Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus Brings Compassion

But this morning what we're going to do is we're going to continue on in the book of Matthew Where we've been last week

We saw that Jesus came to earth to provide mercy kind of going through this Christmas theme Looking at the book of Matthew at the things that Jesus did in life that show his purpose the focus the reason that he came

And so by way of introducing this message before the band comes and leads us in a couple more songs He demonstrated his mercy to us last week we saw through miracles

There were blind people that came to him and he healed them and he showed mercy They were crying out for mercy and he gave mercy to them

We saw a man who was demon -possessed that Jesus cast the demon out and that man couldn't speak and his tongue was loosed and he

Was able to actually speak after the demon was cast out Jesus came to show mercy and he did so through the miraculous

And this week we're gonna look at a very short text in the book of Matthew that highlights The immense compassion of Jesus Christ that he came to express compassion to humanity

That is compassion. That is a deep commitment to a caring love for us So I want you to open your

Bibles, please to Matthew chapter 9 We're gonna be looking at Matthew 9 35 through 38

You'll find a Bible that's in the seat back in front of you If you grab that Bible, it's easy to find six page 694 is where we're gonna be at in that Bible And that's also the same version that I preach out of if you don't own a

Bible or you don't own an English Standard version of the Bible not that that's better than all the rest or that's the only version or anything just happens to be my preference and What I preach from if you don't own that please take that one with you the one in the seat back in front of you

Is a gift from us to you We want everybody to have a Bible there's boxes and boxes of those in a storage room back here to refill

What is taken this morning? So I Follow along as I read Matthew 9 35 to 38 again a pretty short text and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages

Teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction

When he saw the crowds he had compassion for them because they were they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd

Then he said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few Therefore pray earnestly to the

Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest Let's pray

Father as we gather together. We had an opportunity to see these cute kids come up here We have an opportunity to sing some songs to hear from your word

Father I ask that you would meet us here. We are most in need of a connection with you this week

There's all different kinds of things that we could take on there's things that we could we could we could come here just to hear

Something that we need to do differently to go away change or to go away doing something doing something different But God what's most important is that we know you that we relate to you that we understand

What you have revealed of yourself and that we give ourselves over to you and your great grace and compassion

I thank you for Jesus Christ I thank you that you sent him to this place that he lived here as one of us and came down and got his feet dirty and his hands dirty in the the mess of real human life that he can relate to us and that he felt and Experienced and acted upon compassion for us most

Most impressively shown at the cross that he did not just humble himself by becoming a man

But to the point of death even death on a cross and so let let us rejoice this morning father

I ask that you would receive our praise and our worship as we sing these songs and we rejoice that it is Christmastime It's a time of remembering incarnation that you came down and lived in this mess

I ask that you would infuse our praise with joy this morning in Jesus name.

Amen Amen Thanks a lot to the band for leading us in worship this morning. I really appreciate that Dave The work that they put in every week.

So genuine. Thanks If you want to make yourself comfortable anytime you need to get some more coffee

I think we're I think we're out of doughnuts Wow But there is more coffee and there's more juice back there.

So take advantage of that while supplies last Our text this morning is going to begin with a summary statement a pretty intense summary statement of the entire life ministry of Jesus Christ So if you look at verse 35 in your text and you want to open that Again that's 694 if you lost your place over the course of the service so far 694 in the

Bible Matthew 9 And then look at verse 35 here and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages

Now what I find is very interesting is you can take one phrase From the

Gospels. Have you any of your encounter this before you take one phrase from Scripture? And it's like it's just got depth and meaning and like it's like you can figure out some of the things about Jesus's character

Just from the things that are said in just a few short verses. Have any of you experienced that in Scripture? Where if you just take and you meditate on one phrase of Scripture You can get a lot out of just one little chunk

Notice that what can be deduced from just this short phrase and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages

Jesus did not just hang out in one place and expect people to come to him like the beat any of you remember the

BC cartoons where there was the Wise man who sat on the top of the mountain and people would come to anybody know what

I'm talking about The cartoon that was on them in the paper when I was a kid Some of you know what I'm talking about but there was always this wise man who sat on the top of the mountain and people would come and ask him words of wisdom and He would give something some funny advice or something like that.

