Sermon Tone Analysis

Mark Airey

Matt.

14:13-21

Compassion Incarnate!

Pentecost 11

 

Focus:  God miraculously feeds those who hunger with compassion.

Function:  That the hearers accept Christ’s compassionate gifts.

Sermon Structure:  Text-Application

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

In our text this morning, we hear that Jesus withdrew from the people.

Withdrew from them.

Isn’t that odd?  Usually we think of God coming to the people, coming for the people, but here Jesus withdrew.

What would cause that and what does that means for us today.

As we look at the account of the feeding of the five thousand in Matthew, Jesus has been traveling quite a bit before arriving in Nazareth.

[DS1] He has been preaching and teaching at a hectic pace.

He had been teaching when he was told of John the Baptist being beheaded.

This has evidently affected Him and He now clearly wants to retreat to be alone.

All that He desires to do is get away from the throngs of people for a little while!

This is not a time of joy and easiness for our savior.

He has just heard of what happened to John, and he “withdrew.”

He takes a boat and goes to a “solitary place.”

The bottom line is plain in His actions; he wants to be alone right now!

Sure enough the crowds follow Him.

They still wanted to be healed or hear more of His teaching.

I can understand wanting to be healed, but can they not see that Jesus wants to be alone at this time.

Can’t you just picture these “followers” selfishly dragging their inflicted afflicted relatives around the shore of the lake chasing after Jesus?  [DS2] They are probably envisioning this as a last opportunity to finally get their poor aunt Harriet healed so that they can have their one room place to themselves!

Then there is Jesus, wanting dearly to be alone, and fleeing on a boat to get away.

Does He depart from these throngs further around the lake?

No, this is not what He does!

This is where we see who Jesus is.

This is where we see what Jesus and His ministry is all about!

This is where our text tells us that, “He had *compassion* on them.”

He went ahead and healed the sick and ministered to the needs of the people...  This compassion is displayed even at a time when we see Jesus in a reclusive frame of mind.

[DS3] As we’ve seen, Jesus didn’t turn the crowd away.

On the contrary, he welcomed them, loved them, and he served them by healing their sick.

We see examples of His compassion throughout the other gospel accounts of this miracle in the New Testament[DS4] .

Let’s look at these other accounts found in Mark and Luke.

In Mark’s gospel Jesus describes the crowds as “sheep without a shepherd.”

Luke tells us that Jesus started to teach them about the Kingdom of God.

You can see that each of the gospels recognized the compassion that Jesus had on the people.

Jesus’ heart went out to these people, and he truly had compassion upon them.

Then, as evening approached, His love overflowed.

[DS5] The disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late.

Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

There was nowhere to get food, for they were in a desolate place.

Even if they could buy food, the price for so many people to eat and be satisfied would have been quite expensive.

But Jesus didn’t send the crowd away to find their own food; he had compassion on them and he fed them /all/ by performing a miracle.

[DS6] Jesus requires nothing of the people.

He doesn’t require payment or work.

Jesus takes care of their needs.

He doesn’t require them to go away to someplace else to take care of themselves.

No, Jesus asks that the two fish and the five loaves be brought to Him and he blesses them and, in an act of love, He feeds His people.

It was a miracle so great that our text tells us that they all ate and they were all satisfied and full.

There was even food leftover, even more than they started with!

Jesus also takes this opportunity to compassionately teach His disciples during this same event.

[DS7] When they told Jesus that he should send the crowd away to the villages for food he tells them, “They do not need to go away, You give them something to eat!”  “Oh, no,” they must have thought, “now we’ve done it!”

“How are we going to feed all these people?” “It’s just impossible!”  Instead of saying, “Yes Jesus, you lead the way and we will follow,” they made excuses – “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish for 5,000 men and all the women and children.”

They lacked faith in Jesus as the provider that He had been all along, and they lacked understanding of who He was and what He was sent to do.

Yet…Jesus had compassion on them.

Jesus gives the disciples the opportunity to display their faith.

But do they really understand who he is and the power he commands?

In any case, they bring the meager offering of two fish and five loaves of bread.

Then Jesus teaches them, he includes them in this wonderful miracle.

[DS8] That’s what our great God does, he includes us also in this work of love and compassion.

Don’t we grumble sometimes when our Lord tells us [DS9] - They do not need to go away – you take care of them?

Don’t we lament and complain that God is asking the impossible.

Does God realize just how many hours there are in the day?

I mean how many of you have said or heard, “Hey, that’s not my job,” or “I really don’t have time to help other people anyway,” or “Nothing I can do will really make a difference.”

As you can plainly see, Jesus did show compassion for his disciples even in an apparent time of resistance.

This is a time when they are able to provide for their brothers and sisters through the power of Jesus.

They are made able to display His power through their hands.

I know when I have been able to help others in a time of need I am richly affected[DS10] .

When we used to have a day called “HOP” day, which stood for “Help other People,” I would come away from the event as if it were a mountaintop experience.

How could I know that raking leaves or painting a fence for a shut in would make me feel this incredible high.

I felt as though I had somehow had come closer to Christ through the act of helping others.

This is the purest form of Christian giving that I know of.

I believe He teaches us through these kinds of acts.

When we are able to give our gifts, through the power of Christ, directly to someone in need.

This is a time when Christ is compassionately helping us to understand what He is all about.

This is a time when He is compassionately teaching us of His love for His people.

He has compassion on us as He did for the people that were fed and as He did for the disciples[DS11] .

In his great love he provides daily bread for us just as he fed the crowd of 5,000 and when He compassionately teaches us dispite despite our lack of understanding.

Although we sometimes take all of the “things” that we have for granted, Christ continues to truly care for our physical needs.

In times of flood, famine, and natural catastrophes, we see how frail and needy we really are.

It is only by His hand that we have all that we need to sustain this life.

For it is God who causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

As the psalmist says in our psalm for today, “God’s love endures forever.”

He does wondrous things, He has created us, He takes care of us, and continues to feed all of His creatures.

He does this out of pure love and compassion for His creation.

This compassion that is displayed reminds us of our Old Testament reading in which Isaiah writes: “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

We can see that this is a prophecy of the coming of Christ.

We are being told of a provider of waters that will quench our thirst.

Isaiah tells us of a provider of not only physical food, but of spiritual food for His people.

[DS12] We are also being told of a compassionate provider that requires no payment for his thirst quenching sustainance.

This prophecy is fulfilled in Christ the Messiah.

Christ bids all people to come, to be not only physically fed, but, in the case of this miracle, spiritually fed.

Even though they have nothing, they need nothing.

In these words from Isaiah and in this miracle of compassion for the crowd, Jesus gives us a glimpse of the cross.

For He is the one who provides the food of salvation with His very own body and blood.

He is the one to pay the enormous price and to provide the food and the drink in /this/ miraculous banquet.