THE MIRACLE OF COMPASSION IN THE WILDERNESS
Sermon Text, St. Mark 6:30-44. Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. O Lord, You have made us in such a way that our hearts will only be restless unless we rest in You. Amen. (St. Augustine)
Dear people loved by God in Christ, who is moved with compassion for us: Grace, mercy, and peace be with you!
This is known as the miracle of loaves and fishes. A miracle is what only God can do, it’s beyondthe laws of nature. When it comes to our daily bread – “all that we need for this body and life” – God gives it in regular ways. We get our food from H-E-B, we’re kept safe by our police and sheriff’s departments, etc. But God is providing for us and protecting us; He uses these regular human means as the ordinary way He takes care of us.
The Lord cares about our bodies as well as our souls. His daily providing shows this. But here in Mark 6 the people aren’t in a location where the regular way will get it done. So Jesus does a miracle: He takes five loaves of bread and two fish, and it’s enough food for thousands. There are leftovers to fill 12 baskets; Mark tells us there were leftovers even from the two fish.
But let’s see why it took a miracle: due to the location. Mark highlights this: it’s in a wilderness. Three times we hear it’s “a deserted place.”
This is what we’re going to spend time on today: (1) the wilderness we are in, and yet (2) in Christ it is not a deserted barren place – because of Him.
The Bible is full of this setting: the wilderness is where Israel wandered for 40 years before entering the Promised Land, the wilderness is where John the Baptist was, and whenever there’s a famine – in the time of Joseph and of the prophet Elijah – the wilderness is everywhere you go. And the Bible begins in a fruitful garden, yet the devil tricks Adam and Eve into thinking that without the fruit from that one tree it too is a wilderness!
So here we are again in a wilderness, “a deserted place.” Jesus wants to teach us something. Do you know what the wilderness is?
In one way, we know this is no wilderness. We don’t miss meals or dress in tattered clothes. We have a roof over our heads and cars to get us places. Besides money, we have freedom to move about, freedom to come worship and freedom to change jobs. The list goes on.
And yet this is a wilderness. Every day you have a need that needs to be satisfied. Every day you have a worry, many worries. We aren’t in our promised land of heaven. Here there’s temptation. Here there’s sin. Here there’s death. Here there’s sadness in many forms: depression, divorce, illness, disappointments. Here there’s danger: war, violence, crime, abuse.
But if all our wants were satisfied, it would still be a wilderness. It’s a wilderness because of sin.Not just sin being in the world, but it’s because of your own sin. In your resentment, your sinful anger, your gossip, letting others schedule you away from church, in how little you pray, how much you worry, being consumed with all the things in your daily life, in how little you go to God’s Word, your heart becomes dry, empty – a wilderness.
You are also a wilderness in another way. Think of the works of love God wants to blossom in the very moments when you’re under pressure, such as patient understanding, loving discipline, encouraging words, sticking up for someone. Our life is “a desert place” as we fail to do this.
The Good News for us today is not the miracle of Jesus feeding everyone. As we heard in John, that feeding didn’t satisfy them. They tried to “take Him by force” so they could have Him do this whenever.
The feeling that you are doing well, that God is taking care of you and you trust Him, only when it seems to be going well and you can point to good things – or even that the church is doing well when attendance and offerings are good – is a sign of a dry, empty heart: a wilderness. We call this being “carnally minded” – your sinful flesh running the show. This is what Jesus has to work with, in us: a wilderness, a dry and empty land.
But now hear the Good News. Mark doesn’t say, “When Jesus saw the multitude He sighed with disappointment.” No – instead we hear: “And Jesus saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.”
This is the appearance of the Good Shepherd in Mark. Mark wrote years before John’s gospel, which has Jesus’ “I Am the Good Shepherd” sermon. Years before anyone would hear those words, the Good Shepherd appears, where? Not beside still waters, but in a wilderness, “a deserted place.”
The miracle we’re supposed to notice isn’t that He has food for them. It’s that He has “compassion for them.” The word Mark uses for saying Jesus “felt compassion” means something like He “felt it in His insides.” Does God have insides? He doesn’t have a stomach that gets twisted in knots or hurts like ours. Is Jesus God? Yes. As God His love is above emotions. He created our emotions. If we don’t love Him back, God doesn’t suffer. But what Jesus felt as He looked at the crowd means He literally ached. In some way He’s suffering. That’s what compassion means: “suffering with,” suffering alongside. It’s being done to Him, that He has this going on in His insides, which are part of the human body He has as Mary’s Son.
Every aspect of His being human is fully shared by His nature as God. Hebrews 4 says He came to be “made like” us, and is able to be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” We see it as Jesus looks at the crowds. God doesn’t stay above our human emotions. He sends His Son to bring His love into this world, so that He literally aches, on His human insides.
Now here’s the important part for us today: where does He bring this compassion of His? Where does He do the miracle of compassion? In your wilderness. He brings it to a deserted place. He does not desert you.
So you – and your life here – are not a wilderness, a deserted place. He is with you. He accompanies you. You’re in His Church, with many others, a multitude no one can count. The saints in heaven are seen being pure and holy. But so are you, for in Christ all sins and faults are taken away so that before God you are as pure as the saints in glory, and your works done in faith are a flowering field. But all of this is because He – your Shepherd – has compassion on you and brings it to you, and you do receive it.
Where you really find this out is at the Lord’s Supper. When you come to the Lord’s Supper, your life is a wilderness. You come with all these sins. But He’s prepared a table in your wilderness. The miracle isn’t just that the bread is His true body and the wine is His true blood. The miracle is also that His compassion is here with you. He is with you in His body and blood. He comes to be with you to fill you. Yours is not a deserted place.
You are His miracle of compassion. As you leave His table, Your Savior dwells within you now. Your life is no wilderness. Your life is beautiful. You have Love dwelling in you – Love Incarnate, Jesus Himself. You aren’t empty of His love. You’re filled with Him. He fills you so that you blossom and the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, compassion, come out of you.
He goes with you through this world that’s a desert land without Him. We do the miracle of compassion for others, led by our Shepherd and His voice. Let your home first be the miracle of His compassion, then take it into the world, let His compassion blossom wherever you are. Amen!