Thoughts for the Day

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

I was running a series of study groups in the parish, and decided to explore some of the basic questions that we look at when people are learning about their faith. Many of those present had been attending church for years, so it was a kind of refresher course for them. I started by asking them to draw a picture of God. Some of the group drew pictures of old men on clouds, and others tried to show energy and power with bolts of electrical currents out of clouds. But one person drew a figure on a huge throne with a bible in one hand and a sword in the other. She saw God as an angry judge. "He was a God of vengeance!" she said. The group were slightly shocked. No amount of argument could change her mind. After reading the bible aloud over a week, I can testify that sometimes reading the scriptures one can feel like this.

But this is not how God views our world, nor should it be the way we view our world. In today's passage from Mark's Gospel we read that Jesus 'saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them'. Since Jesus is 'one with the Father' and of the same essence as we say in the Creed each week, then compassion must be at the heart of God. OK! But all too often 'compassion' is interpreted as 'pity' which can imply some kind of superior being looking down on another poor person who is suffering. The theologian Douglas J. Hall argues that the German translation of the word means quite literally 'with suffering'. In other words we do not have compassion for another person unless we suffer with them.

This is what is meant by 'Jesus ... had compassion for them'. Our God loves His people so much that He had compassion for them - so that He suffered for them; He died for them; and He rose again for them. We Christians must ask ourselves if we are ready as a Church to show that kind of compassion for those who need it in our world today.

Father-God,
we thank You that You loved us so much
that You sent Your Son, Jesus, to rescue us,
and that because of His compassion for us
He was prepared to die so that we might be saved.
May we reflect on His love for humanity
and on our love for others.
Then may we change our ways
to truly care for others as we care for ourselves.
Amen.