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)