Compassion

Brethren, I want to ask you, what comes to mind when I mention the name Jesus Christ? Now, it might be a lot of things. You might obviously think of His sacrifice. He paid for the sins of all mankind. He paid for my sins and yours. You might think of John 1, verse 1, where it talks about, in the beginning was the Word. He was God and He was with God. He existed eternally with the Father. He is the one that spoke the words, Let there be light. And it was so. Thinking of His earthly ministry that followed, you might think of Him as that strong teacher that called the Pharisees a brood of snakes and hypocrites. He came into the temple and chased out the animals, overturned the money changers' table, saying, You've made my house a den of thieves. It should be a house of prayer. And thinking along those lines of a strong leader, you might think of Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. He'll return to this earth when He comes, not as a meek sacrifice this time, but as leading armies of angels and of the resurrected saints to rule the earth. He'll vanquish all armies, rule with a rod of iron. Now, we think of those things especially in the fall Holy Days that are upcoming. There'll be time to focus on that. And all these things are accurate descriptions of Jesus Christ, important ones. But I want to focus on something a little different today. Sort of go back and remember a gentler side, specifically as He demonstrated it during His earthly ministry. And sort of look at some of these things about Him that, to be honest, a lot of this I took as instruction for me, and I'll share that with you as we go, and there are lessons for us to learn. Let's consider the compassion of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's compassion. Now, we're going to note that He can mix compassion with strength. And for our first Scripture, let's turn to Matthew 12. Matthew 12 will begin in verse 16. Now, what we're going to be reading is a prophecy, and it's quoting from Isaiah 42, verses 1-4.

I thought about turning there, but no reason to read it twice. It says just about the same thing. But this is quoted after Jesus had worked some particular miracles that could have brought great renown. And of course, a lot of His miracles did bring great renown, but it's interesting He wasn't always looking for that.

In verse 16, well, I'm cutting in after He worked His healing, He said, He warned them not to make Him known. He didn't want the people that He'd healed to go publicize it, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon Him, and He will decree justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. See, He didn't come to be a rabble-rouser.

He wasn't out picketing and holding signs and making a lot of noise. A bruised reed He won't break. That's a reed you might lean on if it's already damaged. He didn't come to finish breaking that. A smoking flax He will not quench. Till He sends forth justice to victory, and in His name will the Gentiles trust. So at that particular time, it says Christ was going to come not to be a big, flashy person, getting a lot of attention and making a lot of noise.

He came for some different purposes. But let's make a contrast. Before we get to some of the examples, I'd like to turn to the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah 1, beginning in verse 2. Now, Zephaniah, if you're like me, is in a book that you spend a lot of time with. It's near the end of the minor prophets, just before Haggai and just after Habakkuk, I believe.

So it's a Z in between those two H's. To demonstrate what Christ can do, and this is future prophecy, but Zephaniah 1, beginning in verse 2, it says, I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land, says the eternal. I'll consume man and beast, I will consume the birds of heaven, the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I'll cut off man from the face of the land, says the eternal.

I'll stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I'll cut off every trace of Baal from this place. The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests, those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops, those who worship and swear oaths by the eternal, but who also swear by Milchom, that's the name of a false god, those who have turned back from following the eternal and have not sought him nor inquired of him. It says, Be silent in the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the eternal is at hand. He has prepared his sacrifice and invited his guests.

What a stark contrast to, I won't quench a smoking flax or break a bruised reed. It makes me think of Ecclesiastes 3, where it says, For every time there's a season. There's a time for this God of strength that will just wipe everything off the face of the earth, but also a time for punishment for the tender side. Let's look again to turn back to Luke 4. Luke 4, beginning in verse 16. I'm going to go back and forth a little bit here at first and then settle down in the New Testament.

So, work your fingers early and then they'll rest in a bit. Now, this is very early in Jesus' ministry. You know, after he'd been baptized by John, spent the time in the wilderness, tempted by Satan, he comes back and... and we'll see, it says in verse 16, He came to Nazareth, where he'd been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. So he does this normal thing. He comes into the synagogue on the Sabbath, similar to the way we are here.

Now, the custom then was not necessarily to have one rabbi get up and give a long sermon, but apparently they would take turns and different men in the congregation would read part of the Scriptures. So it's his turn and it says in verse 17, He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he opened the book and he found the place where it was written, this, and he read, The Spirit of the Eternal is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has brought me, or he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he closed the book.

It was a scroll he rolled up and he handed it back to the attendant, and he sat down. And it says, everybody was looking at him because they knew that he'd stopped in the middle of a section that he was reading. If you will, let's turn to Isaiah 61 and see what he didn't read. Isaiah 61, beginning in verse 1. I think it wasn't just an accident, or Jesus didn't run out of breath and said, oh, I can't read anymore, and he stopped.

There was a part of that that he thought, it's not time for that. This will sound familiar. Isaiah 61, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Eternal has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, an opening of the prison to those who are abound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Eternal. When Jesus Christ stopped, what he didn't read was, and the day of vengeance of our God. He didn't read that about the vengeance of our God, and it wasn't that he didn't know about it or couldn't do it. Vengeance of our God sounds much more like what we just read in Zephaniah, where he says, I'm going to consume everything off the land.

But he thought, that's for another time. During his earthly ministry, Christ was more interested in what comes after, to comfort those who mourn, and to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes. That's an important thing I want to think about, that beauty for ashes, comforting those who mourn. Let's look at another prophecy. Since we're near here, skip a few pages towards the back to Jeremiah 4. Jeremiah 4 and verse 27. Both of these aspects are part of God's personality.

