Compassion

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

COMPASSION

Matt 14:13-14

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

NIV

Jesus must have been moved within his spirit to want to withdraw privately by boat to a solitary place because of hearing that John was beheaded. We are not told much about any relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist, however, in the flesh, they were related, as both their mothers, Mary and Elizabeth were related and both with child at the same time. Did they know each other as children? Did they both have their bar-mitzvah at the same time? We do know that from the beginning, even in the womb, John was filled with the Spirit and knew he was in the presence of Jesus. Did he carry that sense during their childhood? It seems there was some special connection for Jesus to want to withdraw alone, perhaps to pray, and in some respects mourn, although Jesus would have to know that John would soon be in the presence of the Father, along with Moses and Elijah and who else God deemed righteous, like Abraham. But the point of this narrative told to us is that even though Jesus needed to be alone, the crowd, the people had needs and they had hope in Jesus. A boat crossing the Sea of Galilee could be seen from the shoreline and thus the people were able to follow in the direction of Jesus’s boat and get to the place he landed. It did not matter that Jesus needed some alone time because he also saw the needs of the people and He had compassion for them and healed their sick. There are two truths here for us today. The first is that Jesus is always available to meet our needs. Jesus is never too busy or does not want to be bothered. He has said on several occasions that we could ask anything in His name, and He would do it so as to bring glory onto the Father. In fact, that a time will come, and that could be now, that we could ask the Father in the name of Jesus, and it would be done for us. There is the issue of doubt that can cause us to not receive that which we ask. It did not appear those people who followed Jesus around the lake had any doubts whatsoever, and he healed all their sick. If we have that kind of faith, we can move mountains, we can be healed, we can ask and receive wisdom, understanding, insight into the truth of God, knowing His character, who He is. We can also have healing if that is what we need and ask for. Jesus will always have compassion on us and that is absolutely assuring beyond a shadow of a doubt. The second truth is that if our desire is to be Christ-like, to live a life following Jesus, then we too should put others ahead of ourselves, which we are told to do. We might have some alone time planned, but if we are aware of someone’s need, then should we not put aside our own intentions and heal our brother, meet his need, whatever that may be, of course, it also might be the brother or sister has to express their need, as the people did with Jesus. Because we are not omniscient as Jesus is, we cannot presume the needs of others, or that they want our assistance, therefore a request would be in order. But once that request is made, then should we not set our own needs aside to meet that request? It would appear that the central theme here is compassion.