Title: The Compassionate Savior
By: Justin L. Snyder
Date: August 2, 2000
“They were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.” Mark 6:34
“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and he healed their sick.” Matthew 14:14
It’s a good thing that those verses weren’t written about me. It’s a good thing that thousands of people weren’t depending on Justin for their teaching and nourishment. Especially on the day when I wanted to be alone with my friends. Especially on the day that I knew I was going to be crucified. Had that been my feet in Jesus sandals on that Bethsaida beach, the verses would have read something like this:
They were like sheep without a shepherd. So Justin told them to stop grazing on his pasture and head back to their pens.
When Justin landed and saw a large crowd, he mumbled something about how hard it was to get a day off.
It’s a good thing that I wasn’t responsible for those people. I would have been in no mood to teach them, no mood to help them, but did Jesus? As I think about it Jesus had no desire to be with them either. After all he did leave them. But only after he taught them many things and healed the sick.
Question? Why did Jesus teach and heal them if he needed some quiet time, as we like to call it now.
Answer: “He had compassion on them” (Matthew 14:14)
So in other words Matthew in this scripture is not saying he felt simple pity or compassion for them. It was a much deeper meaning. Matthew is saying that Jesus felt their hurt in his gut.
He felt the hurt of the diseased.
He felt the loneliness of the lepers.
He felt the embarrassment of the sinful.
He felt the limp of the crippled.
And once that he felt their hurts, he couldn’t help but heal them and teach them many things. He was moved in the stomach of their needs. He was so touched by their needs he forgot his own. He was so moved that he but their hurts on his back as though he didn’t have enough which he did he had more than enough. Jesus felt compassion on them because they were the reason he came. They were HIS children. Because self was forgotten and others were served by the compassionate Savior.
I’m fixing to tell a story. But first I want to make this point. Jesus knew all to well what pain is and that’s the very reason he takes as much as he can off of us. So I guess the words to the old song are true.
“What a friend we have in Jesus oh what needless pain we bear all because we don’t carry them to the Lord in Prayer.
Jesus knows how you feel. When you struggle He listens. When you yearn he responds. He’s there for you now. Now he’s there for you.
The Story: Like the little boy in the story he sees you with a heart of compassion. He knows that you are special.
A boy went into a pet shop to buy a puppy. He looked and looked. He told the owner that he would be back with the money to buy the puppy in a couple of weeks. During those weeks he worked so hard. Washing cars, mowing lawns, doing chores around the house. Finally he had the money the next day he went back to the pet shop. He got out a puppy that was crippled he walked up to the storeowner. And handed him the money. When the owner saw the puppy he picked he told him to go pick0 another puppy because this puppy would never be able to play or run because it was crippled. The boy just smiled and said he was sure this is the puppy he wanted and that it was just the puppy for him. As the boy walked out the owner started to say something but remained silent. Suddenly he knew why the boy had picked that puppy for extending out of the boy’s trousers was a brace on his leg.
Why did the boy want the dog?
The same reason Jesus wants to us, he knew how it felt and he also knew that we were very special.