Jesus Christ, of course, Christ and the Father were one, and he said, we're one. We agree completely. So it's not that God the Father is up there saying, let me wipe them out, let me add them. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, they're both one. That's just, there's a time for that strength and a time for punishment. There's a time for comfort. And God mixes those together in perfect balance, as he always does. Jeremiah 4, verse 27, thus says the eternal, The whole land shall be desolate, yet I will not make a full end.

I'm going to wipe them all out, but I'm not going to wipe them all out. Now, luckily, he didn't say it like that, because that would be a contradiction. He says, the land will be desolate, but I won't make a full end. And almost every prophecy of the punishment on the nations, God includes this note that I'm not going to do it all the way. I'm going to save some. And of course, we know his great plan for mankind includes giving everybody an opportunity for redemption.

Anybody that will repent, that will turn to him, will have their sins forgiven. So we want to remember that aspect of God's personality. Strive to build that in our life. Now, I've been looking at words and telling you he does that. Let's spend some time looking at examples. It's an old adage in journalism where they say, show, don't tell. I can tell you all I want, but if you show it, that means so much more. Let's look at some examples and see how Christ showed his mercy and his compassion. Some of the most clearest are through stories of his healing. So that's where we'll start in Mark 1.

In Mark 1, I'm going to begin in verse 39. How did Jesus Christ practice these aspects of his personality? Here in verse 39 it says, He was preaching in their synagogues, throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons. Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

Now, how many of you have ever had a leper walk up to you on the street? I'm guessing I never have. Now, we don't see that very often, but lepers were more common at that time. Let's think about what happened. What was Jesus facing? Now leprosy we know today is caused by a bacteria. It's an infectious disease, and I was doing a little research on it, because I sort of knew what leprosy was. I hadn't looked at it that deeply, but it turns out most people are naturally immune to it. But they didn't know that at the time.

All they knew was that you could catch it, and if you got leprosy, it was bad. It would disfigure you. Oftentimes, if people had it for very long, their cheekbones would start to collapse and sink in. They might get sores and tumors on their face. It could cause a rotting of the fingers and toes, to the degree that they could start to come off. And you imagine if that's happening, it's probably not a pleasant smell that accompanies the person. Leopards were ostracized from society, because people knew that you could catch it. They didn't know how to heal it.

All they knew was, if you're around someone that gets it, you might get it. And nobody wanted that. So they were often forced to wear distinctive clothes, something that would stand out so you could see from a distance, a leper's coming this way, I'm going to get far from him.

They were forced to live in separate places, what we might today call ghettos, or separate colonies. So when this leper came up to Jesus, he was doing something he wasn't supposed to do. He was supposed to keep his distance. And nobody would have thought ill of Jesus if he'd have said, whoa, no, I don't want anything to do with you. People would have expected him to do that. That's what people did. Jesus could have shunned him.

But, read in verse 41. When Jesus saw him and the guy kneeled down and said, if you will, you can make me clean, Jesus was moved with compassion. He thought about, he was moved with compassion. He saw and perceived how this man had suffered. He might have had physical pain, but think of the emotion to be shunned. Perhaps he had been married.

Perhaps he'd been married before he came down with leprosy, and he had to separate from his wife. Perhaps leave children behind. He might have suffered, he might have already lost fingers and toes. He might have been hideous to look at. And imagine the embarrassment of people sobbing when they see you, and people going far around to stay away from you. So that's why when it says Jesus was moved with compassion, he didn't calculate the pros and cons. Let's see, should I heal him?

If I do, I'll get this benefit. If I don't, I'll get this benefit. No, he was moved with compassion. He had that in-the-gut feeling. He felt for this guy, and he reached out and touched him. Boy, if talking to a leper or something you don't do, touching them is definitely off bounds. So Jesus showed, I'm willing to touch you. He reached out and touched him, and he said, I am willing. I'm willing to heal you. Be cleansed. And of course, we know God did heal him.

As soon as he'd spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Now, Christ wasn't trying to get show and attention for this. Instead, he sent him away at once, and he said, See that you say nothing to anyone. Go your way and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things that Moses commanded as a testimony. Let's look at another case, if you'll turn to the book of Luke.

Luke 8, verse 40. This is one we'll begin to see a contrast of how Jesus reacted and how others did. It's a famous story. Now, we're going to start with a story that's not the one we're getting to, because it's important. Luke 8, verse 40. So it was, when Jesus returned, the multitudes welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. So he comes, there's a crowd waiting, and a man steps forward, named Jairus. He was a ruler of the synagogue, so he's a leading man.

And he fell down at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his house. For he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. So Jesus doesn't discuss it here, but he felt compassion for this fellow, was willing to go to save the daughter. But as he went, the multitudes thronged him. Think, for some reason I hear this, it reminds me of when you see news footage from the Middle East, sometimes there's crowds out on the street, and there's lots of noise, and people are thronging to someone.

And in this, a woman, having a flow of blood for 12 years, she'd spent all of her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any. I've sometimes wondered what this is. Did she have some kind of sore that wouldn't heal? Perhaps it was related to her menstrual cycle that just didn't stop. We don't know for sure, but it's something very bad, and she spent her entire living, everything she had, she'd spent on doctors trying to be healed, and none of them could do anything for her.

