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MARK 6:30-34   The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught.  Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”  So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.  But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.

This passage speaks to us of compassion, specifically the compassion of our Lord. Let’s set the scene for this passage.  It begins by saying The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the message of repentance, to cast out spirits, and to heal.  So they return to tell Jesus that they had done what He commanded. The compassion of Jesus had led Him to send them out on this mission of mercy.

Upon their return, notice what Jesus does. He knows that they had labored hard in the task He had given them, and he wants to give them time to recuperate:  Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Once again, we see the compassionate nature of our Lord, in wanting to care for His disciples’ physical needs.

When Jesus and His disciples tried to get away by themselves, they were unsuccessful.  The crowds followed them.  And Jesus told them to leave Him alone, right?  No, we are told that He had compassion on them. Rather than turn them away, He taught them what they needed to know.  Truly our Lord is full of compassion.

So then, just what is compassion? The dictionary says it is a deep feeling for the suffering of others. That’s not a bad definition, but it doesn’t even begin to describe what this word means in the original language. The Greek word here is SPLAGXNIZOMAI. This word is untranslatable into one word in English. It is more than just pity. It is not just that He felt sorry for them. It speaks of a tenderness that comes from deep down inside you–literally a gut feeling. This feeling wells up inside of you until it becomes like a lump in your throat. This feeling for another person is so deep that it is not just something you feel: it causes you to act. You can’t feel that much without doing something about it. Such is the compassion of our Lord. He felt for those around Him and He did something about it.  His compassion led Him to send out His disciples to preach repentance and the Good News. His compassion dictated that He allow His disciples a period of rest. And His compassion told Him that He could not turn away this crowd without giving them something, so He taught them.

We are not told here exactly what Jesus taught these people. However, I would imagine that it was pretty much the same message He shared throughout His ministry. He most likely told them about the love of their compassionate heavenly Father. He felt for mankind, His perfect creation which had corrupted itself through disobedience. And God’s compassion was such that it led Him to act: He acted by sending a Savior, someone who would bear the burden of our disobedience to bring us back to God. Jesus was that very one sent to save us. Not only did He come to us, but He came as one of us. He was human, though without sin.  And since He was one of us, His compassion was rooted in knowing who we are and what we go through. He understood us completely, and dedicated His entire being to helping us out of the hopeless situation we had entered through out sin. Faith in His life of perfect obedience and His sacrifice for sins makes us acceptable before the throne of God.

More thoughts on compassion tomorrow.

John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

The previous devotion had me musing about “The Day the Son Went Down,” focusing on the first coming of Jesus as Christmas as why He came: to pay for our sin and accomplish our salvation. I mentioned that there were actually several days in Scripture that could be described as “The Day the Son Went Down,” so I’d like to share some thoughts on those today.

One of the days “The Son Went Down” was when He was betrayed. You’ve probably heard someone say on a movie or police drama, “You’re going down…” They want to knock criminals down and get them out of the way. That is what the Jewish rulers wanted to do to Jesus. They saw Him as more than a nuisance. They thought He was a threat to their own power and authority. People were following Him, people were listening to Him. They wanted Him out of the way. So they plotted with a disillusioned follower of Jesus. They agreed to pay Judas so that he would hand Jesus over to them away from the crowds and in secret. It took place under the cover of darkness, in a garden where our Lord had gone to pray with His disciples. In order to fulfill God’s plan, Jesus went down. Once again, he did so willingly. He didn’t put up a fight. It is not that He wanted to die. He had made that clear just a few minutes before this in Gethsemane. But He was willing to do what His Father wanted, what was best for us. He had stated that earlier, as recorded in John 6 [38] For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And it was the Father’s will that the Son “go down” so that you and I would not have to.

The very next day, what we call Good Friday, it appeared as though the Son went down for the count. He took that perfect life He had lived, placed it on the altar of the cross, and gave it up for you. Once again, He went down willingly. … I lay down my life … No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. (John 10:17-18)  Since God demanded death as the payment for sin, Jesus provided it from a heart filled with love. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Jesus died carrying your sin.

