Year B

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

A Portrait of Compassion

It does seem when you read the scriptures that something new always begins when God’s powerful love and loving power are acted out. We see these new beginnings and love acted out in the texts today. In the OT reading, with the appearance of David’s reign, radical newness is worked in Israel. What counts for Israel is that David embodies God’s faithfulness to the people, assuring them that God will always look out for their well-being. This radical faithfulness during the time of David’s reign prepares the way for the claim made in the Epistle reading today that clearly says that Jesus is “greater than David.” Where Jesus goes, newness is possible, humanity is restored, and creation functions to its fullest. In both David and Jesus, we are able to see, that compassion and generous faithfulness brings new life when nothing else does.

There is no doubt that David worked political, sociological and theological newness in the life of ancient Israel. By the time of today’s text, David’s enemies had been defeated and Israel is united. With the kingdom secure, David proposed to the prophet Nathan who appears for the first time that the Ark of the Covenant is to be given a permanent home. Initially Nathan concurred with David’s plans; but the Lord spoke to Nathan one night in a dream and rejected David’s idea of building a house for the Lord. Nathan reminds David that the God of Israel cannot be held in one place. The Lord had always moved freely among the people of Israel and never commanded that a permanent dwelling be built for the Ark.

Instead, Nathan tells the king that though he is not to build a “house” for God, God will build a “house” for David. God will give something greater than David’s “house”; God will establish David’s lineage. From the time when David was a shepherd of his father’s flock until he was made shepherd over Israel, God was always with him. God promised that David would be given a name “like the name of the great ones of the earth” and his descendants would continue his kingdom and “build a house for my name.” The temple would one day be built by David’s son Solomon. Thus the house or line of David would continue forever and according to God, there will never be a time when God’s people are not ruled by a descendent of David. The Gospels record that Jesus was in the lineage of David and was called Son of David.

Just as the love of God is expressed by the promises made to Israel through David, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians speaks of God’s promise of unity that is made available through Christ to everyone-Jew and Gentile alike. We were aliens, but now in Christ Jesus we are citizens of God; no longer strangers but members of the household of God, a building, with Christ as the cornerstone, and not just any building but the temple, the body of Christ where God lives. What had been separate for generations was now made into one body-a new reality through Christ.

Paul’s metaphors draw on the whole of the biblical tradition. Just as God came down from heaven to live with Israel, shining first out of the tabernacle then out of the temple, so the glory of God shines when God lives in God’s people. Everyone can now have access to God through God’s Spirit poured out upon the whole community of Jesus’ disciples who now have a share in God’s dwelling place as they grow together and share the love of God in Christ. The gospel text today defines what it is the church community does as a result of being God’s dwelling place and sharing God’s love. The text patched together from Mark’s gospel has the obvious intent to stress Jesus’ compassion for the needy and how that compassion is expressed in concrete action and this action bring newness of life to all who are present.

Up to this point, Jesus had been rejected by the people of his hometown, his disciples have just returned from a mission he sent them on, and he has been informed about the murder of his cousin, John the Baptist. People were pressing in on him, seeking all kinds of help. With all that had gone on, Jesus felt like he needed some time away to get some rest, so he and his disciples get into a boat and set out for a more quiet place to rest. Some of the townspeople heard where they were going. So when Jesus and the disciples arrived, a crowd was already there with needy people waiting to present their needs. Instead of expressing exasperation under these circumstances as most of us would who were tired, we read that Jesus had compassion for the crowd, because they seemed to him to be like sheep without a shepherd.    

Mark spends the rest of this chapter showing us what it means to have compassion. The word translated here from the Greek suggests the deepest of emotions, what we might call “gut-wrenching.” Jesus is profoundly hurt by the needy crowd. They were hungry for the truth he could give them and so he proceeds to teach the people, feed them, comfort his disciples and then heals the people who are sick. The work of his ministry was never-ending. In the verses not included for today is the feeding of the five thousand or more, further demonstrating Jesus’ compassion, with his disciples experiencing what compassion meant.

After Jesus ascended back to God, they were called to put it into practice and so are we. With Jesus’ example we know what is involved. To be compassionate we need to be sensitive to the suffering of others but it’s not enough simply to see suffering, we need to feel it. The word compassion means to “suffer with.” But it’s not simple enough to feel the pain of others; we also need to act to relieve it. Jesus always did something for people when he had compassion for them. The job that Christ wants done still involves compassion and we are the ones called upon to show it. God is found where deep compassion for the suffering is felt and acted on. Our faith shows itself in a life of discipleship.

Just as Jesus preached the good news about God’s kingdom and then did works of compassion, we, too, are to grasp this good news to our hearts and then seek to follow God’s will. The words and deeds of Jesus are inseparable, for the Christian faith and life. A heart of divine love and care that breathed through every movement of our Lord is a portrait of compassion and it shows up as well in David’s own heart of passion and compassion, making him a “man after God’s own heart,” especially seen in his desire to build a house for God. It is the theme of Paul’s teachings also, encouraging followers of Jesus to be the extended and extending house of God thought which God’s Spirit brings light and life to a world in desperate need of knowing the true shepherd. So may we seek to follow Jesus’ example and show God’s healing compassion every day of our lives.