Mark 6:30-34; 53-56
July 21, 2024
Jesus the Good Shepherd
Ted Rogers
The disciples are
back from their travels
and
they’re excited to tell Jesus what they’ve been up to.
Jesus and the
disciples are getting big.
The
word is spreading and people are coming out
from
far and wide to see him.
He’s
being mobbed like a TV star in Hollywood.
So Jesus suggests
that they all go
and
get away from the crowds
and
go to a deserted place
and
get some well-deserved rest.
But
again, they’re recognized and there’s a crowd around them.
It says that
Jesus looked at that crowd
and
he had compassion for the crowd
“Because
they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
Now, I think I
probably have had an idealized view
of
what the people who followed Jesus around were
like,
I think a lot of us do.
I
think paintings and movies have portrayed
these
people as disheveled, forlorn, unwashed, and sad, yes,
but
generally patient, good natured, and thankful.
A
basically unified crowd, all ripe for discipleship.
But
Jesus saw them as “sheep without a shepherd.”
As I’ve said, you
have to read up on sheep when you’re a pastor.
Without
a shepherd, sheep get lost very easily,
they’re
frightened and they run from one thing to the next.
They are
not calm and level headed and placid.
They
don’t know where to go, they’re libel to run off a cliff.
They
don’t know where their next meal is coming from
Sheep
without a shepherd can be very anxious and lost.
They
get cranky and they run around, and they do a lot of bleating.
The
sheep farming site I looked at said:
“Another thing worth
noting is that sheep get spooked easily.
They are afraid, even of
the smallest things you can think of.
But this doesn’t mean you should mess around with them!
They can be dangerous if provoked. They chomp and they head butt.”
So “sheep without
a shepherd” is not a great compliment.
It
doesn’t describe a “dirty but good hearted” group.
The
reality is that crowd of people Jesus encountered
was
most likely cranky, short tempered, impolite, and rude
and
maybe even a little dangerous when provoked.
Situations
change over the centuries.
But
people have not changed.
people
are still the same today.
People are not normally
sweet and humble
when
they are anxious and lost.
When
they don’t have stability and don’t know where their
next
meal is coming from.
When
they don’t feel grounded and secure.
When
they’re threatened constantly.
Oftentimes
people in that situation are desperate.
Sheep
without a shepherd often make bad choices
and when
they’re anxious and lost too long,
they can
make very bad choices .
Sometimes when church people first start doing
direct service projects with people in tough situations,
they get annoyed by people’s attitudes. They think
everyone should be outwardly
kind,
patient, and thankful. Some people get very turned off
to
service because the people receiving don’t behave
how
they expect them to behave.
And other parts
of our society
tells
us that we should look on people in need with contempt.
Some
would even say to shame them or harass
them
would be the best course of action.
Like
that that would somehow shake them up
and change their lot in life. (As if people in need are there
just in need because
they don’t do the right things.)
There’s
a sense that people should just pick themselves up by their
bootstraps
(whatever those are) and fix their own lot in life.
At
the very least, we should not be coddling or fraternizing
with these
people. Because they could get the wrong impression.
Like
we approve of them, or we actually love them as they are,
and
maybe they wouldn’t be motivated or change or become like us.
Or
worse, we could get dragged into their shepherdless sheep ways.
But Jesus, it
said, looked at these people and he had,
not disappointment or contempt, but compassion.
Compassion.
We know what that means. The definition is:
“Sympathetic pity
and concern
for the
sufferings or misfortunes of others”
It means to hurt for someone else’s pain.
The word that is
used here is translated
as compassion because that’s the closest in English,
but the word in Greek is much more descriptive.
The word is splanch-ni-zo-mai
It’s kind of a euphemism more than just a word
it actually means bowels.
There are other words in Greek to convey compassion
that don’t have quite this meaning.
But what Jesus felt was this kind of compassion.
Bowel compassion. Deep low in the stomach.
You know that feeling.
A combination of sadness, pain, and deep love.
When do you
remember ever feeling that,
deep in your bowels?
I feel it at funerals of people who have had sudden
and unexpected deaths of a loved one.
I feel it every time there’s a mass shooting,
Or when there’s a natural disaster and you can see
people’s whole world gets destroyed and torn apart.
Deep pain for the
suffering of another,
deep emotions for another person
and a desire to change the situation.
Jesus felt
compassion for them. Deep bowel pain.
Because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
And, it says, “he began to teach them many things.”
Meaning he spoke with them, he spent time with them,
valuable time.
No doubt they
weren’t all saints.
No doubt they weren’t all kind or gentle.
No doubt some of them were dangerous when provoked.
But he still spent his time with them.
Now they didn’t have to do anything to win Jesus attention.
It doesn’t say they showed promise, it doesn’t say they
were
instantly thankful and subservient, they didn’t pick themselves
up by their bootstraps, they weren’t showing initiative.
They didn’t have to do anything good to win Jesus attention.
All they did was be anxious, directionless people.
Lost sheep.
That tells us a
lot about Jesus and about God.
I have a few
friends and acquaintances
that have serious doubts about God.
They look at the church’s behavior or
the behavior of Christians and they assume that God is the same.
They see the most prominent Christians in the
world
judging, shaming , harassing or ignoring others.
Trying to impose their beliefs and practices on others,
by force if they deem it necessary.
And lots of people think that is a reflection
of the whole church and of God.
But Jesus is the
way we know God.
And Jesus looks at the worst of this world
and doesn’t react with judgment, shame, contempt,
manipulation, coercion, an eye roll, or even by turning away.
Jesus reacts with splach-ni-zo-mai.
Bowels. Deep pain and sympathy.
I believe that
God looks at the horrors of this world,
the violence, the lost people, the addiction, the apathy,
the racism, the animosity,
the endless ways we hurt each other and ignore each other, and
think we’re so much better than each other.
God looks at us, and at the whole world with
a deep bowel pain for these symptoms of a lost humanity.
Even when we have
contempt and hatred,
God has compassion.
Even when we roll our eyes,
God opens his arms.
Even when we have no more compassion to give,
God has more.
Last week, I told
you about those two tables.
The ones we have to choose from every
day.
The table of the empire and the market,
the one which excludes,
which is run by contempt and fear and
gluttony,
which is controlled by money and power,
and which often ends in violence.
And the table of
Jesus, which is ruled by grace,
and forgiveness, understanding, and
love,
which includes and sends no one away
hungry.
Jesus means to
shepherd us from the first table
to his table, not with coercion or
force,
but with compassion.
We have all been
lost sheep.
Humans lose their way on a daily basis.
We follow fame and politics
and power and money with religious zeal.
We are prone to callousness, despair and cynicism,
We have all made some bad choices.
We have all made deals with the devil and
traded in good things for bad.
We all have forgotten where our shepherd is,
and we can sometimes be dangerous if provoked.
But when we get
lost,
we just need to remember that
Jesus is our shepherd.
And it is Christ’s
splach-ni-zo-mai,
Christ’s compassion, and his love,
mercy and forgiveness that will
heal us, guide us, and bring us home.
