4th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 6
Matthew 9:36
Matthew 10:1-8
A compassionate God equals A compassionate Believer
""When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Matthew 9:36, RSV.
"And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, ’The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay." Matthew 10:1-8, RSV.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the compassionate Christ. Amen
The a verse from our gospel lesson this morning speaks volumes about who God, and Christ are.
God is a God who creates, a God who rules, a God who is so holy that one dare not come into His presence.
But at the same, God is a God who is compassionate, caring for His creation, caring for us.
As it says in the Psalms
Psalm 135:14 For the LORD will vindicate his people, and have compassion on his servants.
And it says in Isaiah
Isaiah 49:13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
Compassion is simply understanding someone’s deepest needs together with a desire to do something about it. It is always directed at something or someone, and God is compassionate toward all of us. 1
Compassion is an action. God saw that we needed compassion after the fall way back in Genesis he began planning for His ultimate act of compassion by sending Jesus to earth.
A well known Bible verse says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16, RSV.
Just as God is compassionate toward His children, Jesus came to earth to show that compassion in a human form.
Our text says "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
Jesus saw that the people were helpless, they were like sheep without a shepherd so He had compassion on them.
All through His ministry, Jesus showed the compassion of God through His works of healing, feeding the hungry, and saving the lost souls.
Jesus looked at the whole person, saw the need and did something about it. He acted. If a person was hungry, He gave them food, if a person was sick, He reached out a healing hand, if a person was in need of forgiveness, He touched that person with His mercy.
When Christ had compassion on the crowds, He was in a sense, in all reality, showing the people, showing us what it means that God loves us. As He healed, as He forgave sins, as He brought people together, as He made especially women feel part of God’s created order, He showed us and them God’s love.
Jesus is the one who shows us very dramatically what God’s love is like. It is a forgiving, accepting, caring, merciful, compassionate love. It is a love which allowed God’s only son to be killed on a cross so that you and I might have eternal life. It is a love which was willing to sacrifice God’s son so that reconciliation might happen on this earth.
But Jesus saw that he could not be everywhere, where some one needed compassion. so He told the disciples to go out among the people and do as He had done.
Our text says:
"but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, ’The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. "
Jesus gave the mission of compassion to His disciples. He told them to go out among the people and show compassion, heal the sick, grant forgiveness in His name, feed the hungry, visit the lonely, be there for some as they experience the brokenness of this world.
And now that brings us to the question, how is god’s love, how is Jesus love shown in the world today?
The answer is simple, we are to be as Luther says: "Little Christs".
Paul says in Ephesians 5:1 "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children." 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" RSV
Jesus asks the disciples to go as He could not be everywhere and He is asking us to go, to be imitators of God’s compassion in this world.
Jesus is asking us to see the whole person and reach out a hand of compassion, be it a hand of feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, caring for the sick, extending the forgiveness of Christ.
God’s compassion is seen through the body of Christ today, and the church is the body of Christ and the church is made up of you and me. All of us!
Do you remember the little finger play of the children as they show the church, the steeple and then they intertwine their fingers and open the door to see all the people?
All the people in the church are the body of Christ today who are to show compassion to all people.
Remember compassion is:
Compassion is simply understanding someone’s deepest needs together with a desire to do something about it.
Compassion is an action. We are to see, to understand the needs of another and then do something about it, period.
You and I are the body of Christ, Christ’s presence in the world today and we are called to action, called to be compassionate to those around us.
I would like you to listen to the following story and decide which character best describes you?
Peirre von Passen in his book, Days of our Years, tells of a little hunchback, Ugolin, who lived in a small French village. He had a difficult because he was a monstrous looking person. Children would not play with him. One night some men who were drinking started making fun of him. One kicked him, spit on him tore off his clothes and finally left him in a pool of blood. Later that night, the local priest found him, took him home, washed him and put him to bed. The next day, while the priest was conducting mass, Ugolin, went to the river and drowned himself. When his sister found out, she committed suicide. Though they were suicides, the priest planned a double funeral in the church for he said, "Those children were not suicides. they were murdered by society without mercy." The day came for the funeral and the priest went to the pulpit. While looking at everyone, he began his sermon says, "Christians!!!When the Lord of Life and of Death shall ask me on the Day of Judgment, Pastor where are your sheep??? I will not answer him. On the third time he will ask, Pastor.....Where are your sheep?? I will hang my head in shame and I will answer, They are not sheep, Lord...they were a pack of wolves!!!"
Who do you relate to in this story?? The priest, the boy and girl, the towns people??? Maybe all three. Sometimes aren’t we like the towns people, a pack of wolfes, passing judgement on others? We can be not accepting of others.
At times we can be Ugolin and his sister outcasts to those around us.
And at times, we can be that priest being the voice of God in this world reminding people of our role as compassionate Christs.
There is a power present here that means something, it means business is not usual. Life can be changed. People can be renewed.
We have the power of Christ here in the church to change lives. Because of Christ there should not be any Ugolin’s or his sister in this church. But what is so sad in that story, is they felt they had no where to turn, no one who would care, no one to help.
But my dear friends, I hope and pray that does not ever happen here, because all of us have someone, I hope. We have Christ, and we have Christ incarnate in someone here in the church. If we do not, then there is something wrong with the church and its members.
Bill Hybles says, "You have never locked eyes with another human being who isn’t valuable to God." No one is outside the compassion of God.2
No one is outside the compassion of God. In other words, no one is outside the body of Christ today, no one is outside the church.
Sometimes we see all the hurting, the pain, the need around us and say, How can I help all of that? We see the greater picture and not the individual person.
C. S. Lewis once said: "it is easier to be enthusiastic about humanity with a capital "H" than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting - exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular." 3
Jesus saw through the crowd and reached out to the individual person. We are to look out into humanity and see the one person we can help.
A closing story speaks to the need of that one to be comforted.
The NY Times a while ago had a story about a little boy who was riding the bus. He sat so close to a woman dressed in a gray suit that everybody assumed he was her son and she his mother, until finally another lady sat down on the same seat with them.
When the little boy put his feet up on the seat and got the other lady’s dress dirty, she turned to the women in the gray suit and said, "Would you please tell your son to put his feet down because he is getting my dress dirty?"
The lady in the gray suit pushed the boy away and said, "He’s not my son. I’ve never seen him before in my life."
The second lady looked at the little boy sadly for a moment and then started talking with him. She asked him if he was traveling alone.
"Yes," he said, "I always travel alone. My mommy and daddy are both dead and I live with Aunt Clara. But Aunt Clara thinks that Aunt Mildred ought to take her turn in taking care of me too. So whenever she gets tired of me, she sends me to Aunt Mildred. I’m going to Aunt Mildred’s now."
The woman said, "It must be tough traveling alone."
"Yeah," said the little boy, "it is. But I never get lost. But," he said, "sometimes I do get very lonesome. So whenever I see someone with a kind face I sit close to them, and pretend that I belong to them and that they belong to me."
He continued, "I sure hope that Aunt Mildred is home when I get there, because it looks like it is going to rain and I don’t like to be outside when it rains."
The woman reached over and grabbed the boy, hugged him so tight that it almost hurt and wished for a moment that this little boy who wanted so much to belong could belong to her.4
"So whenever I see someone with a kind face I sit close to them, and pretend that I belong to them and that they belong to me."
The woman reached over and grabbed the boy, hugged him so tight that it almost hurt
Can you hug someone today?
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale June 6, 2005
1 2from a sermon by Dr. Bruce Emmert at SermonCentral
3 Contributed by: Mary Lewis from SermonCentral
4Contributed by: Melvin Newland from SermonCentral
