Thoughts of Grace

Violets heralding the coming of Spring.

Good Morning

When Jesus heard of it,
(the beheading of John the Baptist)
he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart:
and when the people had heard thereof,
they followed him on foot out of the cities.
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude,
and was moved with compassion toward them,
and he healed their sick.
Matthew 14:13-14 italics are mine

Webster’s: sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it

In the midst of Christ’s sorrow and grief,
he was consciously sympathetic toward others.

The Greek word for compassion is splanchnizomai,
which won’t mean much to you unless you are in the health professions
and studied “stlanchnology” in school.
If so, you remember that “splanchology” is a study of . . the gut.
When Matthew writes that Jesus had compassion on the people,
he not saying that Jesus felt casual p;pity for them.,
No, the term is far more graphic.
Matthew is saying that Jesus felt their hurt in his gut:
He felt the limp of the crippled.
He felt the hurt of the diseased.
He felt the loneliness of the leper.
He felt the embarrassment of the sinful.
And once he felt their hurts,
he couldn’t help but heal their hurts.
Max Lucado ~~ In the Eye of the Storm.

Look with eyes of compassion . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie