Mark 6:34 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 6:34

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What did Christ intend to do? Well, of course, he knew what he intended to do; he knew what would happen, but outwardly he was taking the disciples for some sort of a rest with him. That was the outward intention. He knew what would happen. The crowd would begin to build up and he could not proceed on his own with the disciples, because he was ‘moved with compassion toward them.’This is a beautiful verse: ‘And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them.’ He felt great sympathy towards them. The Greek uses a word which refers to ‘innermost yearning’; yearning of the inner organs, such compassion and sympathy. But the reason is given for the compassion – ‘because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.’ It's a way of saying, they were so ignorant, and indeed they were. They were being taught by their clergy, the Jewish clergy in those days, that Messiah when he came would be a political Messiah who would get rid of the Roman forces and make the nation the most prosperous. They wanted a political saviour. They were unaware that he was coming to take away the sins of his people. He was coming to achieve what the sacrifices only depicted: to take as a substitutionary atonement the punishment of sin for all who would be saved. He was coming to be a Saviour and to transform lives. Here he is, acting as a compassionate shepherd. What did a shepherd do in those ancient times? Of course, he led the sheep. He rescued those that were in danger, stranded in steep places. He protected them and defended them in those wild parts. He guided them to where they could feed. The shepherd illustrates the teacher, but he illustrates the rescuer: the one who keeps you safe; the one who takes you to a destination ultimately, to a fold for shelter. ‘And he began to teach them many things.’ Luke adds that he spoke to them ‘about the kingdom of God’, about repentance, as he always did, and he ‘healed those who had need of healing.’ What an example of compassion.

Application

We need to have compassion as Christian people, and we don’t have anything like as much as we should have. Do you build up compassion, cultivate it? How easy it is to give all our attention and emotional energy to our own homes, family circle, or business, when we should often be considering the plight of the lost. As we praise God for salvation, we think of those in our family circle who are lost. eternally lost. Through your concern they may be reached, God may touch their hearts. Spurgeon used to say, ‘Graves are filling up fast on every hand.’ We must move ourselves, wake ourselves up. Christ stepped ashore, and there were all these people. How did he regard them? As an inconvenience? No, he had compassion on them. He began to respond immediately to their needs. You start by having a great longing that people should know, and great sympathy, and you yearn for them. There is something there for all of us, whether we are preaching from a pulpit, or teaching in Sunday School, or witnessing privately. You can't speak the gospel or speak of Christ without yearning for souls, without having a sympathy for lost souls, a real purpose and concern. Even the Saviour was moved with compassion, and that is the basis on which he worked.

What ignorance surrounds us today! We were ignorant before we came to Christ. It is amazing how little we take in. Those of us who are older can remember that many years ago, when the things of God were taught in the schools and there was morning chapel, children grew up with a basic understanding of the Bible. They heard many things that would have been sound and true; as well as many things no doubt that were not so sound or true. But none of it, sound or unsound, really interested us and registered with us, and pierced our hearts, so ignorant were we of the saving message of the gospel. You look around and you see this ignorance everywhere. People will say in these atheistic days, ‘Oh, I'm an atheist.’ What they are saying is, they just don't understand at all who God is, how Christ came, what he has done, and our eternal need. They are so unaware, so asleep.

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Mark 6:34 Commentary and Bible Study