He wasn't like that He wasn't just a mountaintop kind of wise man who sat out or sat under you know

Sat under a tree and expected people to come to him He went out to the masses and he lived among them and think about how that ties in with the notion of incarnation

That Jesus came to be one of us that he came down here and he spent time in this sin -cursed infested place

He got his feet dirty walking the roads down into the smelly sin -cursed messy masses of humanity

And in the text we see he didn't just hit the major cities Okay, what does it say?

It says he went throughout all the cities and villages and we even can see a story in John 4 where Jesus literally

Spends time one lunch. Okay, how many of you know he had a limited amount of time that he was here on earth He spends an entire lunch hour with one woman in a well and we have that whole account recorded

And by the way, it's just the two of them His disciples had left and gone into town to get something to eat probably, you know, check out

McDonald's They're gonna bring him back a Big Mac or something, but they went into town and he's there by the well and speaking to One woman anything that's pretty intense

Okay, anybody? No, I'm the only one that thinks that's I mean, you know And so you look at that and you just kind of say he had time for people

Okay, he went out to the cities and villages He wasn't just like on a on a massive big city tour or something like that But he stopped at the lowly villages along the way as well

And everywhere he went the text tells us he was teaching in their synagogues Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and affliction now

I've mentioned this before that when you think kingdom, what should you think? King Okay There's a lot of complexity and trying to understand what is the kingdom of God and what does all that mean?

When you see the word kingdom think of the fact that there is a king and that's what you're intended to think

Who is the king? Jesus is the king and he's going around and proclaiming the kingdom of God and the good news of the kingdom

He's going around sharing that good news that God has arrived and He is the king

He did this often in subtle ways, obviously He didn't just go out and immediately proclaimed everybody here I'm the Messiah and I'm God but he did that in many ways that Demonstrate that he is the king of the kingdom that God is ushering in He did miracles like we saw last week to show that he has the power to set things right in the new kingdom

Jesus did not however come merely to teach us But he also showed us through his actions that he really cares about our problems

And we see in our text that Jesus was proactive Going out in the community and connecting with people in the real messiness of life

Many of you know that Jesus had a reputation and it wasn't always good He hung around that he hung around the kind of people that had a reputation he hung around prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners and people who had sold their own countrymen to the

Romans and murderers and thieves Or do you think that you're known by the company you keep has anybody ever heard that phrase?

So Jesus actually got a reputation that he was just a drunkard and a partier some people actually can you imagine?

I mean, what is your view of Jesus? Like how do you think he lived? He was accused of being a party animal like is that your view does that fit anywhere in your view of who

Jesus Christ was Wow, that's that's a little bit radical that he was accused of things like that.

He was out engaged in Life with people. I fear that too often as Christians we sit back and wait for the world to come to us

Many churches are sitting back and waiting and we can be guilty of that ourselves But it isn't like I said like Jesus sat under a shade tree waiting and he didn't pay for billboards out on the freeway between Jerusalem and Galilee hoping that some motorists would fly by and see his

Advertisement from the tree that he was sitting at so that they would come to him. You getting what I'm saying

What did he do? He went out among them Carrying hope and carrying the message of the gospel the good news that there is a kingdom and all are welcome to join

I want to point out our calling is equally out there And we're a gathering of God's people in this place and that's an exciting thing, right when we get together

We how many of you need this you need to get together every week for your spiritual growth for for connecting with others for encouragement

I've mentioned before that because things are tough out there. We need to take seriously what goes on in here

We need to be loving each other and compassionate towards each other and merciful and encouraging and building up and strengthening one another with the

Word of God rubbing shoulders with each other and having those real authentic relationships with one another, but where is your primary calling?