She came up from behind. Now, one of the other versions says that she thought to herself, if I can just touch his clothes, I know I can be healed. So we know she had the faith, and she came up from behind and touched the border of his garment, and immediately the flow of blood stopped.

She was healed as soon as she touched those clothes. And Jesus stopped, and he said, well, who touched me? And everybody denied it. Everybody's, you know, if somebody's going along and you're trying to get close to them, who touched me? They probably thought, oh, you know, he's upset about something. He's mad. So everybody's saying, it wasn't me, not me.

And Peter was one of those with him, said, Master, the multitudes are thronging you and press you. I wonder, you're saying, who touched me? Now, notice Peter's kind of annoyed about this. What are you talking about?

There's a whole crowd around here. I expect to know who touched you. What are you bothering to stop now? Peter, you know, he's just kind of bothered by all this. We got places to go. We got things to do. Don't be stopping and worrying about who's touching you. But Jesus said, no, somebody touched me, for I perceived power going out of me. So Jesus could feel, and I wonder what that felt like. I have no idea, and I guess he's the only one that probably has ever experienced that thus far. But he could feel the power going out. He knew somebody had been healed. And so the woman saw she couldn't be hit.

At that point, she realized, okay, the game's up. She came forward trembling. You know, she's shaking in her shoes, literally. Because, again, maybe she thinks she's going to be chewed out. She just heard what Peter said. Peter's upset. Jesus stopped suddenly. So she falls down before him and declares in the presence of the people the reason she touched him and how she'd been healed immediately. So she confesses, and he said to her, daughter, be of good cheer.

Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. I wonder if that surprised her. It certainly might have surprised Peter and the other disciples, because Peter is, like I said, he's annoyed by all this. He's got stuff to do. What are you saying? Who touched me? But Jesus wanted to stop and see this person face to face. He could have just said, ah, healed another one. That wasn't the way he was. He felt it going out, but he wanted to see who it was. Let her know it was okay.

He wanted to have that connection. He was gentle. He spoke kindly and sent her away in peace. Let's notice another case of that. Remember, the apostles weren't yet converted. They didn't have God's Holy Spirit in them at this point. So it's understandable they didn't see things always the way Jesus did.

Let's turn to Luke 9. Yeah, we're in...I head to Luke 9 and verse 51. 9 and verse 51. Now, this isn't a healing, but while I'm thinking about the contrast of the apostles, I wanted to bring this one in. Is this a time when Jesus is getting ready to go up to Jerusalem?

It says, It came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up. He steadfastly sent his face to go to Jerusalem. So I'm going to Jerusalem. I've got business there. He sends messengers before his face, and as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. So basically, let's send some of the men ahead to prepare a lodging place. It's a long ways to go. We're not going to do it.

We're not going to march day and night overnight. And there is a village of the Samaritans, but they did not receive him because they knew he was going on to Jerusalem. He says, You're not coming to see us. We're not going to put you up.

Now, when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and burn them up like Elijah did? I'm taking a little liberties with the translation, but they might have spoken in the vernacular. God, can we get them? Let's burn them up. They're not going to give you a place to stay. Now, were they being unbiblical? It is true. Elijah did call fire down from heaven. And the most famous case is when he had the confrontation with the priests of Baal. And you know that on Mount Carmel? He said, I'm the only servant of God left and all you guys serving Baal, and they had this all-day contest.

But there's a lesser-known time when Elijah was sitting, minding his own business up on a hilltop. And the king of Israel wanted, said, send somebody to bring him here. I got business with him. So he sent a commander with 50 soldiers, and they said, you man of God, get down here. And Elijah said, well, if I'm a man of God, let fire come down and burn you and your soldiers up. And it did.

King sent another commander with 50 more soldiers, and the same thing happened. Elijah said, well, if I'm the man of God, let fire burn you up. As I said, God says, for every time there's a season. There is a time to call fire down from heaven. I don't think I've experienced that time in my life yet. There are times when I thought it was time. And fortunately, God knows when it's time when it's not time. Now, the next soldier that came to Elijah said, he fell down on his knees and said, please let my life and the life of these soldiers be precious in your sight. And that, and Elijah said, okay. God gave him a message that go with them, you'll be okay. Well, what I'm getting at is James and John were thinking of that time of power and time to punish. We're going to show them who we are. But Christ answered. I've got away from, I didn't mean to spend all that time on Elijah, but...

And he said, do you want us to call fire down and burn him up the way Elijah did? But in verse 55, he turned and rebuked them. He said, you don't know what manner of spirit you're of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they just went to another village. Sometimes that's what we need to do. You might have the power to burn someone up, but sometimes you just need to go to another village. Jesus Christ said, that's not what I'm here for. That's not what this time is for. Remember, when he read the scroll in the synagogue, he stopped short of the day of vengeance. He was there to focus on consoling those who mourn, bringing beauty for ashes. You know, to save lives, not to destroy them. Let's go back to some demonstrations of healing. Because that's where Jesus' compassion tended to come through, I'm sure, sometimes in ways that he had not planned.

There are times when he planned to do a healing, but it seems to show that most of them were, I wouldn't say, accidents, but they're things that weren't on his schedule. Go to Luke 7, a few pages away, and we'll begin in verse 11.

Luke 7, verse 11.

