Jesus’ Compassion: The Heart of Missional LivingNäide

Day #3: Matthew 14:13–21

Today’s passage opens with the words, “When Jesus heard this” (v. 13). What is the “this” to which Matthew refers? It is the death of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and the prophet God had sent to announce Jesus’ ministry (Matt 14:1–12). They shared a long and personal history, and John’s loss must have been a real blow to Jesus. His reaction is to withdraw alone, apparently accompanied only by the Father and the Spirit, to grieve, pray, and reflect.

But the crowds are not having it! Jesus’ desire for temporary solitude does not match up with their desire for more of Jesus. There’s no respect for Jesus’ “personal space”—perhaps they don’t even see him as a person at all, just as a miracle-dispensing machine. We can critique their apparently monumental insensitivity, but we must also consider the deep desperation that moved them to chase after Jesus wherever he went. A response of sensitivity to the poverty and aching needs of these seekers is surely called for by Jesus’ own response when he gets back to shore and finds them waiting eagerly for him.

Even during his own grief and fatigue, Jesus’ first response is compassion (v. 14). The Latin root of our English word “compassion” is a compound word that indicates “co-suffering” or “suffering with.” Jesus seems to know that his grief over John’s loss somehow intersects with the many losses—large and small—that these people have experienced, and it moves him to action on their behalf. He cures their sick (v. 14) and, in a resonant echo of Psalm 103, he fills them with good things, with an extraordinarily lavish abundance (vv. 19–21).

Once again, Jesus’ compassion reaches the multitude through the hands of his sent ones. “He blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds” (v. 19, NRSV). In Jesus’ compassionate hands, the miracle happened, and in the disciples’ learning-to-be-compassionate hands, the miracle reached the crowd.