It's out there out there and so you come together for building up and for strengthening that out there matters

I would say what you do the other six days of the week matters more than what you do here

You need this for what goes on out there. Is that making sense? Anybody? Is that is that resonating with you? But you live six days out there you spend an hour and a half here

There's what Matt what you the way you live out there defines you more than what you're doing here, right? And yet this is valuable.

I'm not I'm not diminishing this and saying you don't come gathering together is valuable for what goes on out there So hopefully you're hopefully you're you're getting that but our calling

How we are called to live is a calling about what is out on the streets The way we work in our workplace and the way that we interact with others out there

We are to be proclaiming a kingdom With an awesome and compassionate

King That is our calling out there many times as we're reading from the

Gospels. We're left to assume the motives for Jesus Why does he do what he does? And I think we can probably as you read the

Gospels you get to know this man You get to feel who he is and how he how he rolls and the things that he does but Like they take last week's message.

For example, we saw two blind guys Following Jesus shouting at the top of their lungs son of David have mercy on us.

They're blind. They want to be healed they want him to pity that pity them so that he heals them and By the end of the passage what happens?

He heals them, right But does it ever say in the text Jesus had mercy on them and therefore he healed them

Does it say what was going on in Jesus's heart? Is it safe to assume that he did what he did out of mercy?

I mean, it's a fair assumption, but the text doesn't tell us so we're left to kind of fill in the blanks Does that make sense?

This text is different. This text tells us directly look at verse 36 It tells us what

Jesus was feeling in his heart. How many think that's valuable to Know why Jesus was doing what he's doing is

Extremely valuable, right? Do you think that's intentional in the text? Do you think we should zero in on that a little bit verse 36 says when he saw the crowds he had what?

Compassion on them he had compassion Jesus came and this is the premise of my message this morning.

Jesus came to show compassion to humanity and on humanity Jesus was deeply and emotionally engaged with the crowds.

The word for compassion is a messy word. That doesn't seem very kingly It's not a noble word, but it's a lavish sympathy that he experienced towards others

And I want to point out some important things about this word. The word Compassion is not a condescending word

But a word that implies an authentic desire to take someone in and care to really see their plate to really see their

Circumstances and then to take a step further and actually act and do something about it But I think it's important to note that for Jesus.

This was not just some emotional response. I Think we can all relate to what that's like because we've all experienced this thing called pity

Have you ever been have you ever felt moved by someone's plate? No, I don't spend a lot of time watching TV So do they still have those commercials where they show the kids with the big bellies in Africa and they're starving?

Do they still show those from time to time? I don't I don't really know you see those sometimes from time to time. So how many of you have felt so moved?

With compassion towards those people that you had to turn the channel. Are you getting what

I'm saying? And Then it's like oh look Elphizan great. And then then you feel better Right, I love that movie by the way, but anyways, um, that's not what

I'm preaching about Um But do you know what I'm saying? Have you felt so moved in your heart you watch these kids and it's just like oh man,

I feel so much compassion click Is that compassion

I Call that something different than compassion. As a matter of fact, I think the correct word for that is pity a

Condescending type of pity, but it is not compassion when you see that you see there lies a difference between pity and compassion

Pity makes me makes me feel bad and the focus is on me Right focuses on how it makes me feel and it makes me feel bad when

I see it Compassion makes me focus on them and how

I can be a part of the solution So that I would say this and if you're taking notes write this down It's not super important because it comes from me.

But um, I would say pity is compassion without action

Pity is compassion without action But equally I would say action without compassion

Acting without your heart engaged. In other words going down in serving somebody

Without feeling anything towards them is called condescension You hear that?