From the cross, the Son went down to the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea secured permission to bury Jesus. He bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock (Mark 15:46). Satan and his minions rejoiced, thinking they were victorious. But just the opposite was true. Satan was defeated. He and the enemies of Jesus thought the Son went down for good. He did, just not the way they thought. He went down for our good, yours and mine. He went down for everyone’s good, and everyone can get that good if they believe that He went down for them. Personal belief in Jesus as Savior receives all the good things God wants you to have.

Sometime between His crucifixion and His resurrection is another day Jesus went down. We speak of it in the Apostle’s Creed: He descended into hell. The Bible doesn’t tell us much about this, only what it says in 1 Peter: For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-19) Once again, the Son Went down for our good. He went to hell not to suffer – that was finished. He went to proclaim His victory He had secured for us.

That victory was proclaimed loudly and clearly for the entire world on the third day. Jesus took up His power as the Almighty, rose from death and the grave, and announced His triumph through the Resurrection. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Earlier I referenced parts of verses 17 and 18 from John 10. These make it clear this was always God’s plan, even before the Son went down: The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life–only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. The Son went down and the Son rose again so that you might be forgiven and have peace with God.

You and I live in the peace and comfort and security that the Son went down for our sake. He has satisfied the demands our sin placed on us, reconciled us to the Father, and given us forgiveness and life and salvation. You have this guaranteed through faith in Christ. We live in this confidence as we await another day the Son will go down. There is one that has not yet happened, but one that we, as His followers, eagerly anticipate. It was spoken of by Paul: 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Our Lord is coming down again to take us to Himself. This is our future because of our faith in Christ. May you live each day in this joy and confidence.

Most days we have a nice view of the “sun going down,” that big ball of fire that provides us with light and heat, the closest star to the earth, slowly sinking in the western sky. Of course, we are told that the earth is actually revolving around the sun, so the sun does not actually “go down,” it just appears that way to us because of the earth rotating on its axis.

That made me think of a play on words, “The day the Son went down,” speaking of our Lord Jesus. It did not just appear that He came down to earth as one of us – He actually did just that. And as I thought about that phrase, I realized that there are several days in history that could be described that way.

John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

Let’s start with the first coming of our Lord, the event we commonly know as Christmas. Martin Luther wrote a lengthy hymn about this entitled, “From Heaven above to earth I come. (The Lutheran Hymnal #85). Another Christmas hymn tells us “Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, love divine” (Lutheran Worship #46). Yet another hymn says “Love divine, all love excelling, Joy of Heaven to earth come down” (The Lutheran Hymnal #351). From the love of our heavenly Father came the gift this world so desperately needed: The Son went down, was born as a man, took our flesh upon Himself so that He might be one of us. We speak of this often, as we do when we speak the words of the Nicene Creed: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

 The Son went down so that He could live among us without sin and thereby have the perfect offering to pay for sin. It is our sin and disobedience that made it necessary for the Son to go down from heaven. Because of sin, all men were doomed to die, to be apart from God. That was our Lord’s just and fair judgment against sin, your sin. But God was not willing to let you die eternally. He wanted you to be with Him. So His love led Him to make the Son go down for you.

The day the Son went down, what we celebrate as Christmas, was the beginning of what theologians call the humiliation of our Lord. This comes in part from Philippians 2:

Philippians 2:5-8 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!

His humiliation is not that He became a man, but that as a man, He willingly laid aside the power He had as the Almighty. He still had His power and authority as God, but for us men and for our salvation, when He came down, He chose not to use them. He came to accomplish our salvation, to live as one of us, to pay the penalty for your sins and mine. He set aside His divine power so that He could offer Himself as your payment.

—to be continued—

You are invited to join Donna Snow, Cheryl and me on a Reformation Tour “In the Footsteps of Luther April 6-17, 2025.  You can find the brochure here. It promises to be a wonderful trip. If you have any questions, contact me: mike@revmattil.org

Psalm 51:1–5 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Some days the enormity of my sin and guilt tries to consume me. I know my shortcomings better than anyone, with the exception of my Lord. And I know that I am truly a poor, miserable sinner. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. I don’t need anyone to point it out to me. And yet Satan continues to attack me with reminders of how I have fallen short of God’s glory.