I just popped into my head last week, I was giving the sermon in Prestonsburg, and I thought, oh, 7-11. Whenever I hear that, I think of the stores, and I haven't seen one of those in Ohio in a long time. And it has nothing to do with this. Now, it happened the day after that he went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples went with him. So there's a large crowd, and they came near the gate of the city. Behold, a dead man was being carried out. The only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and there was a large crowd from the city who was with her. So basically, there's a crowd following Jesus, and they bump into another crowd of people with his funeral procession. Again, as I said, you see on the news, when someone dies in the Middle East, a lot of people up there, they're carrying the coffin, and they're making a big demonstration. I don't know if it was quite like that, but there was a lot of people there. And Jesus comes across his funeral procession. Nowadays, of course, we get in the limousine, and you have a line of cars with their headlights on, and perhaps a little flag on the fender. This is a little more personal. And he sees this woman, and says, when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her. He said, don't weep. And he says, this woman was a widow. It doesn't say for sure how old she was, but she'd lost her husband. Now she's lost her only son. No wonder she was weeping. It didn't say she was crying, but Jesus said, don't weep. He must have saw her with the anguish she was feeling. Just that hurt. Most of us know what it's like when you lose someone that you love. You care about deeply, and they're gone. Even knowing what we know about the resurrection and the hope of the world tomorrow doesn't take away that hurt. And she didn't even know that, for all we know. Jesus saw her there, and he felt compassion on her. So he went, he came, and he touched the open coffin. And those who carried him stood still, and he said, young man, I say to you, arise. Jesus saw her weeping, and he said, don't cry. He went over, touched the coffin, and the young man rose up. He saw what the woman was feeling. And I think we keep coming to that word, compassion. I thought, it's a simple word. It consists of, you know, the prefix come, C-O-M, means with or together, and passion is a very strong feeling.

So when Jesus felt compassion, he shared the strong feeling that this woman had. And in this case, since it was a strong feeling of pain and suffering, he wanted to end it. So, to quote what's become a famous phrase, he felt her pain. Now I wonder, it must have been very difficult to ever be suffering or feeling bad in Jesus' presence. If you were with him, if you felt sad or down, or something was really troubling you, he didn't like that.

He wanted to help. It was a complete stranger. And it's interesting, we don't know if the young man deserved his fate. Apparently he died before his time. And it's a common saying, no parent should ever have to bury their children. Even though I'm older as a parent, I hope I never have to do that. I don't know if any of you have had to, but if you have, it's probably bringing those feelings back again. Jesus didn't want her to have that feeling.

But what I was starting to say is, we don't know if the young boy, maybe he was a troublemaker, maybe he deserved to die young, but Jesus did this for the mother. He didn't want her to suffer anymore. Right then and there, he took action to help.

Let's look at one more example before we move on of healing. Not the only example we'll have, but Matthew 20.

Matthew 20 and verse 29.

And once again, I wanted to mention again, of course, he wasn't looking for that man to heal. He didn't know it, and he just happened to bump into the funeral procession and worked a great miracle, resurrection from the dead.

Here's another case, Matthew 20 and verse 29. Essentially, Jesus was on the move a lot, so a lot of these stories start with them being on their way. It says, they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road. So there's two blind men. Blind men back then would sit by the road and have, like nowadays, you see beggars out with a cup or a basket and perhaps a sign. I don't know if they had a sign in them. These two blind men are by the road, hoping that people will give them money. That's how they can earn a living.

And they hear there's a crowd coming by, so when they heard that it was Jesus, they probably asked me, what's the big commotion? What's going on over there? I can't see. Well, it's Jesus that's coming by. So they started crying out, have mercy on us, oh Lord, son of David, have mercy. They made a big commotion. Get his attention. Let him know we're here. And the multitude warned him, be quiet.

You know, he's got important things to take care of. He doesn't need to stop and talk to a couple blind men who are begging by the side of the road. But they cried out all the more, have mercy on us, oh Lord, son of David. So Jesus stopped, and I envision this because he says he copped and stopped, and he called to them. So I wonder if he's on the road and they're over there, and he's, they're making a bunch of noise.

Well, what do you want? And they said, well, Lord, that our eyes might be opened. Maybe he didn't even realize, he just knew there's some of them are making a noise. Okay, stop. What is it you want? Lord, open our eyes, and maybe he sees, oh, they're blind. This is their whole life is sitting by the roadside, not knowing exactly what's going by, hoping someone might come and give us something totally dependent.

They can't enjoy the pleasures of, you know, seeing color, of working for a living and doing things with their hands. Says then, Jesus had compassion on them. And by then, he must have gone over because it says he touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. So Jesus, you know, he wasn't looking for them. He heard a commotion, decided to see what they wanted, and then he realized the plight they were in.

Now, he didn't heal every blind person in Judea, as far as we know. You know, and so he didn't make his mission in life to go heal every blind person. But when he came across someone and realized what they were experiencing, he felt that compassion. He felt it for them, and he wanted to end the suffering. And he did. Now, some, I've heard some people say, well, of course Jesus healed a lot of people to get attention. He needed to gain attention for his ministry.

I don't think that was the case, at least not most of the time. Now, it's easy to get confused. After Jesus was crucified and resurrected, remember Peter and John started doing healings, and the church worked great miracles then. I suspect that God granted miracles to the first century church to get attention, to get people to come so they would hear the message.

But when Jesus was alive in the flesh, most often he would tell people, keep it quiet. Don't tell anybody what's happened here. He wasn't looking to get attention for himself. No, he healed out of actual compassion. We know that when he did want attention, then he could get it. He could work a miracle that would get a lot of attention real quickly. And we'll see that in a case that's coming up.

