In Mark 6, the Lord Jesus and the 12 left a crowd to seek a quiet place known to them that they may have a time of rest and conversation. But a great number of people from the area went to the place ahead of Jesus to hear him. The people arrived first, no doubt, because Jesus and the 12 were heavy with the news of the death of John the Baptist (v.32). They may even have paused for some fishing on the way (v.38).
Sheep without a shepherd
“And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things” (v. 34).
“Compassion” is a condition of being empathetically aware of the condition of others and of moving to alleviate that condition in a practical way. The Greek word employed in verse 34 is the strongest word for compassion and describes the full flower of the emotion; the one Greek word is rendered here: “was moved with compassion.”
On this occasion, the Lord’s emotion was aroused by the spiritual needs of the people: “because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.” Here they were, the lost sheep of the house of Israel running from their cities and from their shepherds to hear Jesus of Nazareth. He was not annoyed with their thoughtlessness nor angry at their weakness; he was sorry for them. He did not see them as chaff to be burned (the attitude of the Pharisees), but as a potential harvest to be reaped by God.
Jesus first provided them with spiritual bread — “and he began to teach them many things” — afterward feeding them with natural food. The record neatly marries the two ideas in verse 42: “And they did all eat and were filled.” These words echo a primary principle spoken by the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6).
Urgent physical need
In Mark 8:2, we come upon the Lord Jesus Christ facing a situation of urgent need that also arouses his compassion. A large crowd was with him for three days and the people exhausted their food supplies. Further, their brains had been working feverishly during that three-day Bible School as the divine concepts of salvation were presented to them by the Lord. They were near exhaustion and the Lord knew it (v. 3).
Here, his compassion focused on their physical need. Again he provided bread for them and again their needs were met to the full: “So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets” (Mk. 8:8).
Again we have echoes of the Sermon on the Mount and the promise that “but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things [the physical necessities] shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:31- 34).
Attitude to humanity
The Greek word for compassion used in these two incidents appears only in the gospels (12 times). Three of the usages are in parables, while nine of them are used of Jesus himself. These usages form a picture of the Lord’s attitude toward humanity — he has great empathy for our spiritual and physical needs.
In Matthew 20 we read of “two blind men sitting by the way side [who] when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, thou son of David….So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him” (Matt. 20:30-34).
Here the need was for sight, physical sight in two blind men. It is hard to escape the thought that these are illustrative of the natural spiritual condition of Jew and Gentile. The physical need was met because they recognized their condition, and this was not the condition God intended man to be in.
They saw him as the Lord’s Christ, son of David — the King of Israel who was to come — and they said so loudly, to the embarrassment of their neighbors. (How loudly do we proclaim the King?) Their faith was sound — their spiritual sight was full and healthy and it brought them to the intended state of natural sight as originally designed by God.
The leprosy of mankind
“And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean…” (Mk. 1:40-44).
Here we see a man in a diseased condition — Luke says he was full of leprosy — who recognized that condition and went to the Master convinced by what he knew of him, that he had the power to heal. It is inescapable that this man is representative of humanity and the leprosy representative of the mortal condition and bias to sin. This thought brought out the compassion in the Lord Jesus and his willingness to provide the needed cleansing.
Compassion to Legion
Another occasion to consider is Jesus with the man called Legion. Mark 5 records the incident and relates the compassion in verse 19: “Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”
The spiritual lesson is again clear in the incident, with the result of the compassionate work of the Lord being seen eloquently in verse 15. Before the Lord’s intervention he was restlessly wandering, naked and out of his mind, now the picture is different -”And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid” (Mk. 5:15).
We see the condition of mankind amply illustrated in this man, particularly today’s world. Isn’t this its condition — naked and wandering out of its mind?
And the Lord Jesus Christ will heal this condition and we are his agents!
A dead son raised
Finally, there is the plight of the widow of Nain. “Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier, and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother” (Lk. 7:12-15).
Here again the human condition is brought to the fore and we cannot escape the thought that the woman is representative, or at the least an echo, of Eve (Adam called her the mother of all living). All of her children were born dead (or dying) as it were, and here, in fulfillment of the promise made to Eve in Genesis (note, not primarily to Adam) her son is returned to her alive!
Manifesting the Father
Primarily, of course, the condition of compassion is a part of the character of God Himself, and it is this characteristic seen in His son in the incidents under our consideration.
David expressed it in the Psalm: “0 God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. But thou, 0 Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 0 turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid” (Psa. 86:14-16). Isn’t that descriptive of the Son as well?
Consider also:
“His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion. He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant. He hath showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen” (Psa. 111:3-6).
We should do the same and act as the Father and the Son have acted. It is Peter, one who witnessed all the compassion’s we have considered, who exhorts: “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:8-9).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One