#DailyDevotion Jesus’ Innards Are Moved By Our Sad Estate
Mark 8:1-3 At that time there were again many people who had nothing to eat. So He called the disciples. 2“I feel sorry for the people,” He said to them. “They’ve been with Me three days now and have nothing to eat. 3If I let them go home without eating, they will become exhausted on the road. Some of them have come a long way.”
So Jesus is out teaching in the wilderness. The people who have followed him have nothing to eat. What’s wrong with these people that they took nothing with them into the wilderness for three days? Perhaps the LORD’s teaching was so captivating that they lost track of the time. Well they’re going to be getting hungry soon. Jesus recognizes their plight. If they go home now they will become exhausted along the way and some had come a long way.
Mark tells us Jesus felt sorry for the people. The Greek word here is splagchnizomai. It means to have one’s bowels go out to someone. Certainly you have felt this internally yourself at some point in time in your life. You could translate it feel pity, compassion, or to sympathize.
Jesus often has this feeling towards people in need. He felt that way for the leper in Mark 1 and he cleansed the man. In a similar situation as today he felt compassion for the crowds who followed him and fed them in Mark 6. He is asked to have compassion in Mark 9 and cast out a demon from a man’s son. Jesus has compassion on a widow by raising her son from the dead in Luke 7. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father has compassion on his son as he returns home. In the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matt. 18 the king has compassion on the wicked servant when he pleads for mercy.
We can see that Jesus has compassion on people in need. But would his nature as the LORD. We see this in Ex. 34:6-7 “the LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, slow to get angry, rich in love and faithfulness, 7continuing to show mercy to thousands, forgiving wrong, rebellion, and sin,…” It is the very nature of Jesus who is the very same LORD in Exodus to have mercy and grace on people in need, to have compassion towards them.
It is this great compassion he has for us that then moves him to the cross. From heaven he saw our great need. Moved with compassion towards us he becomes one of us, takes our sin upon himself, pays the price for that sin, i.e. death and becomes our atoning sacrifice and propitiation before God the Father. In his great mercy towards us he gives us his word that tells of his great work for us, and gives us the Sacraments to deliver to us his mercy and compassion. He sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts through the Word and Sacraments so we may believe him and his works and thereby receive the benefits of his work of compassion for us. On top of all that he also has compassion on us in every day things like today’s passion where the people were hungry. The Father is merciful towards you and has compassion on you in ways you cannot even comprehend in your lives. So he tells us to, “cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you.” So be bold in faith and come before God in the mercies of Christ and ask Him to have compassion on you in all your needs.
Heavenly Father, you demonstrated your great compassion on us by sending your only-begotten Son into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Have mercy and compassion on us today by providing for all our needs both physical and spiritual. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.