But I want to look first at another situation that... I drew the distinction between the way Jesus perceived things and the way the disciples did. This will bring it out a little more and also sort of show some of the way my thinking would come in. That's when Jesus fed the multitudes. He did it on a couple of occasions. We're in Matthew. Let's go to chapter 14. Matthew 14 will begin in verse 13. This was shortly after Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been killed. Basically martyred because he was speaking the truth. And Jesus cared about him. So we come into verse 13. He decides he wants to get away.

So when Jesus heard it, he departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself. So Jesus is like a lot of us. When you've been around a lot of people, you've been doing things. Sometimes he wanted to get away by himself. But he had trouble getting that.

But when the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the city. So a crowd came out there. And when Jesus went out, he saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them. And he started healing their sick. Now, when evening came, the disciples said, This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves food.

This is something I found interesting, because I started thinking about, Okay, now later it's going to tell us there were 5,000 men besides women and children. Okay, now it might have been almost all men and just a handful of women and children, but if so, there were probably at least 6,000 people. But it might have been equal numbers. Maybe 5,000 men and about 5,000 women and who knows how many children. So we're looking anywhere from 6 to 12, 15,000 people gathered around. Now think about it. That's a lot of people.

They were there all day. What was that like for the disciples? I started thinking, you know, in the old days, there were some times when we had Feast of Tabernacle sites with 5, 8, 10,000. I think Mr. Collins last week said, I was placed with 14,000. Imagine, now have any of you ever been in ushering at one of these big feast sites? I see a couple hands back there. Or work parking. It's work to do. When you have a lot of those people, there's organizing that takes place. This is something I often read over when I read this.

But all those thousands of people, the disciples were put to work, I'm sure. Perhaps they had to do some triage. You know, that's the medical term we use today when there's injuries. Okay, find out the people. There might be some people that came to Jesus, and they're going to die in the next 10 minutes if Jesus doesn't see them. But there are some that, you know, they can wait a few hours. Some people, they can last indefinitely. So there might be organizing, and you'd have to talk to people. Find out what the situation is. Well, while you're doing that, I can just imagine who would waste this opportunity.

Jesus Christ came to teach and to preach the gospel. He'd been training these men. They probably organized them in groups. They might have proceeded through stations getting closer to time to see Jesus. Perhaps they instructed them.

Some of the disciples might have taken terms giving sermons on certain subjects. Perhaps led them in prayers and singing. I'm just guessing. Who knows what they did? But it was probably a fair bit of work organizing. And they did it all day. Those of you that help your hands, if you were ushering or doing parking at the feast, it probably seemed like it took forever trying to get those 5,000 cars. I remember my very first feast at the Lake of the Ozarks.

And they had what was, I think, designed to be the perfect traffic tie-up. You had thousands of cars on this one narrow road, and it would take you 2 or 3 hours to get in or out. Well, it was like this. They were there all day, and the end of the day comes.

They're ready to shut it down. Jesus, it's been all day. We're exhausted. Send them home. Jesus said, no. Give them something to eat. And it's interesting, because we know when Jesus said, you give them something to eat, He really meant, I'm going to give them something to eat. Now, we know He had compassion on them, healing them.

We'll see in a moment that there was more to it than that. He said, we're going to give them something to eat. And of course, we know they had just a few loaves of bread. He blessed and then broke the bread, and they distributed it. More work for the disciples, by the way.

Get them organized, sitting down, pass the baskets around, bring them back up. And Jesus made sure, He told them, gather up everything. Don't let anything go to waste. I think Jesus and I had that in common. I'm one of those sticklers of not wanting things to go to waste. Now, it might seem like I'm taking some license on His motivation at that point, but let's read ahead in Matthew 15 and verse 29. There's a similar story. Jesus departed from there, He skirted the sea of Galilee, He went up on the mountain and sat down there, And a great multitude came up to them, Having with them the lame, and the blind, and the mute, Maimed in many others, and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.

See, when I first read over that, I think, Oh, they came up with a lame person, laid them down, and Jesus healed them. Well, that's easy to think. If you have seven people, if it's seven thousand, There was, like I said, probably a lot of work and organization. And we're going to find out. Well, let's read further. The multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, The maimed made whole, the lame walking, the blind seeing, And they glorified the God of Israel.

Now, that alone, like I said, I'm sure Jesus wanted some time to get away, But how good of a feeling must it be if you take someone who can't walk, And you touch them, and suddenly they can? You know, or the maimed made whole. Jesus called His disciples to Himself, and He said, I have compassion on the multitude. So it wasn't just compassion for healing, But He had compassion on them, what they'd been going through. He said, they've continued with me now three days, and have nothing to eat. I thought, wow, three days.

I thought the one day was a long time. At the end of one day, earlier, the disciples said, send them home. Now it's been three days. I wonder if the disciples pulled some all-nighters during that time. You know, helping the people get organized, try to sleep, Maybe security duty? I don't know. Do you need security duty if Christ is there? I don't know the answer to that, but what I'm trying to bring to mind is this big picture, And Jesus said, I have compassion. I want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.

And the disciples, here's where I say, the disciples are more like me. They're looking at this crowd, saying, where are we going to get enough food, Enough bread in the wilderness to feed this multitude? How many loaves do you have? Seven, and a few little fish. Command them to sit down, and of course, we go through the procedure.

