Title: We follow, are fed, and are forgiven!
Text: Mark 4:35-41
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41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied.
It has been a busy week. Two funerals and today a Baptism. Two remembrances of lives well lived and one life beginning. All though, connected to Christ and his compassion and forgiveness.
31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. Mark 6:31
The news that His disciples brought to Jesus in the verses preceding this text was the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod. Hard news for anyone to hear especially if the news involves someone we know or are close to that has lost their life.
Jesus needed to get away and be away from the people. So, he gets into a boat with his disciples and goes across the lake to a place that is quite – to a place that is desolate.
32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Mark 6:32
When you think of desolate you might think of a place devoid of inhabitants and deserted. A place that is joyless and sorrowful - as if separated from a loved one.
A place showing signs of abandonment, dilapidated, devoid of warmth, comfort or hope. But what does Jesus find?
33 Now many saw them going and recognized them and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, Mark 6:33-34a
He went to get away; to be by Himself; to collect His thoughts; to pray and here he finds not a desolate place at all, but one filled with a very large crowd of followers. I believe that even this crowd would have given Jesus a pass had he became agitated and told them to go away.
But what does Jesus do?
… and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Mark 6:34b
We too fail to see and reflect God’s compassion in our daily lives.
Many times, agitation - seen through the eyes of sin - become the first reaction we have before – by the power of the Holy Spirit – we see through the compassionate eyes of faith given to us by our loving savior Jesus.
Compassion would show, for a Christian, the wonderful evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. To think of someone else and their needs first and foremost is a Christ-like virtue.
Jesus’ showed compassion to the crowd of people gathered at this place and His compassion extended to their physical need as well.
These five thousand men, women and children hungered and were fed in a miraculous way by Jesus, but the miracle was probably not even something they were aware of. God’s great blessing filled their hunger, showed the disciples the compassion and power with which Jesus was sending them out. Each had a basketful of leftovers [12] to testify to what Jesus has done and will continue to do through them.
God would be with them as they went forth. His miraculous work would be worked through them. Jesus would speak as they spoke.
All that Jesus is and does would be with them as they walked in His place with His word, bringing freedom to those in need of the saving knowledge of Christ in a fallen world. The compassion that Jesus has would be the compassion they share with sinners so that they are healed of their sin, fed by our precious Lord’s word, and satisfied of all their wants and needs.
Jesus has compassion. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23)
Jesus has compassion. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)
Jesus has compassion. 8 God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)
Jesus has compassion. 9Because, by the power of the Holy Spirit in you, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Rom. 10:9-10)
Jesus has compassion. 13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom. 10:13)
Jesus has compassion … on you!
He heals your sin and covers you with His righteousness so that you are by faith, free of your bondage to sin, fed by his holy word as well as His very Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper that is given and shed for you! And all who are satisfied and found in Him … Christ gives you simply out of His compassionate grace, mercy and love for you.
Finally, I leave you with a few of the wonderful words from our Sermon Hymn today, God Loved the World So That He Gave:
God loved the world so that He gave
His only Son the lost to save
That all who would in Him believe
Should everlasting life receive.
God would not have the sinner die,
His Son with saving grace is nigh,
His Spirit in the Word declares
How we in Christ are heaven’s heirs.
Glory to God the Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One!
To Thee, O blessed Trinity,
Be praise now and eternally!
We are Followed by God as he by his Spirit draws us to Christ. We are fed by his word and sacrament that call us to faith and sustain us unto his call home and we are forgiven – in Christ, being rescued from sin, death and the power of the devil!
May the Love of God the Father who made us,
the Compassion of Christ our Lord who redeemed us,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit who sustains us,
be and abide with us now and forever more.
Amen
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