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Jesus called His disciples over and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd.”
᛭ INI ᛭
Compassion. That’s what we’re talking about today. Compassion, Jesus’ compassion, the compassion He has toward the crowd that’s following Him. “Having compassion” isn’t just what Jesus does. It’s who He is! “Yahweh is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Yahweh is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Ps 145) He is those things—Jesus is those things—because, as St. John tells us, “God is love.”
“I have compassion,” Jesus says. He has compassion because He is love. And this is why in the entire New Testament only Jesus is described with this verb. When it comes to the narratives in the Gospels, only Jesus “has compassion.” When it comes to the Parables Jesus tells, only the Christ or God figure of the Parable “has compassion.”
Because Jesus is love, He is compassion, and because He is that, well, that means He acts in a certain way. We see Jesus in action today, and we see that
JESUS ALWAYS ACTS ON THE BASIS OF HIS COMPASSION.
(I. We emphasis our merit not His compassion.)
As Lutherans, we’re old hands with the Lord’s compassion. We’re all about the Lord’s mercy, His steadfast love, His forgiveness. That’s, of course, the clearest example of the Lord’s compassion—the forgiveness of sins. It’s what the Lord Jesus confesses about Himself in Exodus 34: “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
It’s good that we’re old hands with the Lord’s compassion. That’s a gift from Him, that, particularly through the Lutheran Confession, the Lord has preserved the preaching of His compassion for the world. (There are, of course, always those who believe that regardless of denomination, for wherever the Good News of Jesus is preached and the sacraments administered according to His institution, there the Holy Spirit works faith.)
Our flesh, our human nature, our human way of doing things, however, is not an old hand at the Lord’s compassion. Even for us Lutheran. Our flesh is the same, our human nature is the same as it always has been since Adam and Eve ate from the Tree that Jesus told them not to. Since then, our human nature rejects God’s Word of Law where He tells us “do this,” “don’t do that.” “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” (Rom 4)
But it’s not just His Law that our flesh doesn’t submit to. It’s His compassion. The God who is love is foreign to us. His compassion, His mercy, His steadfast love is foreign to our human nature, that is, what makes us human. Nothing in the world works like the Lord’s compassion, His mercy, His steadfast love, His forgiveness. We’re hardwired to treat the Lord’s compassion with contempt.
We limit the Lord and His compassion. We work everything NOT by way of compassion but why way of wages and due—what’s earned. In the world, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. There’s always a catch. Nothing’s really free. You get what you earn. Even something like credit card rewards are built on the backs of those who can’t keep up. That’s just the way the world works.
We think that’s how the Lord works, too. That His compassion is earned. That we’re deserving of it, or maybe not. Maybe that’s why life is the way it is for us we think. That the Lord shines His favor on us because well, we’re us. Or that He doesn’t for the same reason. So we’ve either done something to earn it, or done something to lose it. It’s how we treat others—they either gain or lose their favor with us. So, it’s how we think God treats us.
Or we just doubt, like the disciples, and think that the Lord’s unable to keep His promises. “His disciples answered Him, ‘From where is someone able to satisfy them with bread here at a desert?’” The Israelites complained the same way after the Lord brought them out of Egypt: “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?… Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?” (Ps 78:19–20) Moses, too, wondered at the Lord’s strength to care for His people.
(Transition.)
The answer the Lord gave to Moses in Numbers, He says to you. He could’ve said it to His disciples, too. “Is Yahweh’s hand short? Now you will see whether My word will come to pass for you, or not.” (Num 11:23)
He brought it to pass both in Numbers 11 and in Mark 8. Now, in Numbers 11 there was an added aspect of judgment, nevertheless, the Lord cared for His people as they wandered in the wilderness. Mark 8 was pure gift. 7 baskets full of leftovers. Food in abundance for the people.
JESUS ALWAYS ACTS ON THE BASIS OF HIS COMPASSION.
(II. The Lord accentuates His compassion over against our merit.)
It’s why Jesus was out there in the wilderness in the first place. He was there to preach the Gospel to them. Mark tells us in chapter 6: “He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.“ To be in the wilderness to teach, He was first conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He did that “for our salvation.” He did that on the basis of His compassion.
So now in Mark 8, Jesus says, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” Jesus doesn’t wait for anyone to ask for food. He just supplies it. He acts on the basis of his compassion.
What He gives is free gift. It’s always free gift. It’s not only what Jesus does at Calvary that’s a free gift. Jesus shows today that daily bread is also supplied “only out of father, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in” us. They didn’t earn their lunch that day by following Jesus. He precedes them with mercy. He protects them with His compassion. He supplies their daily needs.
His compassion is what drives the miracle. It wasn’t some weird flex by Jesus. He wasn’t just showing off or anything. “Is the Lord’s arm short?” No, He promises goodness. He promises compassion. He delivers what He promises. The miracle shows He’s able to do more than what we think He can do. Multiply bread and fish. Rise from the dead.
The Lord acts on the basis of His compassion for you and for me, too. He promises “daily bread.” With outstretched arms He worked your salvation at Calvary. In our time He still works based on compassion in delivering compassion, forgiveness to you. He delivers it, like the bread and fish, through His chosen ones. The Lord acts on the basis of His compassion at the Font, from the pages of the Bible, from the Pulpit, and at the Altar.
(Conclusion.)
Compassion. That’s what we’re talking about today.
JESUS ALWAYS ACTS ON THE BASIS OF HIS COMPASSION.
It’s how He acted in the Garden of Eden before our first parents rebelled against him. It’s how He continues to act after they did and while our human nature still takes up the rebellion.
From Mana in the wilderness, to bread and fish in the deserted place, to the crops in our day—the Lord sustains and gives it all on the basis of His compassion. The Lord does supply daily bread because of His compassion toward us. His compassion’s on full display not in our full cupboards and pantries, but in His full cross and empty tomb on the third day. His compassion is on display for us in His Word and His Gifts.
No matter how the Lord is acting. It can be supplying what’s confessed in the 1st Article of the Creed or the 2nd Article of the Creed or the 3rd Article of the Creed. “Having compassion” isn’t just what Jesus does, or the Father does, or the Spirit does. It’s who He is! “Yahweh is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Yahweh is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Ps 145)
But, as far as Jesus is concerned today:
Gracious Mercy Blog 