But even on my worst day, I know that I am a forgiven child of God. When Satan brings up all my failures, my past misdeeds, my ongoing struggle with sin, I remember that my salvation is not dependent on how I feel or even what I do. My forgiveness comes from what Jesus did for me through His cross. Heaven is mine because Jesus defeated death for me. My faith lays hold of what Jesus did.

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’s blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.
(The Lutheran Hymnal #370, stanza 1)

Psalm 95:1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head.

 Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, Which at the mercy seat of God
Forever doth for sinners plead, For me – e’en for my soul – was shed.
(The Lutheran Hymnal #371, stanzas 1,4)

Thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Most of you can probably recite John 3:16, which speaks of God’s love for us.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

That passage, often called “The Gospel in a Nutshell,” is a beautiful summary statement of God’s love. A passage that is just as noteworthy and instructs us in the way we should love is 1 John 3:16

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

W ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Do you see what this is saying? In order to live as followers of the one who laid down His life for you, you should lay down your lives for your brothers and sisters. And something I like to mention in this connection is that laying down your life does not just refer to someone dying for their faith. To be sure, that is one meaning of the term. But laying down your life also means giving up your rights, putting the needs of others ahead of your own. That includes sacrificial giving to support the ministry of your church home, but it is more than that.

Following the example of Jesus, you will live a life of love. You will put the needs of others ahead of your own. You will express that love in words of encouragement. You will express that love in deeds that show you care. You will express that love in service to Christ both in the Church and the community. You will express that love because you have known and experienced that love in your life. We love because He first loved us.

Want some specifics? As followers of Christ, we understand that love is not just something we talk about or limited to how we feel. Love is what we do. I have seen so many examples of that kind of love throughout my life and ministry. Around the congregations I served, I saw loving acts of service like:

• Tending a flower bed at the church
• Washing the dishes in the kitchen
• Teaching a Sunday School class
• Passing out pocket crosses and sharing a kind word
• Folding the bulletins
• Running the Audio and Video equipment during worship
• Cleaning the pews, restocking the cards and sharpening the pencils
• Taking time to visit the elderly and the shut-ins
• Sending cards to those going through a difficult time just to let them know you care
• Serving on a committee
• Mowing the grass and trimming the shrubs
• Working on Disaster Response Teams after a hurricane or a tornado.
• Being a friend who listens and offers a shoulder to cry on and then praying with each other.

I know this same kind of love has being shown by followers of Jesus in your homes, where you work, with your neighbors in ways that I did not see. Lives that are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ will have this kind of love and make this love evident in action and in truth. That is a life worthy of the calling we have received to be followers of Jesus: humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love.  May we continue to lay down our lives for the sake of others.

One of the first things most parents try to teach their children when they start interacting with other children is to “play nice.” We see original sin rear its ugly head when one toddler is playing with something that another toddler sees and wants to have. One will try to snatch it away from the other. Sometimes a tug of war will ensue, perhaps it will even come to blows. Sometimes one child will be driven to tears when the other child runs away with the toy they had just been playing with a moment ago. This is definitely a “teachable moment” in the lives of children.

Unfortunately, some are not taught and some do not learn how to “play nice” and get along. So many in our world today live with a sense of entitlement and do not care how their actions affect anyone but themselves. How should we deal with this? It is not easy, but God gives us advice in His Word.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Many times people will sink to the level of the person who has wronged them. We don’t want to forgive others because we feel like it “let’s them off the hook.” What followers of Jesus need to remember is that we have all been “let off the hook” by Jesus. We don’t get the punishment our sins deserve. So why do we try to impose punishment on others? We all have a tendency to act like the man in Jesus’ parable who was forgiven a great debt that he could never repay, and then showed no mercy to his neighbor who owed him a few dollars.

Matthew 18:21–35  Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

When you and I forgive each other, it frees us from the anger and burden of holding a grudge. It enables us to live the new life to which we have been called, responding to the forgiveness and salvation givin to us by trying to please God and serve our neighbor.

