Rich In Deeds

RICH IN DEEDS (MATT 15:32-39)

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In the age of Covid, do people give more or less to charities and neighbors? From India to America, people surprisingly have been giving more, not less to those in need. The average amount of individual donations to philanthropy in India increased by a whopping 43% during the pandemic, according to a report by Charities Aid Foundation. The India Giving Report found that 85% of the survey respondents had supported charities or their community in “direct response to the pandemic.” Two in three gave money or goods to a charity or community service, and three in1 0 gave money to their friends, family or neighbors.

In a normal year in America, giving went up by 2.8% in the economic expansion and stock gain year of 2019. In the next year of 2020, giving rose by 3.8% in the Covid year than the previous cash -in year, or a record US$471 billion. One report found that gifts under $250 grew more than large donations. Giving to arts, culture and humanities fell by 4.2% amid the pandemic. When physical distancing hit, locals buy takeout meals to support restaurants, paid their hairdressers without so much as getting a haircut and volunteered formally to organizations or informally to neighbors.

Rich or poor is not determined by what you have and not what you lack, how you share and not how you save, and what you do with what you have.

What makes a believer rich or poor? How are we rich in Christ? Why do people miss seeing their possession for their poverty?

Be Compassionate, Not Cold

32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

I’m an expert in dizziness. Every winter I would sneeze terribly, but one day on one of Hong Kong’s coldest day (Feb 21, 2022), I sneezed from morning to night although I was wearing bundles of clothes, and I would empty the tissue box quickly and the trash bag would need emptying. My big trash bag did not stand a chance.

Why did I choose to remember the day? A month before this, I sneezed a few days and then the fainting spell began. I did not k now what made me faint until I sneezed in the middle of the night.

Now that the coldest day was here, I started writing down how many days later would the fainting come. Voila, it came four days later and lasted two weeks. When it came, I could only look straight but not look down or sideways, neither could I bend my knees without fainting. The worse is the moment before I lay my head on the pillow. That’s when the dizzy spell is a make or break moment.

The God we know is a loving and compassionate God. He cares for our physical, spiritual and emotional needs. He put others’ needs above his own, felt their feelings and grief when He did not feel so energetic himself.

The verb “have compassion” is exclusive to Jesus. It occurs three times (Matt 18:27, Luke 10:33, 15:3) in parables told by Jesus and He exemplified it by His compassion on the multitudes (Matt 9:36, 14:14, Matt 15:32, Mark 8:2), two blind men (Matt 20:34), much people (Mark 6:34) and the widow whose son was dead (Luke 7:13). The verb means to yearn, to feel sympathy, to pity, to have inward affection, tender mercy. It is from the noun for “bowels,” spleen or intestines.

In the first feeding - the 5,000 - the multitude was with Jesus till evening (Matt 14:15), but now int hes second feeding – the 4,000 - it’s been three days (v 32). Most people can skip a breakfast, few people can skip breakfast and lunch, fewer can skip a day’s food, even rarer for a person to skip two days, but most extraordinary to miss food for three days. Jesus was most concerned, cautious and considerate for the pressing, passionate and persistent crowd.

Most leaders are familiar with the feeding of the five thousand, but I’ll highlight what makes the feeding of the four thousand different. First, Jesus saw “a great multitude” previously (Matt 14:14, KJV), but here those present were “great multitudes” in plural form (Matt 15:30, KJV). Jesus could not let them go defenseless, dehydrated or dizzy. Collapse (v 32) occurs for the first time in the Bible – only twice in the Gospels, both referring to his incident (Mark 8:3).

Be Constructive, Not Crusty