It's stooping low and Oh helping those poor people out because I'm so good So there's there's two extremes there's pity there's there's pity there's condescension and somewhere in the middle is compassion

Where our heart? Lines up with our actions and I think all of us know what it is to fight that war in our hearts over our

Actions not lining up with our heart where we can condescend and serve

Without our hearts engaged anybody ever been there It looks like me and Therese and no one else everybody else just serves completely out of a

Thank you, I was challenged on this point the first time that recast went down to the gospel mission

Kyle was speaking We went down there. We Had a church service Dave played for him

It was really cool And then we had a meal with them and I sat and I talked with some guys for a little while One man got kind of vocal and was in my face about how we come down how how you people come down from the suburbs to come into the city to help us and He got really vocal And he was

I mean a couple people were kind of like everybody's kind of starting to move over towards my table I gotta figure out what was going on there, but he challenged me with this question

He said listen to me if I showed up on your doorstep out there in Madawan And your family was eating dinner, and I knocked on your door.

Would you let me in and eat dinner with you? I had to think Okay, I had to think and I'm being honest.

I just want to be completely honest with you guys I mean, I I'm picturing myself because I wanted to be honest.

I didn't want to just give him a flippant answer So I'm thinking about this and I'm putting myself and I'm sitting at my table my family is there and we're having a nice dinner and at the dot knock at the door and Get up go to the door and there he's standing and then

I'm thinking and I'm wrestling I think I would I really think that I would but I don't know and given that circumstance given that situation

What would you do put yourself in those shoes? I said yeah, I'm pretty sure oh, he did not like that answer He didn't that's when things got very vocal very loud and the fact that it took me so long by the way

I think I processed that entire scenario in real time I don't know how long it took from the time But I think

I was sitting there at the dinner table and I was getting up and I was walking I was answering the door I had a little chat with him all in my mind probably blank stare and And he thinks that I'm coming up with a lie

Like he's thinking I'm just I'm just gonna just fudge this one and and so he did not like that a bit

But you see what he was accusing me of What was he accusing me of he was accusing me of condescension

He was saying you're here to get your brownie points Ultimately what he said to me is you don't love me you hear that And that was convicting it really

I really had to process and had to really thinking it was a really good experience for me I Challenge everybody to think through that do we genuinely love others?

Or are we just racking up brownie points just thinking boy God likes me better because look at what I do

Think about that think about compassion Do we really love them Recast I want you to know

Jesus was a man of compassion Heart was engaged with the people.

He was ministering to do you want to follow him? Real question. Do you want to follow him?

All right, ten of you the rest of you just didn't want to say Then what we need to do is we need to train our heart to care

We need to train our heart to genuinely care and how do we do that? I think we need to ask God To open our eyes and to open our heart to see ourselves, and I think it's very important to say ourselves

Humanity to see us first of all as a part of humanity That's valuable because a lot of times in our hearts and in our minds.

There's awesome Then there's everybody else right have you experienced that where you don't include yourself when you talk about humanity because they're they're all out there

And I'm this you know I'm a little bit better You know what I'm saying have you ever experienced that so We have to include ourselves in humanity and then see ourselves the human race as God sees us

We're gonna see how Jesus sees us here in a moment. What moved him to compassion He looked out and he saw the crowds and he didn't just see he didn't just have some general blind

I feel bad for him, but he understood their situation accurately and correctly He looked out among the mob that day, and I want to tell you that the people that were in front of him

Okay, how many of you know that all of them were sinners? And he looked at he looked out out at the people in the crowd that day there were sinners there in Galilee, okay?

So that's that's the only only people but there were real sinners there in that crowd that day Yeah, you know what

I mean. I mean there is something there is something to be said about you know there's prostitutes there There's thieves there were probably a couple of murderers in that crowd that day.

He knows them and What does it say he was moved out of judgment towards them he was moved out of wrath for them

What did he experience towards them as he looked at them? compassion Why?

Because he saw their plight he looks at this rough crowd, and he sees sheep. It says without a shepherd and He looked at them, and he saw them as harassed and helpless these are really really graphic picturesque Greek words

Harassed is a word that means mangled ravaged torn to Pieces that's what harassed means whoever translated that wanted to be gentle and delicate

It is not a gentle and delicate word it is it is like what the picture that you have of this word harassed is what?

