Our Compasionate God - For Saturday

St. Matthew 15:32-39 (8/16) Gospel for Saturday of the
Ninth Week after Pentecost

Our Compassionate God: St. Matthew 15:32-39, especially vs. 32: "...I
have compassion on the multitude...." Out of pure compassion, Christ
our God concerned Himself with the hunger of a multitude of thousands of
men, women, and children (vs. 32). Such is the record. Such is God's
true nature. His actions substantiate His words. Indeed, in feeding a
multitude, God manifest mercy and compassion for a crowd isolated on a
country mountainside far from all sources of food. They had been with
Him for three days, seeking and receiving healing for those of them who
were mute, maimed, blind, and lame (Mt. 15:30). At last all supplies of
food became exhausted (vs. 32), and so, in still another, basic, and
direct way, the Compassionate One revealed His immediate provident
nature - He saw men's hunger and He fed them.

Three compelling truths concerning the compassion of God emerge from
this account: 1) Because He is compassionate, God intervenes in human
distress. 2) The compassion of God cannot be measured, established, nor
verified by human, scientific, statistical means - Divine compassion is
revealed to faith. 3) Faith perceives in the Lord Jesus' feeding of
over 4,000 people, the greatest aspect of God's involvement in human
affairs - His became a man Himself to defeat our sin and death, the
issues that reign over our improvident existence.

The message in this passage proclaims that God is compassionate. The
people came to the Lord Jesus and lay their sick and injured loved ones
at His feet, hoping He would restore and heal them (Mt. 15:30). They
were not disappointed. Thus, in some measure their faith in God's
compassion enlarged, for they saw clear evidence of the hand of the
compassionate "God of Israel" (Mt. 15:31). Hence, the crowd lingered in
the wilderness to be near Jesus, for in Him they found active, merciful
help for their tangible needs. Again, when their food ran out, they
discovered that the compassion of God manifests itself toward real
needs. The Lord Jesus also fed them. "Compassionate and merciful is
the Lord, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is good to
all, and His compassions are over all His works" (Ps. 144:8-9).

The account raises a question: here on this tiny planet earth, teeming
with billions of people, how can we say that the God of the entire,
immense universe really cares when there are so many who are hungry?
The question is not stated explicitly. Rather, you will find it woven
into the inquiry of the Lord Jesus' disciples: "Where could we get
enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?" (Mt.
15:33). On this speck of a planet, in the vast "spatial wilderness" we
call "the universe," mankind faces either an impersonal whorl of matter
devoid of care, or we meet Him Who created us and continues to care for
us now and ever.

In the feeding of the 4,000, we are invited to grasp the awe of the
Prophet Isaiah: "He shall tend His flock as a shepherd, and He shall
gather the lambs with His arm, and shall soothe them that are with
young. Who has measured the water in His hand, and the heaven with a
span, and all the earth in a handful?" (Is. 40:11,12). O Faithful in
Christ, our God is compassionate!

Even more, the great declaration of God's compassion is stunningly
embedded in this passage: God appeared as a man and remains so forever.
The compassionate God specifically fed a multitude of 4,000 on a
mountain, He was specifically among us as Jesus of Nazareth - He the One
without Whom "nothing was made that was made" (Jn. 1:3). "God [is] in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19); that is how
compassionate our God is! What need shall we bring to the Compassionate
One to which He is indifferent?

Come, my soul, let us ascend the mountain yonder, whence cometh thy
help. My help cometh from the Lord, Who hath made heaven and earth.
(Ps. 120:1,2)

Dormition of the Theotokos

St. Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28 (8/15) Gospel for
the Dormition of the Theotokos

Distractions: St. Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28, especially vs. 40: "...Martha
was distracted with much serving...." The Evangelist Luke describes the
Lord Jesus enjoying hospitality from His friends Martha and Mary:
Martha is busy serving her guests, but becomes exasperated with Mary who
is not helping her. Our Lord then teaches about the pitfall of losing
focus while serving - this from Him Who exalted service to His future
Apostles: "whoever desires to become great among you shall be your
servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of
all." He points out that "...the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve" (Mk. 10:43-45). How easy it is to be "distracted with
much serving," fall prey to the tyranny of the urgent, forget one's
purpose, and shift focus from the Lord to one's self.

The fact is that Martha, in welcoming the Lord into her home, fulfilled
the royal law of hospitality, a practice highly valued as a worthy act
of piety among the peoples of the Middle East. The great Patriarch
Abraham entertained the Lord God Himself in the theophany of the three
Angels (Gen. 18:1-8). Extending welcome to travelers and strangers
remains an esteemed act of piety (Ex. 2:20; Jdgs. 6:18). And the Lord
Jesus honored hospitality by blessing those who offered Him the comfort
of their homes (Mt. 9:10; Lk. 19:7; Jn. 2:2).

Martha's problem was not serving, but being "distracted by much serving"
(Lk. 10:40). A danger in worthwhile activity is letting that which
seems to be urgent crowd out the truly important matters of life. The
telephone, email, fax machines, and other means of rapid communication
breach the walls of our homes with constant and sometimes imperious
demands. Who does not know the reality of piles of unanswered mail,
unread books, prayerless days, and sleepless nights - all because of
allowing oneself to become a slave to the urgent?

