[Day 169]
Matthew 14.13;23
When Jesus heard about it, He withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone… As He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick… After dismissing the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray
Jesus is incredibly compassionate. He is deeply upset by the death of John the Baptist – so much so that He goes off to a remote place to be on His own. But word spreads that He is on the move, and instantly huge crowds of people gather to meet Him, to be healed by Him, to be near Him. And as soon as He sees them, He has compassion on them. Incredible compassion.
His compassion leads Him to action. He has compassion on the huge crowd, and so He heals them. He doesn’t send them off and tell them to come back another day. He doesn’t say, “My good friend has died, so leave me alone!” No, He sees them, has compassion on them and heals them.
He then feeds the thousands of people who have gathered. They are in a wilderness and it’s late. Jesus has been working all day, but He understands that the people are hungry. He has compassion on them. He utterly understands the needs of humans.
But He is also utterly heavenly. He fully understands that His strength comes from the Lord and He loves being on His own with His Heavenly Father. At the end of the day, He goes off on His own to be with His Father.
So, what a 24 hours Jesus has had! He is utterly human in His compassion, and He is utterly Godly in His desire to be at one with the Lord. He starts the day full of human emotion and ends the day displaying His Godliness by walking on water.
Today Jesus still meets us in our humanity but, as with Peter, He calls us to become more than that through Him.
What is God saying?
I believe that God is saying:
Are we too ‘heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good’? Jesus wasn’t