A wolf does to a sheep. Okay. It's a bad word means that they were mangled

Broken the word helpless means cast to the ground thrown down Think like the old commercial

I fall in and I can't get up Okay, that's what this word means helpless

Anybody remember that commercial? Okay, all right. Thanks. I was just wondering if I was alone on that one

What does a sheep without a shepherd look like? The result is delicious, but does not end well for the sheep

Sheep without a shepherd right there, okay delicious Thanks Greg, so how does

Jesus respond to the plight of these people? Boy is everybody hungry now or what? How does it respond he sees them as just torn apart?

They are wolf food Sheep without a shepherd no leader. Nobody to guide them.

Nobody bring them into clear pastures Nobody to lead them by still waters. Nobody to take care of their souls Nobody to correct the brokenness and the the crud in their life and not only that but they're broken and they can't help themselves they're cast down and not able to stand in their own strength and they need help and He's compassionate towards them because he sees us that way.

That's how he sees Those people out there, but that's how he sees you and me

Torn and broken and without the ability to help ourselves That's how he sees us and that's why he's moved out of compassion or moved to compassion

He turns to his disciples and shares that vision with them and I picture him gesturing with his arms as he says this in verse 37 in verse 37

He looks out at the crowd and gestures with his arms as if to embrace all of them and he says look the harvest is plentiful and Then gesturing to his disciples to drive the point home, but the workers are few

The harvest is plentiful But the workers are few. What is the harvest? The harvest is when those in a mangled

Broken state those who are helpless come to the one who can help them those who are without a shepherd

Receive their shepherd. That's what it means for the harvest to happen The harvest is one soul at a time coming to the understanding and the knowledge of who

Jesus Christ is He says they're ripe they're ripe and all we need is people more people who will come and Go to them and tell them now

How many of you know this is a little bit of a little bit of a strange notion But how many of you know that to have harvesters you need to have those harvesters harvested?

They're making sense to you like they have to they have to be made right in their hearts and in their souls first They have to be restored and able to stand before they can go out

And so ultimately Jesus is kind of saying we need harvesters and and where's he gonna get them from those people?

So ultimately we're just saying go out and share Go out and proclaim go out and win people and pray that God would see some fruit here that in turn is gonna turn into people who turn around and harvest

That is that making sense to you guys? He tells them to pray earnestly

To the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers in his harvest field It's interesting that the way that Jesus responds in this situation with compassion should lead us to two different notions

First that we have a zealous diligence for the harvest that we want to run to the battle that we want to be

The ones who are restoring the torn and broken sheep the ones who are helpless that we should this should light us on fire

Jesus has this harvest out there people are ripe and ready and he's saying go Go and do this but pray

I'm encouraged to run to the battle, but equally I'm encouraged to rest in the commander's plans that makes sense so both a a zeal for winning the lost and equally a

Resting in the plan of God because what are we primarily told to do?

He Jesus doesn't say the labors are few so you better take on more you twelve or I'm gonna bleed you dry or Get to work right now as we'll see next week

He does put them to work and this passage occurs in the midst of a context where he's about to send them

He's about to send them out to do miraculous works. Just like he had done But he doesn't just put them to work but he asks them to pray and That prayer

Means a dependence upon God for the harvest That we're dependent upon him to do his work.

Are we diligent? Do we go out and do we share and proclaim this? Kingdom that there is a king who can restore your brokenness that can restore you to wholeness.

Should we be proclaiming that? Yes Should we be praying in dependence upon God saying send more?

We can't get all the work done ourselves We need more workers out and it's interesting the title given to God in this passage.

I love it The harvest belongs to the Lord of the harvest.

