Going away and coming back

 ‘…When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed those who were ill.’ (Matthew 14:14)

Matthew 14:13-21 (Year A: Trinity+7)

 ‘When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.’ But, ‘’…when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed those who were ill’. And Jesus had compassion on them …. Compassion. The context was a plan to take time out after the news of his cousins violent execution.  

At times it is good to withdraw ‘privately’ to ‘a solitary place’ either with others in our community or on our own. Time to be, to listen, to be refreshed.  But, the timing of such temporary going away is dependent on our duty to care for others wherever we are.  There is no necessary contradiction. We need to keep coming back to others not just because they need us and we need them (we do need each other of course) but because the world we live in is broken, fragmented, starved – yes even in the those parts where GDP per capita is highest.

To be compassionate is to ‘literally suffer with’ – compassio. And to suffer with means to struggle with, to empower, to set free. A God who suffers with us and through us. Not an immovable, impassible God. Not a God where it is ‘impossible for such a perfect being to be affected or changed by anything outside itself’ (Alister McGrath).

True healing of individuals and societies is the point.