You know this part. That's why I want to focus on what was happening. Jesus had compassion. Now He could have said, okay, it's been three days. That's enough. Go home. He didn't. He didn't want anyone to faint on the way. They'd been hungry. Where the disciples saw this huge task. They saw a big job to be done. And they were saying, we've had enough. Send them home. Jesus saw the people. He saw the individuals and what they needed.

And He said, no, they need food. I'm not going to send them away to faint on the way. The disciples saw obstacles. But Jesus saw an opportunity to use God's power to serve. Now I know which one of these two ways I tend to be. And unfortunately, too often it's not Jesus' way.

I tend to see, okay, there's a task. I'm a list maker. I like to put things on a list and then be able to check them off. And that's, you know, one of the things I'm learning is it's a struggle as a pastor because you never finish the list.

It's an ongoing thing. So if you look at me and I seem harried, I'm trying to think of all the things. I don't always literally have a list, but what I'm realizing, though, is I need to be like Jesus, not like the disciples. Look at the opportunity.

Jesus wants me to see people and see the opportunities to help, not see the task, not just see the job to be done and then finished. How about you? Are you still struggling like I am to feel the compassion that Jesus Christ does? Let's look at a couple of places that show Jesus how much he felt, that heartfelt feeling for people. We're going to go to the book of John 11. Now, this is a well-known story. Now, this might be something that you're very familiar with, but not as much as I thought I was before I got into this.

Now, we're going to start at the start of the chapter, John 11. But it's pretty well known, and if you want to glance there, verse 11 and 35 is famous as the shortest verse in the Bible. Most of you probably, if I said, what's the shortest verse in the Bible say, it says, Jesus wept. Now, I've sometimes wondered, how did it get that way? Now, we know when the Bible was first written, this part was written in Greek, and maybe the translators arranged it to try to get that sentence there.

The chapter numbers and the verses were added considerably later. Maybe they thought, oh, this is going to be a neat gimmick. We can make it so there's the shortest verse in the Bible that says Jesus wept. Now, I don't know if it matters why it's arranged that way, but I do think it's important for us to consider and think about the fact that Jesus did weep, and then to understand why. Why did he shed tears on this particular occasion? Let's go back to the beginning of the chapter.

Now, a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, in the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

So we've got Martha and Mary and Lazarus, two sisters and a brother. And we're going to find out Jesus was very close to them. He was good friends with all of them. Now, he was sick, so the sister sent to him, that is, to Jesus, a message saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Now, once again, this shows us they had that special relationship. Jesus loved Lazarus. Perhaps they'd known each other a long, long time and were really good buddies. When Jesus heard that he was sick, he said, and I wonder, he must have said it so the disciples knew, John wrote it down, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Now, the disciples, I wonder, the others didn't write it down, because they might have been, what in the world is he talking about? He's sick, this isn't for death, it's for... Maybe he's like, oh, he knows he's not going to die, that's great. But Jesus knew more than that. He knew what was coming and what was going to happen.

Now, it says, Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus, so when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days where he was. So, he knows Lazarus was sick. The sister sent him a message, you know, you don't send a message if Lazarus has the sniffles, you don't send to Jesus. He's sick and he could die.

Come and heal him. And Jesus doesn't rush off to save him, though. He stays there two more days. And then, later, decides to take action. Let's skip down to verse 11. Okay, so here he's talking to the disciples. He said these things, he says, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him.

Now, Jesus already, God has given him insight to know Lazarus has died. He said, I'm going to go that I might wake him. And the disciples said, well, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get well. But Jesus was speaking of his death. They thought they meant that he was resting, taking sleep. So Jesus says to them plainly, well, Lazarus is dead.

And I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't there, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. Once again, I'm pointing out, Jesus knows exactly what's happened and what he's going to do. Lazarus is dead. I'm glad for your sakes that he wasn't there. Why? For their sakes? Well, Jesus is going to work a great miracle. He knows he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead. And he also knows that that's going to get a lot of publicity.

Word is going to travel that he came to this place and the guy was dead for four days and he raises him up. And it's going to be one of the key things that lead the Pharisees to say, we've got to get rid of this guy, Jesus.

And they'll conspire to murder him, to have him killed. So Jesus knows all this in advance. And Thomas, who's called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, let's go that we may die with him. Oh, I skipped a verse, didn't I? Oh, now, it was earlier. Basically, when Jesus said, we're going to go to Galilee, the disciples said, well, they were trying to kill you there.

Now you're going to go back? He said, well, we've got to go because Lazarus died. So Thomas says, let's go that we may die with him. He's not talking about dying with Lazarus. He's saying, they're going to kill Jesus, but let's go. We've got to go with him. He's the boss. We'll die with him if that's what it takes. Now, we find out later their courage failed him when it came to the time. Again, because they didn't have God's Spirit yet.

Let's go down to verse 28. Well, actually... Yeah, I'm going to skip ahead rather than reading all of this, but we know Jesus approaches, and Martha meets him on the way outside of town, and she's upset and says, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And Jesus tries to explain to her, no, it's going to be okay. He'll rise again, and Martha says, well, I know in the resurrection he'll rise, and Jesus tries to explain to her that he has the power of the resurrection right then and there, but we'll go ahead and we'll get there soon enough.

He says these things. She went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, The teacher has come and is calling for you. So Martha sends a message down to Mary, and as soon as she, that is Mary, heard that, she arose quickly and came to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come to the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. So the Jews were with her in the house.

