Compassionate Healing

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

    What do you love about people? What drives you bonkers about people?  Do you enjoy large crowds or prefer more one-on-one interactions?  I think whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, we all have times where we love being around other people and times where people just irritate us.  Last Sunday, for example, we had our congregational picnic, and I had a great time – I think most of us did who were able to attend!  There were about forty of us; it would’ve been nice if it were a little cooler, but that was a party I enjoyed!  I loved having more extended time getting to talk with people, meeting new people and catching up with others.
But just a few weeks ago, our family was in Yosemite, one of the most popular National Parks in the country, during prime vacation season, and it was busy – too busy.  Sometimes we had a hard time finding a parking spot.  People did very annoying things, like listening to music very loudly without head phones (listen to the music of nature on your hike, people!), using drones when the signs said very clearly that drones were prohibited, leaving trash on the ground, and of course, driving terribly without any patience or regard for others in traffic.  Experiences where I am in Times Square, for example, going through a human traffic jam, are not pleasant for me. I do not enjoy large crowds of strangers.  These experiences remind me of the worst of humanity, because people seem to become less smart/more idiotic in larger groups -- I don’t know why that is!  These are the times I truly struggle to listen to Jesus and “love my neighbor as myself.”  I find it very difficult to love people in large crowds.
    We are in kind of an in-between time in following Jesus through the gospel of Mark this Sunday.  The in-between verses that we skipped over in chapter 6 today are the story of the feeding of the 5000, which we will look at next week.  This week, we see how Jesus is becoming very popular, so much so that he and his disciples have no leisure even to eat.  Jesus prioritizes rest, because he understands as a human being you have to take care of yourself if you’re going to help others.  They get away for a little bit in a boat.  But then the crowds follow him, and does he get annoyed or frustrated or angry that they can’t take a little bit longer break?  No.  Jesus comes ashore, sees this great crowd, and has “compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd,” Mark says.  Wherever he goes, all who touch even the fringe of his cloak are healed.  Jesus not only tolerates, but shows compassion upon, people in large crowds!
For me, this short story in our gospel about Jesus loving people when it is very difficult to love people is an even greater miracle than his ability to physically cure the sick.  This is not to dismiss the magnitude of Christ’s power to heal, and his power even over death to raise people from the dead and to be raised himself.  I just want to also point out that it is truly remarkable, and something we too often overlook, that Jesus is able to love people when we can’t.  Jesus, as the son of God, loves like God loves.  Jesus finds compassion in his heart for the litterers, the rule breakers, the wreckless drivers, the loud talkers and the people oblivious to anyone else’s needs but their own – can you imagine!  Jesus can see them still as human beings created in the image of God, and this is something that perhaps ONLY Jesus can do – love unlovable people.  Jesus pushes the bounds of what it means to love and show compassion for others beyond what most of us can do from our limited human ability.
    Jesus gives us strength to love and have compassion for people when we can’t love people by our own strength.  When’s the last time you heard someone even talk about showing compassion for someone else?  Our world today does not emphasize showing compassion for others much at all. Yet, we see over and over again in the gospels Jesus loving the unlovable and showing compassion on people we easily ignore, forget about, or even truly dislike.  In this case, the word Mark uses for Jesus’ emotion of compassion is to have a gut feeling of love or affection for people.  In Jesus’ time, people described love and mercy coming not from the heart but from the guts or intestines (the stomach area).  To truly love someone was to go beyond rational thoughts or actions to going with your gut feeling.  It’s a humbling thought that Jesus has a gut feeling about us, that we human beings even in our unlovable state are worth Christ’s compassion, his saving, his dying for.  And when our gut reaction is to run away from the crowds and the needs of the world or even recoil in disgust or frustration with humanity, Jesus’ gut reaction is to go towards the crowd with compassion, to be like a shepherd to them in guiding the sheep, healing them and teaching them many things.
For you Latin buffs out there, the English word compassion comes from the Latin, “com-passion” meaning to suffer with.  We can think of how we sometimes call the “Passion” of the Christ as the event of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross.  Jesus suffers with us and for us as the son of God becoming human.  In his ministry of teaching and healing, Jesus shows radical love for any person, great or small, who comes to him, especially for those who are sick and suffering.  And in his suffering and death for us, Jesus suffers with us, for us, to save us.
Here's the thing; when I think of how much Jesus has suffered for me, and how much Jesus loves me despite of my worst self (and I know how bad I can be more than anyone else, let’s be honest), THAT helps me to take a few deep breaths and show compassion toward others, even the people I have a hard time loving.  Through both his dying and living, Christ helps us be more compassionate people.  Jesus gives us strength to love like him.  And if Jesus can love and forgive someone like me, Jesus can love and forgive someone like you, like them, too.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.