Proper 11 (June 21, 2024)

“Compassion”

Goal of the Message: That the hearer be moved by Christ’s compassion, which is not merely a feeling of sympathy, but a response of mercy toward sinners.

Other Lessons: Psalm 23; Jeremiah 23:1–6; Ephesians 2:13–22; Hebrews 13: 7-8, 13:17-21

Mark 6:30–34 NIV84

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” 32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

Sermon Outline

In the ancient Middle East, a shepherd needed certain skills to do his job well: knowledge of edible grasses, ability to trim hooves, capacity to fend off predators, competency to birth lambs. However, the greatest qualification of a shepherd is much simpler. A good shepherd needed to care for his sheep. Without that, none of those other skills would be fully utilized.

In the Bible meaningful ministry is often pictured as a compassionate shepherd caring for his sheep: Jesus’ care for us; a spiritual leader’s care for his “flock.” Certainly, gospel ministry requires specific skills: ability to actively listen to people, aptitude for applying the gospel to someone’s situation, etc.

But ultimately, meaningful ministry requires a compassionate heart—a profound caring for others. An individual might know God’s Word backwards and forwards. But if they lack compassion, they will not fully perform meaningful ministry. Today, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us see how Jesus models a compassionate shepherd’s heart so that we might be filled with that same compassion.

Compassion Is Seeing

Christ observes his disciples as they return from their first effort as ones who were sent: apostles. He knows the demands of their ministry. His observation is not confined to the externals. He knows they need spiritual rejuvenation as well as physical rest.

Christ sees the crowd that ran to him on the other side of the lake. They have come because of their excitement at what they have heard and seen about him. Christ, the Good Shepherd, however, does not cater to what they want. He sees their deeper spiritual need. They are like “sheep without a shepherd.”

Christ observes us as well. He sees our problems and what would truly benefit us. We too sometimes are sheep who wander from our Shepherd. We need his spiritual food but search for it in the wrong places.

Often we stray away from the flock—the church—to go our own way, do our own thing.

He gives us His Divine Service, because He knows our need, yet we many times opt for the pleasures of life, or chores around the house, instead of running to Christ, thereby breaking the Third Commandment.

Our problem is our sin, our craving for self-destructive independence from God. Christ knows it; he sees it in us. He tracks us down and returns us to his flock.

Compassion Is Caring

Contrary to what we may assume, God is under no obligation to meet our needs, real or imagined. Our wants are not what moves Christ to compassion. It is not the needs that Jesus sees in the disciples, in the crowds, and in us that motivate him.

Rather, the compassion of Christ flows from God’s eternal love, which we in no way deserve.

σπλάγχνον — It comes from His guts.

In eternity, before the foundation of the world, God saw that the man and woman he would create would rebel against him and bring ruin to his good creation.

Yet freely in love God still chose to proceed with his creation and immediately after the fall into sin he promised a Savior.

God foresaw that sinful mankind would crucify his Son, yet freely in love God sent his Son anyway to redeem us.

That’s what true compassion is: coming to the aid of someone even though it may cost you dearly.

What is miraculous about Christ’s compassion is that it is directed to unloving, undeserving people.

We may be touched by another’s suffering, but our sympathy is always tainted with our own sinful self-interest.

We show compassion to friends and family—people who can give us something back in return.

Christ’s compassion goes out to sinners who have nothing to offer him in return.

He sees the whole spectrum of our sin; and from within His guts comes the selfless compassion of God’s eternal love for all his fallen creatures.

We all need what God freely bestows only in Christ: forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Who can fully understand the depth of this compassion which drives our Lord? We may have compassion toward someone, but many times it ends there. Not so with Jesus:

Compassion Is Acting in Mercy

The gospel reading certainly has applications for public ministry, but it can also be applied to all Christians, who are just little Christs. Jesus and the apostles are exhausted, they have worked long hours without food or rest. They try to pull away, but the people are desperate and follow. Jesus feels compassion for them that is deep within; he can’t not help no matter how tired he may be.

The application here is not just for the Pastor, but also for the lay person who is exhausted dealing with work and kids and life in general, but they see a neighbor is desperate for spiritual help (without perhaps knowing their true condition). What moves that lay person to expend time and emotional energy to help? It will take Christ-like compassion. And that compassion is produced in us when we see Christ’s compassion for us.

So instead of moving ahead with his plan for rest, Jesus patiently and untiringly turns to the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

He teaches them.

Christ guides straying sheep back to God through proclamation. Throughout his earthly ministry he called people to repent and enter the kingdom of God.

He spoke of God’s love for sinners. He carried out God’s plan to save sinners through the suffering and death of his Son on the cross.

Sheep today still need the shepherding Jesus provides in the teaching of his Word.

Christ pronounces his forgiveness upon us in the absolution and in the Scripture readings. He calls undershepherds to continue his work by forgiving sins publicly on his behalf.

He feeds them. Although our reading ends with Christ’s teaching, the story continues (Mk 6:35–44) with the feeding of the five thousand, which we will hear next Sunday.

Jesus cares for the whole person. His compassion is in action for soul and body.

Today he feeds us with His very self: The most fulfilling bread he gives us is that of his body in the Lord’s Supper. The most fulfilling drink is his blood from the cup. In this meal we are strengthened and sustained as he forgives our sins.

He lives for them.

Soon Jesus would be offered up on Calvary’s cross to suffer the punishment for the sins of the world.

He drank the cup of the Father’s wrath against our sin and demonstrate compassion, even forgiving his executioners (Lk 23:34).

Jesus offered up his life in sacrifice for us and for all. In his cruel death and glorious resurrection we find the answers to the most pressing questions, the solutions to life’s most difficult problems, and the fulfillment of our yearning for God’s love.

Compassion has taken on a deeper meaning. Christ has demonstrated compassion rooted in the eternal love of God. He sees, cares, and acts, and He calls us to do the same. That is compassion in action, and we’re the blessed recipients!