Compassion Of Jesus

Matthew 15:29-39

The weather is terrible. So terrible that I've thought more than twice about going to some of my classes. It's the type of weather that makes you want to just stay home and sip on some hot chocolate. No, it's not snowing, I wish it were. It's raining. I don't mind rain, except when it's really windy because that just makes it tough to carry around an umbrella. Being in Indiana, I can't count how many times I've bought a new umbrella because the wind just destroys them. Yea, it was bad.

Classes today weren't all that exciting either. We're getting closer to that stage where we know the drill and everything is just repetition now. Why can't education by more exciting. *sigh*

I hope I didn't catch a cold. Chances are that I did. I had a very sore throat this morning. My body was feeling alright till around noon when it started to feel weak. I went over the Panda Express (yes, it's now open if you guys didn't know) and got some hot and sour soup. That felt good. Only now I need more. It was a rough day.

Healing Crowds & Four Thousand Fed
Reading: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2015:29-39;&version=49;

The passage moves on from the woman and Jesus is again continuing on with His voyage and healing people along the way. The one thing to note here is how He is now meeting gentiles, meaning non-Jews. He's healing and teaching everyone, not just the chosen people. It's important to note that this is important as Jesus shows us His true motives. Yes He came to tend the sheep that have been chosen, but it's through these people which He intends to reach everyone. While He is on His journey, everyone realizes His greatness and worships the God of Israel.

Then Jesus says something that is very important. He says that He has "compassion" for these people. What exactly is compassion? If you look up the word compassion in the Merriam Webster dictionary, you would find that it means something along the lines of feeling sympathy and others' distress, and a desire to alleviate it. Jesus is stating here that He feels sympathy for the crowd. Remember, that He's with a crowd that includes gentiles. So He feels sympathy and a desire to alleviate our distress. He realizes how sin is holding us back and wishes to solve this problem. This is very very important as it gives us the reason for Jesus's dying on the cross. Not only was it a mission that Jesus came on earth to do, but it's something he desired because He wanted to alleviate our pains. And that's why Jesus is so great.

Continuing on you will find that Jesus tells the disciples not to send the crowd away. He also says that He realizes that the people have had nothing to eat for the past 3 days. The disciples, like they have before, asks how they should manage this situation. Now why would the disciples ask this question a second time after they saw what Jesus was capable of doing? Could it be because the first time it was for the Jews and it was almost a given that Jesus would save them and now that the crowd involves gentiles it's a different situation? Perhaps they're trying to see what else Jesus is capable of? In any case Jesus asks what food is availabe, and again they had loaves of bread and some fish. Once again, Jesus used this supply to feed the crowd and the crowd was satisfied.

Now is this situation different from the first time Jesus fed the crowd? A little, because the crowd is different. Jesus also might be in a different situation now that He has had a little conflict with the Pharisees. Afterall, He insulted their traditions and as a result Jesus might have more enemies now. Regardless, Jesus continued to supply and heal, and most importantly, He had compassion on the people. Jesus, regardless of who you are, is here for us. He feels compassion for all of us and wishes to bring all of us to His kingdom.