Clothed with compassion

Jesus had sent the twelve disciples out on their first mission trip without him.  They came back full of excitement of all that they had seen and accomplished in Jesus name. Even the demons had fled!  Jesus invited them to come away with him to a quiet place for a de-brief and for some rest. 

As an aside - isn’t it interesting what value God places on rest? We place such value on work and achievements and little value on rest. But at the beginning God rested on the seventh day after the work of creation and this must be our model too.  We need to learn to take a proper rest and have a different day once a week to frame and shape our week.

So having taken the disciples away to a quiet place on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, who do they find when they get there?  The very crowd they were trying to get away from!  It is at this point that most of us would turn the boat around and try and find somewhere else and quickly.  Jesus though saw the crowd and ‘had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd’ Mark 6:34

Jesus' compassion at moments like this is truly amazing.  He and the disciples needed some down time, some rest but Jesus saw the greater need and his compassion rose.  It says in Matthew that he taught them and healed their sicknesses.  He saw their need – to be taught – but he also saw what they wanted and needed – to be healed.

What is even more amazing is that having taught the crowd and then healed their sick, he fed them.  The disciples requested that Jesus send them away to get food but Jesus instead fed them with the five loaves and two fish.  He had time for another miracle. No matter what was going on Jesus had time for those in need.

There are times when we feel we will never have even a gram of the compassion of Jesus. We feel just too selfish but God wants to work in our hearts and with his amazing love, win and woo us to better things than we could ever think or imagine. Let us pray for greater compassion for those people or situations that we find difficult or those we feel we have no time for. Let God’s compassion clothe us.

‘Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, let us clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience’ Colossians 3: 12. Compassion is seen as a garment that we need to put on. It will cover our shortcomings and clothe us with the likeness of Jesus.  Let us encourage ourselves to ever greater depths and heights of compassion and let us have time for those in need.