That's Mary, comforting her. When they saw Mary rise up quickly, they went out following her. They said, she's going to the tomb to weep there. So Mary's still upset. She's sort of crying on and off because her brothers died, and there are townspeople there that are mourning with her, mourning this loss. Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, and she fell down at his feet, saying, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.

Now, I've been sort of reading through this in my own voice, but just imagine the way she would have said it. Because she's lost her brother, and now there's one here that she knows would have had the power to heal him. And so all the feeling is coming up. Lord, if only you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, she's crying, and he's feeling this feeling with her.

And those who are with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit. He was troubled. It really got to him. Here's where I might not share Jesus's... Like I said, I might be more like the disciples as far as seeing problems and jobs to be done, but in this case, I'm kind of like Jesus. I like to think I'm kind of tough-shelled, and I can watch sad movies, and it's okay, and I can read Old Yeller and get to the end. But I've found... I've learned this about myself. If I'm around people that are crying, that's the one thing I can't take.

It'll get to me every single time, you know, just... And it's seeing them hurt. It's like this infectious disease that I get immediately. And one of the things... Cases I remember distinctly, I told you I was close to my grandmother, and her second husband, who I thought was my grandfather, he died about three years before she did.

And they'd been married some 30 years. They were very close. And I'll talk more about them in the future, but... I was there with him just a few hours before he died. He was in a hospice center by that time, and I was with him and very encouraged because he was okay. And he had cancer. He was 90 years old. It wasn't that his life was cut short. He passed away, and I got news, and I came, and Grandma and I had to take care of arrangements and all that. And she was pretty strong going through all this.

But I remember coming to the funeral home for the viewing, and she broke down crying. And that was the first time that I shed tears. It just started coming out of her, and I just couldn't control it. I was crying not because of him. I knew he was okay. You know, I'll see him in the resurrection. But I think that's the case where Jesus was.

When he said, Where have they laid him? They said, Come and see. Mary's crying. These people are around crying. And Jesus wept. And they said, Behold how he loved him! They think Jesus was weeping because of Lazarus. No, Jesus wasn't crying for Lazarus. He was going to raise Lazarus. He knew Lazarus was fine, but he was just seeing this hurting in the people around him. Jesus felt that compassion. He felt their pain. He wanted to bring it to an end.

He was torn up inside. Now, it is where I wonder if he hadn't... We know that he was planning to raise Lazarus. The account makes it pretty clear. But I've got the sneaking suspicion if he hadn't been planning on it, he might have done it anyways. Just because he hated to see these people suffering. Just like that mother who was a widow and had lost her only son, he probably felt the same thing. And who knows? It doesn't say so. But Jesus might have wept at that time, too. And he stopped and raised that young boy. We know that here, if you read the rest of the account, Jesus would say a very brief prayer thanking the Father for hearing him. And he would say, Lazarus, come forth! And he did. Jesus had that power. That God would answer his prayer and bring him back to life. But he felt that pain beforehand. There are a lot of lessons from the story of Lazarus's resurrection. There's the lesson about God's ability to heal. That God can even bring the dead back to life. If we look further, as I said, the Pharisees were very jealous and upset at this. And there's the lesson about their hypocrisy. There's the lesson about the disciples needing to have faith. But I think it's important to not overlook the example of God feeling, of God having compassion. Anytime you hear that scripture or read, Jesus wept. There's an important lesson in that. They didn't have to tell us, but he wept because he felt that.

Let's look at another case. Let's go back to Luke 19.

Luke 19, where we'll start to bring it closer to us. And we'll begin in verse 28.

Now, this is going to be another case where Jesus weeps. And it's not over an individual, but it's over a group of people. And what he knows is a catastrophe that's about to come.

Luke 19 and verse 28. He said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. Now, this is the case where Jesus is coming into Jerusalem shortly before his crucifixion. So it's a time when he's coming and it's a big deal. So they set it up. He's going to fulfill some prophecies as well. He drew near the Bethphagee and Bethany and the mountain called Olivet. He sent two of his disciples saying, go to the village opposite you.

As you enter, you'll find a colt tied, which no one has ever said. Loose it and bring it here. So there's going to be a colt in there that no one's ever read. Bring that and come in here. And if anyone asks you why you're doing it, you'll say, the Lord has need of it. So exactly as he said, those two went, they found it. And as they were loosing it, the owner said, what are you doing with my colt?

And he said, the Lord has need of him. And they said, okay. They brought it to him. So they brought this young colt. They threw some of their clothes on the back. Now, they're treating him as royalty. He's not going to sit on a horse's skin. We're going to cover his clothes.

And we don't even want the horse he's riding to step on the dirt. So they started spreading their clothes on the road before him. And the other account says people would cut down palm fronds or whatever. You know, for the entrance of a king. So, yeah, they brought him... They set their clothes on the colt, set Jesus on him. As he went, many spread their clothes on the road. And as he was drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice, to praise God with a loud voice for all the almighty works they'd seen.

And they were saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees were nearby. They called from the crowd saying, teacher, rebuke your disciples. He said, if I tell you these were to keep silent, the stones would cry out. And as I said, this is his great procession.

And you're going to realize, now I haven't been there, but I've read accounts and been told. Jerusalem, we know, sits at the top of the hill, but the Mount of Olives is higher. So he comes to the Mount of Olives and he's descending, and he sees the cities he's going to. He's going to go down the valley and back up. And he sees Jerusalem before him. And it says, as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it. He sees Jerusalem, the holy city, and it brings him to tears.

