The Beloved Son of God is on the move and if we desire to stay close to Him so must we. As He moves, He is energised by Compassion. Whenever He encounters people who are hurting or troubled, He identifies with them. His heart ‘goes out’ to them, and, as it does, it carries the prophetic sigh – the profound grief we experience when we witness the suffering condition of God’s good creation, the heartbreak that comes when we see what should never be seen.
The Shepherds, or leaders, who should be tending their sheep appear not to even notice them. In fact, to the discerning eye, it is they who are causing the trouble and producing the sense of abandonment. But the Beloved does see them and His Compassion for them is the trigger for His Mission and for His Missionaries.
The Beloved Son of God protests at the way things are and uses His imagination to see how they might be. With the same breath that He names the suffering He sees; He offers His disciples images of ripe grapes and bursting wheat. He sees possibility on the other side of the distress before them. A harvest waits to be gathered but who will do it?
In a subtle instruction to His disciples, it will slowly dawn on them that they themselves are the labourers they are praying for. The ‘Twelve’ are the first of the ‘Many’ who will be impelled by the same Compassion that moves Jesus forward.
These are disciples who will manifest the Kingdom of God through actions that address and change the trouble and abandonment of the sheep. They will do this by lavishing love and life on those who have never heard of it. What they have received freely, they will pass on freely. As the Kingdom takes root within, it will flow, like a river in spate without.
Jesus needs disciples with prophetic hearts which cry out, “This should not be!” Which speak to the way education and health and social care is being delivered. Which speaks to neighbourhoods and communities wrapped in fear. Which speaks to politics, local, national and international. Which speaks also to church procedures that should not be – and bring change.
Our struggle for community is a work which can only be done by those who know they are in for the long haul. It must survive failure and sustain itself through the losses, obstacles and betrayals which will inevitably come.
If our hearts cease to be moved by Compassion. If we no longer cry out ‘This should not be’. If we have given up on working together to change what must be changed, we must return again and again to the Compassionate Heart of God to renew our strength.
