He Had Compassion - Matt 9:36

Initial sermon at Zion Lutheran Church, Mission Valley TX, 6-18-17, Pentecost 2.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

It is good to be here, among you, the saints of God at Zion Lutheran Church in Mission Valley. In many ways, this already feels like home.

I’ve said it over and over, and I want to say it one more time: Thank you. Thank you for the warm welcome, the kind words, the prayerful support, and the home you have provided for us. Thank you for making us feel so welcome already. Thank you for letting our kids go along to Camp Lone Star this past week and for the invitations to be part of your own family lives. It is exciting to be here and I pray God blesses this relationship of pastor and people, of people and pastor.

Had I known what a good job my brother would have done preaching last Sunday, I would have picked someone else who would have set the bar far lower. In fact, he told me that someone talked to him about coming here, too, and as he said it to me, you could have had Pastor Meyer the Older and Pastor Meyer the Handsome.

Nevertheless, here we are. God bless us as we serve our neighbors in this place.

The text for this morning is the Gospel reading that was read a few moments ago, especially these words: “When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion on them.”

I think for many people, compassion is a synonym of kindness. Not really. It’s much, much more than kindness. Compassion is mercy put into flesh-and-blood action. Compassion is a visceral reaction, meaning it’s what makes your guts hurt when you see something and just have to respond. Compassion is a gut-testing thing and it usually means getting dirty, getting down on someone’s level where they are. Compassion moves you from inaction and into action and it leads you in the dirt – figuratively or literally – down in the ditch in the dust or the muck. Compassion inserts you into their pain, in their misery, whether it’s in the unemployment office, in Christ’s kitchen, at the death-bed, or in the funeral home as they stare down the valley of the shadow – getting down eyeball to eyeball with them and be with them in that hard, difficult place and time. Compassion puts you on their level. Compassion says “I’m not better than you…I’m with you, and I won’t let you be alone.” Compassion is visceral.

The Greek word for compassion is “splancthon.” When the word was first used in ancient literature, it had to do with the offal – the miscellaneous organs – of the animal that was butchered. As the word’s usage evolved, however, it moved from a generic term for guts to the gut reaction that happened at the sight of people’s suffering.

The reason I tell you all of this is that it is hugely significant that St. Matthew says that Jesus has compassion when he sees the shepherd-less people. Do you get it? This isn’t some distant, far-off and aloof Divinity. This Jesus is God-in-flesh, perfect God who comes to dwell among His own dear people. This same Jesus, who was with God from the beginning, now stands as a man among people and what He sees hurts.  His pain is so deep that His guts hurt.

Think of all the things that cause you to have compassion and react: the attempted mass murder at a baseball game makes you take a position on guns and you write your congressman; seeing the forgotten people abandoned in a nursing home leads you to spend an afternoon a week playing board games with a couple of residents; news of wildfires in West Texas lead you to donate hay to starving cattle; people who stand at the corner with “Will Work for Food” signs motivate you to work at Christ Kitchen next Saturday. These are all good, noble, and appropriate responses for the Christian who struggles with life in this world.

For Jesus, His compasison comes from a different set of circumstances. In fact, Matthew lets us know that these kind of first article needs – food, illness, even death – these have all already met the compassion of Jesus. He’s been performing miracles all through Capernaum and the surrounding area, from healing Peter’s mother in law, to calming the storm threatening to sink the disciples’ ship, to raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. All of these needs caused Jesus to act and react. But, St. Matthew never says that these things – not even the death of the little girl – cause His guts to hurt.

What makes Jesus feel compassion is this: the people were like sheep without a shepherd. They were a congregation without a pastor – not because the pastors weren’t there. Oh, no – they were there, alright. All of the people whose responsibilities include caring for the eternal souls and welfare of the people, feeding them God’s Word, blessing them with His name, imparting and delivering the gifts of God day in and day out, praying and interceding for them – all of these shepherds stood by and abandoned their flocks to be consumed by the wolves and bears and lions of the devil, the world, and their own sinful flesh.

