The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah, Part 7: Matthew 8 – 11:5, by Kevin M. Williams
In John 5:2-4 we read “Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.” The inspired writer does not speculate, but implies that these miracles were commonplace. In fact, the afflictions from which they were cured were many of the same maladies on our Messianic expectations list.
So what made Yeshua so special? What set His mission above all the others? What placed His authority above that of Moses, of Elijah, or of David? We will soon answer that.
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Before we consider the singularly unique quality of Yeshua and His work—let us take a look at “compassion.” In Matthew 9:36 we read, “And seeing the multitudes, He [Yeshua] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd” (brackets mine).
This is the first time we find Yeshua moved “with compassion.” We shall read the same concept five more times in this gospel, and several more times in the other gospel accounts. This is editorializing on this author’s part, but it has been my observation that the majority of the church today is wholly without compassion.
Harsh? Maybe. But consider for a moment. The American church has a tendency to see a problem and then throw money at it. Are people moved with compassion to give? Potentially, but it appears that guilt and/or peer pressure may have more to do with their response at the offering plate. Once the money is given, their duty is fulfilled.
Or consider the feeble woman in your congregation. The one who shows up at every prayer meeting asking for the same prayers she has been asking for over the last decade or so. We pray, we do our duty, and then we move on to what we hope will be more “fruitful” prayers. Is that the compassion of Yeshua?
What about the couple whose marriage is teetering on the edge of divorce? Isn’t it too easy to take sides and substitute that for compassion?
Maybe the pastor who is drowning with too much responsibility, and yet is expected to carry on. Where is the messianic example of compassion in that?
There are many models and methods on the bookshelves these days from people who seem to have all the answers when it comes to prayer and a fruitful life in the kingdom of God. Yet I say that if we have no compassion, if we have fallen guilty of rote, mundane antipathy for our fellow men and women both inside and outside the faith, masked in an ambiance of pious prayer, then we are looking in at the kingdom, and not from within its gates. The most powerful and effective prayers of my life have been when I have been moved with compassion, or have asked God to allow me to see the other person with His compassion.
The unbelieving world has no defense against compassion. It has no argument and it has no shield. Hard hearts crumble before godly, genuine compassion. It is one of the awesome characteristics of God as described in the Old Testament, the God in whose image we were formed. If we have no compassion, then we have grown cold and abused the heart of God.
Category: Biblical Studies, Fall 2002, Pneuma Review
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