Martha's shift in priorities became evident by the manner in which she
appealed to the Lord Jesus. She scolds: "Don't You care?....tell her to
help me!" (Lk. 10:40). The pressure of "the urgent" transformed
Martha's service into self-service. Was she most concerned about the
Lord and His teaching or herself as a hostess? What motivated Martha?
Was it the chance to be "a slave to all," or her own concerns with the
tasks of providing hospitality singlehandedly? St. Theophan the Recluse
points out how easily we can succumb to pleasing ourselves: the self
"seeks its own comfort and pleasure in all its doing, even the most
righteous and spiritual, and secretly and lustfully feeds on it as
though it were food."

Our gracious Savior and Lord corrects Martha, but also He warns us. He
indicates the best way in the situation. He calls attention to Mary's
choice of "...that good part, which will not be taken away from her"
(Lk. 10:42). Notice in the Lord's comment that Mary "chose" to sit at
His feet and to hear His word (Lk. 10:39, 42). If we are too quick to
heed the urgent, we are apt to succumb to its insistent voice! Be
watchful of little momentary demands that pester you for attention.
When we allow the urgent to tyrannize, we void our freedom in the Lord
and give away the power He graciously bestows upon us to live for His
glory.

Always, to choose the living word of the Lord is the "best part,"
because in so doing, He remains our highest priority. He continues to
be the center of life, and the One we actually serve - no matter the
task at hand. St. Theophan offers a suggestion: to keep peace in our
hearts when affliction and urgency would disturb us, incline the will
toward "God's will itself, then wish it and do it, but only because God
wishes it...only for His glory alone."

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doing with Thy most gracious favor, that
in all our works, begun, continued and ended in Thee, we may, by Thine
aid, serve and glorify Thee alone.

The Worthy Heart V - Bears Fruit

St. Matthew 21:12-14, 17-20 (8/15) Gospel for Friday of the Ninth
Week after Pentecost

The Worthy Heart V ~ Bears Fruit: St. Matthew 21:12-14, 17-20,
especially vs. 19: "And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and
found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, 'Let no fruit grow on
you ever again.' Immediately, the fig tree withered away." Talking
once with a Samaritan woman at Sychar (Jn. 4:6-26), the Lord Jesus
described the nature of true worship: "...true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to
worship Him" (Jn. 4:23). In the present passage from St. Matthew, the
Lord repeats the message but demonstrates His word graphically by
driving out those who were defiling His Temple (Mt. 21:12-13), healing
those who came to Him in His Temple (vs. 14), and emphasizing His will
either to fill with life those who bear fruit for Him or to withdraw
life from those who fail to bear Him fruit (vss 17-20). Those of worthy
hearts trust God, worship Him truly, and bear Him fruit.

When the Lord Jesus came to the Jerusalem Temple, do not miss the fact
that the Master of the House had come, God Himself, but Incarnate as a
man, yet deserving all honor, glory, and worship in His Holy Temple.
What He found was buying and selling, profane arrangements of tables,
chairs, various denominations and forms of money, and animals - a tidy,
bustling business for the merchants, a convenience store for those
coming to offer sacrifice. In His "driving out" and "overturning," the
Lord Jesus dramatized His ownership of the Temple, expressing plainly
His disfavor with the business operations. All this should be clear
enough.

In addition, in His act of cleansing of the Temple, the Lord Jesus
reiterates the same spiritual truth He made in conversation with the
woman (St. Photeini) at Sychar (Jn. 4:7-26): God's Temple is not a place
but a condition of the heart - our heart is the temple of the Lord.
Therefore, it is possible, if we are mindless and not attentive, that we
can set up business in our heart and displace the true worship of God
for which our heart is consecrated through the Holy Mysteries. As
Blessed Theophylact pleads, "O reader, look and see whether perhaps you
have made God's temple, that is your mind, a den of thieves, that is a
demon's lair. It will be such a den if we have thoughts full of the
desire of material things, of buying and selling and a love of money...."

The facts are that the Lord Jesus came into the physical Temple to heal
those who would "come" to Him (vs. 14), but a false practice had
developed that forbid the lame and the blind to enter the Jerusalem
Temple: no "imperfect" thing or person, was allowed to "desecrate" the
Temple by their mere presence. From the Lord Jesus' perspective, the
very ones who needed to be admitted were excluded while "business for
profit" actively took their place.

Once Christ our God disrupted the false "business as usual," the blind
and lame readily made their way to Him (vs. 14). This applies to you
and me: we may enjoy the Lord's presence within our physical Temples,
but never forget that "His True Temple" is in your heart. Those of
"worthy hearts," those who know their spiritual blindness and crippled
state, joyfully throng to the Lord, go into the Temple of their hearts,
and seek the healing touch of Christ our God. Therefore, anywhere in
the world, men and women may worship the Lord, come "to Him" (vs. 14) in
spirit and in truth, and be illumined and strengthened, and be healed of
sin and evils.

Finally, heed the warning of the fig tree. When the Lord Jesus found a
thriving but fruitless tree, He cursed it to wither away (vs. 19). He
continues searching for those of true worship who will bear fruit to Him
from their hearts. His message is stark, yet full of hope. He will
give life to those who seek Him, but He will also surely withdraw life
from those who turn away from Him being "invested in their own business"
and who do not bear fruit to Him.

"...the meditation of my heart shall be before Thee for ever, O
Lord..." (see Ps. 18:14).