Highlighted New Testament Bible

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

St Matthew, Chapter 15, verse: 33, The Compasion of Christ: The Disciples are willing.

Our paragraph topic is:  ( Jesus has compassion on the crowd) Part 2.   

All were cured.  All were made whole.  All were given sight.  All were made to walk.  Christ cured them all that were brought to him.  They came from the villages, the towns, the districts, from everywhere to see, to hear, and to be cured.  For the word spoke to them.  The word was alive.  The word spread to all that heard, to all who belonged, to all who wanted to believe that their lives could change.  And Christ changed all their lives.

And they did not want to leave.  They did not want to go.  They did not want to return to the life they knew, even though their lives had changed.  Christ had compassion on them.  All evil had been cast out.  And the crowd was like lost sheep, not knowing what to do or where to go.  And Christ had compassion upon them.  He wanted to feed them.  He wanted to guide them.  He wanted to show them a way so that they would not be lost.  But the time was not right.  The time was not fulfilled.  The sacrifice was not made and the absolution was not given.  So Christ could not give them the eternal food that they needed for their journey.  He could only give them the physical food they needed to feed their physical bodies.

Jesus called his disciples together to express his compassion on the crowd.  He wanted his disciples to know his feelings and he wanted to demonstrate to them how they should feel for the crowd.  But the disciples were unwilling.  They wanted to disperse the crowd and did not have compassion for them.  For it was a desert place and there was nowhere to obtain food to feed the people.  The disciples had nothing to give nor anything to offer.  But Christ was unwilling to send them away fasting and hungry for more of what he had to offer.  So he called his disciples together.   And the disciples said to him, "But in a desert, where are we to get enough loaves to satisfy so great a crowd? Jesus said to them, ''How many loaves have you?" And they said, "Seven, and a few little fishes."   

They only had seven loaves and a few fishes to feed a multitude of people.  They did not realize that Christ was the food.  Christ was the bread and Christ was the wine that would feed the multitudes of people.  But the sacrifice had not been offered and the absolution was not complete.  So the physical body was what was fed.  Christ wanted to feed the spiritual.  Christ wanted to feed the soul.  Christ wanted to fulfill the eternal for he had compassion upon the crowd but the disciples were willing to turn them away.  The disciples did not understand that Christ through them would feed the sheep of the world.  They would provide the people with the spiritual food needed to feed the lambs of the body of Christ.

We call upon our Lord today to heal our wounds.  We call upon him to cure our sickness.  We call upon him to provide for us and to protect us from harm.  And Christ wants to feed us.  Christ wants to provide for us, to protect us, to heal us, to cure us from sickness.  But we are not willing.  We are not ready.  We do not know the truth of who we are in Christ.  We cling to physical life as though it was meant to be eternal.  We ask for protection and turn from our protector.  We ask that we are provided for and turn away from the provisions that are given us because they do not come according to our timetable when our God who created the universe provides for us for all eternity and not just for the moment. 

Come!  Know the truth of who you are.  Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ.  Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself.   Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding.   Read it for knowledge.  Read it for faith.   Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ.   The Holy Spirit awaits you.   Christ seeks to know you.  Open the door and let him in!