“I have compassion for the crowd…”  Matthew 15:29-39  Remembering the year I spent as a chaplain in the MICU of a Hospital, always by the third visit to this “mountain” in which the patient was holding to the hope of healing, I yearned to give more. I wanted them to be physically healed. Yet knowing that my presence and prayer was all I had, I was grateful that the relationship went beyond the physical. In this reading a crowd on the mountain is amazed at the healing that is taking place, but that wasn’t the end of it. Something more was about to happen. They’d followed Jesus up that mountain and he tended to their every need for three days. It seems clear that there was a deeper relationship in Christ which the disciples had yet to conceive. The root of the Greek word used for compassion is translated as “inward parts,” figuratively meaning that what Christ is feeling is coming from deep within. Jesus knew what he needed to do. Perhaps his compassion for the crowds on the mountain that day went beyond the lack of food, and directly towards his yearning to feed this hungry crowd the Glory of God. Today, like the disciples we are often overwhelmed asking ourselves, where, why, and how long. Yet we’ve been in this relationship with Christ long enough to know what to do. Always giving thanks, we feed on God’s Glory. For in the fullness of Christ, the righteous are not forsaken nor his seed begging bread.

Featured Image Credit:Grade Level: K-5
Content Area: Creative Arts, Language Arts
Created By: Christine Kolstoe and Kelly Kerani, Lynnwood Elementary, Lynnwood, WA, USA (Edmonds School District, north of Seattle)