HEARD AT CHURCH

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back. Let's think about a really bad day that Jesus had.

Our pastor has been on sabbatical so today one from our congregation brought the message. The title for his sermon could not have been more intriguing: 

“Jesus and the Really Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

The text was Matthew 14: 13-21.

As we read the text, we find that it reveals a truly human Jesus.

Jesus heard that his cousin, John, had been executed by Herod, so he boarded a boat and left.

The crowd saw him leave. They followed him along the shore so that by the time he was ready to disembark on the other side, they were waiting for him.

Most of us would be thinking, “Oh crap. Can’t they see I want to be left alone?”

However, Matthew says he felt compassion for them. The Greek suggests that his feeling for the crowd stirred deep within him.

We've all had feelings like this. The uneasiness we feel when a child cries moves us. Watching someone get hurt in an accident inspires pity. Seeing a loved one suffering from a disease wrecks our own emotions. We would not be human if we were not so moved.

The disciples showed up. They fed the multitude with a few fish and loaves of bread. After that business was done, Jesus went up a mountain to pray for a long long time.

The man apparently wanted to be alone.

His students were in a boat traveling back to the other side of Lake Galilee when Jesus came down the mountain. They were being buffeted about by wind and waves. Jesus walked out toward them. 

We all know the story. Peter saw Jesus. He asked if he could walk on the water too. Jesus told Peter to go ahead and step out of the boat. Peter obeyed, but he began to sink. Jesus lifted him up and said that Peter did not have enough faith.

The most human revelation in these stories is the reaction of Jesus. I believe my Oxford Commentary gets it wrong when it says, “Wary of Herod, Jesus seeks isolation, but his compassion for the crowd moves him to heal those who follow him.”

I don’t know about that. Jesus must have grieved his cousin. We really have no way of knowing how close they were growing up, but this passage suggests he was very sad at the news of John’s death.

Despite his sadness, he showed pity for the crowd and pity for his friends.  I doubt if many of us would have shown love the way he did. Most would have thought themselves perfectly justified in being sore at the mob for their insensitivity. Jesus might also have felt irate at his students for being so needy. Instead, we see Jesus feeling pity, commingled with sadness.

Behold this son of our God of love whom we Christians follow!  Take a good long look every time Jesus shows compassion. We pray to be like him, don’t we?  His life remained so connected to our God of love that compassion flowed from him as naturally as the Milky Way flows through the universe. Our lives remain connected to God also. Through Jesus we know that compassion may flow from us as well.

After my sister died, I felt sad for a long time. Even now, I wonder what kind of person she would have been had she lived. I imagine her as a writer, an artist, a lawyer, or a doctor. She could have been anything.

It’s funny, though, I do not shed very many tears over personal sadness, but when I see someone else bawling, I am often moved emotionally once I know the story of their grief. That seems strange to me, but I’m willing to bet it is a common occurrence among people.

I do wish I had heard the prayers Jesus prayed on the boat the first time he distanced himself from the others, and then later when he set his heart before God on the mountain.

Blessings…