Why did God send Jesus to die for us? Why did Jesus submit to the will of God and go to the cross? Isn't it because he saw how much in danger we are and at the same time how helpless we are? Isn't it because he saw our need, knew he could provide what we need, and cared enough to act?
Compassion has that power. It leads to action. In Mark 6 we see an example of it in the ministry of Jesus. It came at a time when Jesus and his disciples were tired. In a sense they were suffering from ministry fatigue. Every day they faced great crowds of sick, hungry and desperate people. Mark tells us that Jesus said to his twelve apostles, "Let's go off to a secluded, quiet place and rest for awhile." They needed to get away for a time, to rest and to find renewal. So they got into a boat, perhaps at Capernaum, and started out across the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee.
But people saw where they were going and rushed along the shore. The numbers grew until finally Jesus and the apostles were faced by 5,000 men, plus women and children. What should they do? Leave again? try to find another secluded area? Mark says that when Jesus saw the multitude "he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them."
As the day wore on and it became quite late Jesus realized that these desperate people needed more than teaching -- they were hungry and needed food. But this was a lonely, deserted area and there wasn't a fast food place in sight. So Jesus asked his disciples to feed them. We know the rest of the story. The meager number of loaves and fish and the miraculous multiplication until all had eaten and there were leftovers enough to fill twelve baskets.
Have you noticed the Eucharistic hints in this story, how it parallels and anticipates the Lord's Supper? There are at least two ways. First, it was compassion that led Jesus to act, both in going to the cross on our behalf and in feeding the 5,000. Second, his action anticipates the Last (Lord's) Supper: he blessed and broke and distributed the bread. Mark's story seems to be saying to us that when Jesus blesses and breaks bread our greatest needs are met.
As we come to the Lord's Table we experience the benefits of his compassion, but we also receive the challenge of his compassion -- the challenge to lift our eyes from the table and from ourselves and look upon the multitude, as he did, and act out of compassion to meet their needs. We, like the early disciples, can become the hands that distribute bread to the hungry.
