An Appointment with Christ: Multiplication of the loaves and fishes (Mark 6:30) Part 4

We have talked about that life of dependence on Christ Jesus, we have also talked about that Christ who wants us to take time to rest and to reflect with Him, who wants to be intimate with us as well as for us to be intimate with Him.

This passage says here that "the Lord took the disciples to a separate place to have fellowship with them, but when they arrived at the place where they were going to rest they discovered that the crowd had discovered where they were going to be there and they had already gone ahead and were waiting for them. Now the interesting thing is that when the Lord stumbles upon the fact that these people who have gone ahead of Him, and who are waiting for Him to teach them and bless them with their ministry, instead of Him getting upset with them because they have interfered with their time of rest, he says that the Lord had compassion on them. They say that many saw him go and recognized him and many went there on foot from the cities and arrived before them and joined him, and Jesus came out and saw a great crowd and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. and he began to teach them many things.”

I am touched by this passage because it shows the compassion of Christ. He says that when the Lord saw that great crowd of people who had come forward to wait for him and who were thirsty for his word and his teaching, instead of becoming frustrated and upset with them because they were stealing his rest time, he pitied. That speaks to me so much about that compassionate ministry of Christ Jesus.

Wherever I look at the ministry and life of Jesus Christ I see a compassionate man, a tremendously loving being. The Lord Jesus Christ has compassion on us. If we reach out to Him and seek Him, He will never be too busy or too involved in other things to minister to our life and give us what we need.

I think of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he says: "He who comes to me I will not cast out." If you approach the Lord, he will never reject you, he will never send you empty-handed. He will always remember you, because the God that I see in writing is a merciful and compassionate God. The Bible says: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and great in mercy”. I also think of the words of the psalmist when he says: "As the father has compassion on his children, the Lord has compassion on those who fear him."

How wonderful to know that we have such a beautiful God, so compassionate, so full of mercy. What many of us think of is the God of the whip, the God of judgment, who is always ready to send us lightning from heaven for any little thing we do to offend him. Brothers, the God that I see in scripture is a God of mercy and compassion. A God who knows that I have needs, that I have limitations, that I am a small being and prone to fall, stumble and make mistakes and who is there ready to extend his hand, to pick me up and put me back on the right path.

I remember the passage of the adulterous woman, that this woman had evidently committed a serious sin, had committed adultery and the sentence for that type of sin in Jewish law was that that person was stoned to death. And when they brought an adulterous woman to Jesus Christ, hoping that the Lord would condemn her, they wanted to put Jesus in trouble, they wanted to see him use the whip and the judgment to which they were accustomed.

The Bible says that the Lord said to that angry crowd against that poor woman, He said: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." It is not that the Lord supported the sin of adultery, what happened was that these people lacked mercy and what they saw was only the judgment, they were not aware of their own weakness, of their own sinfulness, but they were only looking at the sin of this woman, as we often do. Rather, the Lord perhaps saw in this person a person who had made a serious mistake, worthy of condemnation, but he also saw a person in need of mercy and God's grace.

The Bible says that when these men began to reflect they discovered that each one of them was worthy of death because they had also sinned and they withdrew one by one until they left Jesus alone with the woman and then the Lord told him : Woman, where are those who condemn you? And she answered him: Lord, they all left. He tells her, well, I don't condemn you either, go and sin no more. There I see that merciful attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ, that compassionate attitude. The Lord always had compassion on people and saw them in their need.

Again the Lord is a God of holiness as well. He is not giving his hand to sin, but I am afraid that many times Christians look more to the God of judgment, fire and brimstone than the God of mercy, love and compassion. And that is why we live sometimes fearing God and anxious and with a paranoid mentality, and sometimes in the church we only hear the scourge, and the criticism and the condemnation and the judgment, instead of words of mercy and love that are often more effective in promoting a holy life than the words of condemnation and continuous attack that we often hear in places that should rather be places of compassion and mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is a compassionate Christ, he took pity on the crowd, he felt sorry for them, he says that they were like sheep without a shepherd. These poor, humble townspeople had been shunned by the religious elite of their time. The priests did not want to know about them because they saw them as sinful and ignorant people. The scribes had abandoned them. The Pharisees and Sadducees were involved in their lofty philosophy and their subtle and exotic interpretations of the law, and the Lord saw that these people were hungry and thirsty for the word, and He postponed their time of intimacy and rest with His disciples and told them He took time to teach them and minister to them and heal them and speak to them of God's love for their lives.

I want to invite you to set your sights on that loving Christ who wants you to approach Him and talk to Him about your needs, that you confess your sins, that you bring your mistakes to Him and that you let Him He blesses you, heals you, treats you. Don't be afraid to get closer to God. Many people do not want to go to church because they feel sinful, they feel that they are not well and they are waiting first to improve their life and to solve their moral dilemmas and then go to church and seek God. You will never be pure or just enough to go before God. God wants you to come to Him just as you are.

The Lord says: “Come to me, all you who are labored and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” The only thing that qualifies you to come to Christ is to be worked, burdened, tired, full of sin, full of need because the Lord says that he came to seek what was lost. He did not come looking for the healthy, He came looking for the sick. If you are in sin and in need, that is the best time and the best condition to come before a compassionate Christ. He pities you, he wants to be your shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ says “I am the good shepherd”. I leave 99 sheep to go look for one that has been lost. That is the Christ that I know and that is the Christ that I am presenting before you this day, the Christ who took pity on the multitude hungry and thirsty for his word. Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Come to Christ, prostrate yourself before Him, tell Him your need and He will extend His hand of grace and mercy and give you according to your need. God bless you.