March 27, 2014

I’m going to focus on the Gospel and this Gospel is very familiar. When I hear or read Gospels this familiar I try to make myself not focus on what is normally perceived as the main symbol or topic.

In this Gospel what immediately hit me were these verses. “He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”  Then later on in the reading “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”

In those couple of sentences we can learn a lot about Jesus’s message through his personal feelings and not his parables.  Jesus’s 1st reaction to the situations presented to him is empathy, concern and compassion.  For me these are simple little nuances of Jesus’s ministry that get overlooked sometimes in the larger context of readings.

I love nothing more than a sermon that walks me through the historical context of a Gospel, how if the word is translated in Greek the significance is this or if in Hebrew it is this.  I have a love for history and little twists to stories that change the understanding of our Gospels and other readings.  It is very interesting stuff and when a Gospel or passage is confounding this information is very useful.

There’s another way to untangle very difficult Gospels and passages also. Look at the readings through the eyes of the speaker, Jesus of Nazareth. I firmly believe all He says and does is steeped in empathy, concern and compassion. 

So what does this have to do with Lent? Lent is always closely associated with self-sacrifice to share in Jesus’s suffering. Yet, in this Gospel I witness Jesus telling His apostles, they need rest, they need to eat. He’s not imploring them to rest later because we have work to do; you can grab some hummus, pita and olives later. No, He knows what they need and it’s some empathy, concern and compassion (rest and eat something guys). When Jesus stepped off that boat, he didn’t see the crowds and say “man this is going to be a long day”, Jesus looked out and felt compassion for people who made hurried long trips just to hear His teachings; he had empathy for their sacrifice and later fed them abundantly. Jesus didn’t send them away, thinking to Himself maybe a little hunger and exhaustion will make My teaching sink in better for them.

I think His life, his manner of walking among us can be telling us it’s not what we deprive ourselves of that will bring us closer to Him and His Kingdom.  It’s what we give others, which is empathy, concern and compassion.  It’s to give of ourselves to strangers, maybe even perceived enemies which is a huge sacrifice because none of those emotion and actions related to them is easy. In order to do it we sacrifice our pride, we put others 1st and these things are the personal and difficult sacrifices that bring us closer to Him. These are the sacrifices that will bring us far greater rewards personally and spiritually as we intentionally walk in His way.

En al paz de Dios

Tom Wilson