Splanchnizomai

 Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

July 18, 2021

 

The disciples are back from their travels

and their 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 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, 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.

And 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 today 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.”

 

So “sheep without a shepherd” is not a great complement.

It doesn’t describe a disheveled 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 make very bad choices .

 

We’ve probably seen people like this.

Maybe we’ve known them, maybe we’ve been them at one time or another. 

Shepherdless sheep people end up on the streets or in prison or worse.

Now our upwardly mobile society

tells us that we should look on people like this with contempt.

Some would even say to shame them or harass

them would be the best course of action,

that that would somehow shake them up

and change the course of their behavior.

Definitely, if they mess up bad, just put them in jail

and forget about them.

 

These 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.

and we could get dragged into their shepherdless sheep ways.

Those shepherdless sheep should be avoided.

 

But Jesus, it said, looked at these people and he had 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.

 

But 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 one of those mass shootings,

Or when there’s a natural disaster and 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, 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.

Especially the outcast in our society.

And they think that is a reflection 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

an eye roll, or 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 the shootings –  and even the shooters

who cause so much pain – and God experiences

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.

We have all been lost sheep.

Humanity loses its 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 forget where our shepherd is

and who our shepherd is.

 

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, his love,

mercy and forgiveness that will

heal us, guide us, and bring us home.