Perhaps we need to be reminded that forgiveness does not mean there will be no punishment. Our forgiveness involved punishment. Jesus took that for us. When you forgive others, it is because you know that you have been forgiven. You should not be concerned about the punishment phase for your neighbor. Either they will repent and the punishment Jesus took will pay their price, or they will not repent and be punished by God for their sins. Either way, that should not be your concern. Just follow God’s advice: forgive one another, just as in Christ God has forgiven you.

On Saturday Cheryl and I drove down to The Woodlands, a city just north of Houston. We did that so that we could gather together with the saints at Living Word Lutheran Church yesterday for worship. As part of that service, I was given the privilege of administering the Sacrament of Baptism for my great niece, Isabella. I have no idea how many Baptisms I have been a part of in my life, whether it be in the role as pastor or parent or witness or sponsor. I always get a bit emotional when I contemplate the enormity of what takes place in Baptism. God is the one at work. By the power of His Word of promise, connected to the water, He washes away sin and claims a person as His own dearly loved child. He puts His name on that person and welcomes him or her into His family. It is a way He assures us of His grace, His undeserved love, in our lives. He gives through this Sacrament the forgiveness Jesus earned for us with His life of perfection and His sacrifice on the cross.

The baptism of Isabella was especially emotional for me. Her mother, for whom I was a baptismal sponsor, is already in heaven with Jesus. I officiated at her graveside three months ago. As Isabella was welcomed into the family of God, I wonder if the saints in heaven, including her mother, were rejoicing. Is this part of what Jesus was speaking about in Luke 15, when he described the rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10) ?

There was a billboard across the highway from the hotel in which we stayed. It was advertising another church in the area and proclaimed that “Miracles, signs and wonders happen every Sunday at 11:00 a.m.” at that church. I mentioned that billboard at yesterday’s baptism, reminding the family and the congregation that God was doing a miracle in Isabella’s life, washing away her sin and making her His child.

Take some time today to remember your Baptism and the wonderful assurance that it gives to you, the assurance that Jesus has paid for your sin so that you can be confident of God’s love and your forgiveness. Take some time to ponder and reflect on this as you read through the Scripture passages below.

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Titus 3:5–7 …he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Acts 22:16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

1 Peter 3:18–22 ¹⁸ For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, ¹⁹ through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison ²⁰ who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, ²¹ and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Romans 6:3–5 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

My last devotion encouraged you to “Stop Living Like Gentiles” based on this passage:

Ephesians 4:17-24 ¹⁷So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. ²⁰You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. ²¹Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

How much of your life is spent in “futility of thinking” – possessions, status, earthly wealth, things that will pass away? It is tempting to think on such things, especially when you see things other have and you wish you had them, too. At such times I find it helpful to remember who I am. I am someone purchased and won from all sin, from death and the power of the devil by Jesus Christ Himself. And so are you. His perfect life was lived for you. His death was to pay for your wrong. His resurrection assures you that He has conquered death for you. Everything that He did while living among us here on earth was so that you could be His own. He paid the price. You belong to Him.  So now, you are to live a new life, a life of righteousness and holiness.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So what does this mean for you? Don’t watch the filth that is so easily available on streaming. Make God-pleasing choices about what you allow into your home. Don’t let your children watch shows or play video games that teach values contrary to God’s Word. And don’t just say “No, you can’t watch it because I said so!” Think about the content, the message those shows are sending. Talk to your spouse and kids about why you should not subject yourself to sinful influences. Remind them and yourself that those who have been redeemed by Jesus try to live in a way that displays  their gratitude to the world. We live in a different way because we are different. You have been changed. You have been transformed. You are a new creation. With a new attitude. One that has been influenced by Jesus, who died in your place and rose again to give you eternal life.

Your faith in Christ makes necessary a change in your life and behavior. Others should be able to see a difference between those who believe in Jesus and those who do not. The actions of the faithful should reflect their faith. Knowing Jesus and all He has done makes you different than the Gentiles. So you shouldn’t live like them.

You have been called to live a new life of righteousness and holiness, not to merit of earn your forgiveness, but because you have been forgiven. Stop living like Gentiles. Live like the redeemed children of God you are.