thirsty,
and completely lost. The sheep would
have been cut up from the attacks of wild animals, emaciated from a lack of
food and water. These people were not
just gathering for a picnic; they were a beaten down and beaten-up group of
souls.
One of the reasons that I like this verse
is the part where it says “and he had compassion on them”; I think that line
sums up Jesus both in his earthly ministry and his eternal ministry. The word for compassion in Greek is
splagchnizomai and it means to literally have your innards turn and twist and
come out. When you say the word properly,
it feels like that is what is happening.
It means more than pity or sympathy.
It is that “kicked in the stomach” feeling you get when you see or hear
or experience something painful. It is
what most of us felt when we saw a 10-month-old was killed in an accident with
her grandfather driving. It is that
feeling that makes your knees weak and your eyes blurry. It is, for a moment, living it out in our own
life.
Jesus looked out on all those people and
that is what he felt, a pain that not only hurt but a pain that leads to
action. In Matthew’s version of this
passage, Jesus heals many of their illnesses.
Jesus not only saw the pain, experienced the pain but then did something
to alleviate the pain. This is where,
too often, Christians in the US, miss what faith is. In our antiseptic PC world, Christianity is a
messy, dirty business. You must get your
hands dirty. You must see things that are
not always pleasant. You must experience
things that are messy. Sometimes life is
just plain ugly. The death of someone
way to early; the living of someone who no longer knows who they are or anyone
else; sicknesses, diseases, broken and destroyed relationships; Jesus calls us
to get in there and get dirty.
The truly wondrous part of this is that
Jesus wants you and me to do it because he did it and does it and will do it
forever. Jesus came to this earth and
got right down in the messiest parts to reach and to save. He does the same in our lives, usually with
family and friends, and he wants us to do the same. So go out and get dirty and sweaty; have
compassion, have splagchnizomai, for those in need of God’s mercy the most.
Father of mercy, you
shower us with your grace beyond our comprehension and you have compassion on
us. Break our hearts when we see, hear
or experience others in pain. Lead us to
be your arms of comfort, of healing, and of consolation. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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