And, meanwhile, as the sheep were devoured one by one by being led to take their eyes off of the promise of the coming Messiah, now fulfilled in Jesus, the shepherds got fat and sassy. They debated the fine intricacies of the Law and argued ways people were guilty of breaking the Law…all the while holding themselves up as high, and great, and holy men. They proffered themselves as near divine with practically sinless lives all the while looking down their pharaisaical noses at sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. Instead of having compassion of their own for these people of God, these sheep, who were wandering and in danger of being forever lost and damned, they passed by, lest they dirty themselves in the process. They were compassion-less for those who needed compassion.

This is what causes Jesus to have compassion: these sheep were shepherdless.

How Jesus demonstrates His compassion is a bit surprising to us. Put yourself in that situation and, honestly, consider if you were Him, what might you do? Make political maneuvers, move to a different church, start a whispering campaign? Jesus doesn’t do any of these things. But it’s not just that His guts hurt. His compassion is so powerful that He is moved to do something to help. But how Jesus demonstrates compassion might be a bit surprising.

He tells His disciples to pray. He tells them to pray --- He, Jesus, who – as King Herod said at Jesus’ birth – is the “Ruler who will indeed shepherd my people, Israel.” He is the Good Shepherd, the faithful shepherd, the self-sacrificing shepherd who will give Himself for the sake of His Sheep. He, the Good Shepherd who will risk everything in order to seek and save the lost; He the Good Shepherd who seeks out each single lamb – He, Jesus, speaks to His disciples and urges them to pray to the Father that He sends out workers into the harvest field.

And, then to further demonstrate His compassion, He sends out the 12 disciples – for the first time identified as apostles, meaning “sent ones” – out into the harvest field. They are to be instruments and vehicles of His compassion, delivering it to those who were shepherdless. “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 affliction.” The miracles they perform, the raising from the dead, the exorcisms, and the healing will all be demonstrations of His power, yes – but more than that, of His compassion.

Yet, His compassion is found, chiefly, not in miracles, or exorcisms, or even the raising from the dead in this life. His compassion is found in the cross. The Kingdom is at hand, Jesus said – the time for His Cross is drawing closer. Because of His great compassion, He will suffer and die and rise for the entire world. His guts will hurt – so much so that he sweats great drops of blood. But it’s not just his guts…it’ll be his back from the whips, and his face from the slaps, and his head from the crown of thorns, and his spirit…his spirit as He realizes that even His Father in heaven has abandoned him in the face of hell on earth as the entire sin-filled burden of the world is emptied out upon Him. He takes it all, out of His great compassion for you.

You – the saints of God at Zion – you ought to understand this text because this has been you. Pastor Judge has been a gift of Christ’s great compassion for you, caring for you during this long vacancy, faithfully calling, gathering and encouraging you. And, having been recipients of Christ’s compassion, you shared His compassion with others. Think of all of the ministry that has gone on in this place for the last 4 years.  Think of all the people who received the compassion of Jesus through your hands, your voices and your feet. When you visited an elderly member, when you sent a card to someone who was ill, when you prayed for your tired congregational leaders you were sharing Christ’s compassion. You were His disciples.

I know it’s been a long vacancy and I know many of you are tired. Take a break…catch your breath. Soak up Christ’s great compassion for you. In His own good time, He has provided a full-time, called and ordained pastor for you again. But, I do want you to understand one very important thing: you are continuing the perfect track record of a church calling a sinful man to serve as your pastor. And, unfortunately, the time will come – sooner or later – when you will experience that first-hand. And, I want you to know that I am continuing the perfect track record of pastors who serve among sinners. And the time will come, sooner or later, when I will experience that, too. And when that happens, when we hurt each other, here is what we will do: we will turn back to this passage and we will remember this, the compassion of Jesus. We will remember that in His great compassion He has united us together as pastor and people who are called to demonstrate His compassion to each other and to those around us.

You know what…Let’s not wait for that day to come. Commit to that today: that we demonstrate Christ’s compassion. In His compassion, we will pray for those around us. In His compassion, we will speak the name of Jesus without shame and without bashfulness. In His compassion, we will speak the truth that there is salvation in no other name under heaven. In His compassion, we will be bold to invite those who are like sheep without a shepherd so that they, too, may receive the compassion of Jesus in Word and Sacrament.

By God’s grace, Zion will be known as a compassionate congregation in this community, concerned with the eternal welfare of people that we live among. God grant it for Jesus' sake.
Amen.