The Compassion of Jesus

I read Matthew 14 for my morning devotions this today. It's easy to read the Bible and not really think about what I'm reading because I've heard it so many times. It often feels like I'm just reading a story. There aren't many descriptive words in the gospels to really spark your imagination, it just states what happened.  But this morning, I actually paid attention.

In the first part of Matthew 14, John gets beheaded. The way it happens is really horrible and tragic. Herod had already wanted to put John to death because he didn't like that John had confronted him about his adultery, so you'd think he'd be at least inwardly glad at this series of events that got John beheaded, but it says he was "sorry." That's how horrible it was.

The daughter of the woman with whom he was having an affair (I assume physically, but I suppose the text doesn't explicitly say that), prompted by her mother, asked for John's head on a platter. I don't know how old this girl was, but I always imagine her as like 12 years old, and to have a girl anywhere around that age ask for that is like...so creepy. Kind of gives you horror movie vibes.

But she did, and, though Herod was sorry to do it, he commanded that it be done, and so John was beheaded in prison (much to his surprise I'm sure, and that of all his friends), and his head, freshly severed from his body, was brought on a platter to this girl, who then brought it to her mother. How gruesome! And sick! That's a lot of hatred that mother and daughter had for John.

And then, Jesus heard about it and must have been experiencing great grief. His beloved cousin had just been brutally murdered and then made a spectacle of! Jesus needed some time alone to grieve, very understandably, but He couldn't get alone because of the crowds, and even in His grief, He had compassion on them!

If that had been me, I would have gently told the crowds I needed space because someone close to me had just died, and I would have asked the crowds to leave. I would even feel justified in speaking more firmly to them if they didn't leave after I first asked them! (But I'm not Jesus and I wouldn't have crowds following me in the first place.)

Jesus didn't do that though... His compassion is unbelievable. He didn't even just allow them to be there but not interact with them; no, despite His own grief and His need to be alone, He recognized the peoples' need, and fulfilled it, at the cost of His own need.

I would have done exactly what the disciples did: recommend He send them away to buy their own food. That wouldn't have been mean to the crowds, it would have been compassionate to Jesus (and perhaps to the disciples themselves - they were probably mourning too). But Jesus Himself fulfilled their need, which was a LOT because there were a lot of people!

I often think about the great sacrifice Jesus went through on the cross for me, in gruesomely dying for me and others who hated Him, and in my head I know He also lived sacrificially, but I haven't really realized how hard it was to live for others, till reading that this morning. (I realize it more at least, after reading that.)

Lord, teach me to live more like You!