GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 6:34
Compassion
Scenes of flooded streets and homes in Grand Island, Nebraska, flashed across the TV screens on June 25, 2025, after 6.41 inches of rain fell in just a few hours. One reporter said that more rain had fallen in just a few hours than normally falls in the entire month of June. Flash flooding inundated parts of the city, stranding motorists and forcing many water rescues. The mayor declared a state of emergency, and there were over 100 calls for police and fire rescue. The rain caused the sewers to back up, sending floodwater running into basements, and rescuers pulled many stranded motorists from their automobiles. The reports struck me with sympathy as I tried to imagine being stranded in a similar situation, but the response never reached the level of compassion described by Mark.
According to Mark, after the disciples reported the details of their first missionary tour, Jesus wanted them to go with him to a deserted place to rest and recharge their emotional batteries. So they set sail from the northwestern side of the Sea of Galilee toward the sparsely populated area of Bethsaida on the eastern side of the Jordan River, a journey by boat of about four or five miles. People on the shore, however, saw them leave and walked along the shore, following the direction of the boat. The crowd grew as they walked eastward through little villages along the way. Jesus and the disciples finally reached the eastern shore. “And after he came out, he saw a large crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34)
One might expect Jesus to be frustrated on this occasion, for he was seeking solitude for himself and the disciples—but he found a teeming, milling crowd. Instead, he had not sympathy, but compassion. The word Mark and the other New Testament writers use for “compassion” is “σπλαγχνίζομαι” (splagchnizomai, splangkh-nid’-zom-ahee), which literally means “gut.” Metaphorically, the word came to denote the seat of the affections. The term refers not to the superficial emotion of sympathy, but to something that touches one so deeply that it engenders action. In this case, Jesus saw the crowd “like sheep not having a shepherd,” was moved with compassion, and began to teach them.
Not every act of compassion rises to the level of Mother Teresa, who showed compassion toward the outcast, poor, and sick of India; or Rosa Parks, who showed compassion for her community by refusing to give up her bus seat; or Edward Stearns, who refused chances for advancement to serve the congregation of his small rural church. But there are many occasions when one can allow compassion to inspire their actions.
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