Matthew 14
I sometimes wonder how Jesus did it all.
By, “did it all,” I do not mean the miracles – He is, after all, God! – but I
mean loving the people, caring for their needs, and constantly working on their
behalf in the face of all He was going through. In this reading we find Him
withdrawing to get some time alone after hearing about the murder of His cousin
and forerunner John. It was a gruesome and sad death. Yet when Jesus sees the
people He had compassion and He taught, fed, healed, and cared for them and His
disciples.
When I get tired my compassion drops. I
find that I want to slip away; go find a quiet place far away and avoid
everyone. In my weariness I only want to take care of me. I’m rather ashamed of
that feeling, but I suspect that my experience might not be that different from
yours. Feeling drained and exhausted we find ourselves caring less and less for
others. Then we feel guilty for not caring. It’s a vicious circle.
It is important for us to realize when
we find ourselves in that cycle of guilt and drained emotion that we are not
Jesus. (Say it with me, “I’m not Jesus.” Very good.) It is not that we’re
confused about who we are, but the fact is that Jesus does things we cannot. Is
that because He is God? It is not just that. It is also because He is fully
human the way the Father intended us to be from the beginning, but we are broken
by sin.
When we are living in Jesus – baptized
into Him and washed of our sin – we often find that we can have peace when life
is chaotic, we can be joyful in the midst of sorrow, and we can be
compassionate when we are drained. As Isaiah says, “Those who hope in the Lord
will mount up on wings like eagles….” We are not sufficient in ourselves. Jesus
is sufficient, and He gives us Himself.
We are not Jesus and we cannot always be
full of compassion. Nor are we the source of compassion in other people’s
lives. Instead, we are recipients of Jesus’ compassion. We start there and are
rooted in what God has done for us in Christ. Forgiven, restored, and filled
with the Holy Spirit, Jesus uses us in our brokenness displaying His compassion
in us and through us, and we find that people experience His love in our lives
in ways we never expected.
Lord, thank You for Your compassion. I live
in You. Amen.
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