And he says, if you'd known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they're hidden from you. He said, if you'd just known the things that would make for peace, but you didn't know, the people were deceived, of course. And the day's going to come and he talks about how the enemies would build an embankment, and he'd let you around and level you.

He knows that great destruction is going to come on this city, and people are going to suffer. Now, the punishment might be deserved. The people of Jerusalem were rebellious, and they weren't following Jesus. A lot of the Pharisees were in control there, but he felt compassion. And he wept over knowing what was ahead. And I think, how does that relate to us?

We understand prophecy, and we see the world around us, and the punishment is coming. But when we think about that, when we think of the time of Jacob's trouble, of tribulation, do we cheer and say, Yeah, God, go get them? Or do we weep? As Jesus, when he saw Jerusalem and he brought tears to his eyes, thinking of the great destruction that would come.

Now, here again, I have to say, sometimes, especially when I was younger, I'm getting better as I get older. I used to, Yeah, they're going to get theirs, you know. Especially when someone cuts me off in traffic, which is a terrible way to think of it. It's like, you'll be in the great tribulation. And a lot of times, no, probably not. Hopefully they'll repent before then. Now, when I say, and that's a little bit of levity, but, you know, we shouldn't excuse the sin. That doesn't mean it's okay that people are going astray, but we shouldn't be eager for the punishment, either.

Let's look at another example. I'm drawing near the end here. Let's go to Matthew 9. Because I want to keep that in mind. How is what we do related to the way Jesus feels compassion and how we should feel it? Matthew 9 and verse 35. Now, I saw this scripture an entirely new light as I was preparing the sermon, and I'll have to confess, it wasn't one that I had in mind when I started. Because I'd heard a sermon similar, and I thought, Yeah, I want to talk about Jesus' compassion and how he felt for people.

And so, when I had a lot of situations that I knew I wanted to speak on, I used the concordance to see, Are there any I'm missing? And I'd never thought of this one. But I thought, this is the one I want to end on, because it brings in our role on how we should look at things and think today. Matthew 9 and verse 35. Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

And he's traveling about, doing his work. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. He saw this multitude, and I imagine a scene in a movie, and have you ever seen these movie scenes where it's a disaster and people running, and it goes to slow motion? They're like running from the crowd or whatever, and you hear this sad music, and there's women holding their babies, trying to shield them from destruction. I don't know if Jesus saw it in slow motion, but he saw this multitude. I lost my place.

He was moved with compassion, not because of them needing healing. He says they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. One of the translations I looked up, instead of weary, he says they were harassed. These people are harassed, and they're weary. They're scattered like sheep that have no shepherd. They don't have good leadership. And so, Jesus felt compassion. And he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful. There's lots of people out here that need our help, but laborers are few.

Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest that He'll send out laborers into the harvest. People needed more than physical healing. They needed that guidance and teaching. They needed hope. And isn't that the state of the world around us today? I said it's not like War of the Worlds, where there's this crowd running from the aliens, but you see people out there, and they're harassed. They're stressed out. They're having trouble. They don't understand why the world is this way. And you listen to people analyzing the current economy on the news, and people are out of work, and they're saying, why is this happening?

They don't have good leadership. Government should be leading the way, and often it's taking advantage. Now, what was Jesus' reaction? First of all, he said, pray that we'll send more laborers. But now, imagine, remember, the chapter breaks were added in later. Without a break, go to chapter 10, where it says, He called His twelve disciples to them, and gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all disease.

And we'll skip to verse 7. There's some instruction He gives them. He says, As you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. So He sent His disciples out, saying, Go out there and teach the people. Give them hope. Say, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick. Cleanse the lepers. Raise the dead. Cast out demons. Freely you have received. Freely give. As we think about the world around us, and as I said, the people that are harassed, people are in turmoil and trouble, they need what we have to offer. Shouldn't we strive to do the same?

And we do. Now, I wish God would also give us the power to heal anyone we lay hands on. He hasn't given us that in the same way He did to the disciples then. But He hasn't restricted our ability to pray for people that need help. And for the ministers, there's a lot of olive oil.

We can easily anoint as many people as will ask for it. And what we've freely received, that understanding, we can freely give. So we offer, you know, a magazine, several magazines and booklets free of charge. We pay the cost to get that message out there. The Beyond Today program goes out on television, as it will tomorrow morning. We've got websites putting the program out there. And we provide a paid ministry. And as I said, I've learned that there's more to that than I thought. There's a lot of work going on. We give it away free, as I said, but there's a cost to all of us.

But we were given this great truth, this great understanding, this way of life for free. As Jesus saw all the troubles of the world and He was moved with compassion, so should we be.

Again, our compassion doesn't mean that we excuse the sin or overlook its consequences. A lot of people are suffering because they do things the wrong way, and we wish they wouldn't. But we have a commission to warn and to teach and to share the knowledge of the hope that we have. And that's always getting encouraged, especially when I think of the last great day, the meaning of the Holy Days. Everybody's going to have that chance. They might not know it, but doesn't it make you feel good? We can share that.

Jesus taught the disciples in His time on earth that they should strive to be like Him, their Master. And that applies to us. We should strive to have the faith of Jesus Christ. We work to put on the mind of Christ. We want to attain the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But I implore all of you to join me in the effort to try to also have and feel the compassion of Jesus Christ. And we'll have a break and be back for the Bible study in about 45 minutes. That sound good?