What an awesome title When lives are changed and people enter the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus It is because the

Lord of the harvest has prepared the fruit So, please recast ask him

Earnestly ask him to send out laborers into his harvest That people might be restored and changed because of this awesome

King who has come and is full of compassion Jesus sees us as harassed and helpless like sheep

Without a shepherd. Do you see humanity yourself included in that same light as Jesus did?

Is that how you view the world around you Helpless and in need of a shepherd you see

Jesus looked out at all of them from the vantage point of a perfect human life I'm gonna you know, we don't have that vantage point

We've got to include ourselves in this this whole helpless business He was sinless, which is awesome

But we are not so for us to adopt the vision of Jesus requires that we make sure that we

Humbly approach others recognizing that we are we have been harassed we have been helpless and it's only the work of God in our lives

So in summary Jesus came to bring compassion And we'll see more clearly last week that he passed that compassion on to his followers and said follow me be

Compassionate and do the things that I did from the heart that I have you see in our text We see a bunch of contrast between us and Jesus between us and God.

Jesus is compassionate We're harassed and helpless Jesus is the shepherd. We are in need of a shepherd.

Isn't that cool how that works out? We need a shepherd. Oh great. Jesus is the

Good Shepherd We needed that he is Lord of the harvest and humanity is ripe for harvest

Brief confession time. I have a long way to grow in my compassion. I Can easily slide into pity that is becoming emotional without action

Or to the other side Condescension doing nice things without caring about people anybody relate to that As a matter of fact,

I would dare say that within the same five minutes. I can experience both and that's something that we have to Constantly wrestle with I believe that it's going to take a supernatural work of God to find that balance in our lives

Where our actions and our emotions line up in the middle? Where we consistently love and we do so by acting

You know what I'm saying? It takes the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to get that right I dare say that with without the

Spirit you will always be on one side or the other you will always be either Emotionally charged without a lot of action or you will be

Acting without any emotion without any passion without any real genuine care or concern for others

And what I would suggest to us recast is that as we begin to grow in our compassion Viewing the world through the eyes of Jesus as revealed in this text

That we would please consider praying Praying earnestly. That's a wrestling word

Wrestling with God Wrestling with the Lord of the harvest that he might send more workers into the field

But let me warn you and this is a tongue -in -cheek warning. I know many people Many many people who began praying

God send someone and They found that they were the answer to the prayer.

They were praying and I know many people who are on the mission field and are out in full -time Christian service now because they prayed that prayer and kept consistently saying

God send God send and And do you think about the fact that the sending process is just a replication of what

God has done in heaven? That's what we're celebrating at Christmas time The sending of the one who is the answer and then he in turn in our passage is sending us

It's just an ongoing process of him sending to save out of what? Compassion out of the deep

Emotional love that he has and he wants to send us out with compassion and let me just say that this is not strictly

Some missionary call some I've got to go to Africa now or I have to go to The Middle East or I have to go overseas

God's sending you where you live Did you know that? To actually just take this on with compassion and to see humanity through the eyes

No matter where you work. Some of you here work at portage school. Some of you work at UPS Some of you work at Pfizer.

Some of you work at striker. Where is your mission field? Where is the place that God has planted you and go with this heart of compassion?

I'm gonna you know that that's gonna have an impact on people around you if you genuinely care for them if you see them with the eyes of Christ and you say and I know that that person is

X bitter and angry and malicious and Instead of seeing them as an angry mean bitter malicious person.

I'm gonna choose to see them as a sheep Without a shepherd. I'm gonna choose to see them as harassed and broken and in need of help

Do you see how that works how many of you have somebody like that that's in your life that is just just just Frustrating and always bitter and angry and always a negative word and a

Debbie downer and every time you talk with him It's just like oh man. That was a lot of work How do you view that person?

Some people are ribbon people and pointing that's not appropriate you guys Cut that out.

Okay Rob, why were you pointing at me? I don't know.

What was God sometimes in the process of us praying send some

Make more workers for your harvest. His answer is thanks for asking I choose you

You see the little baby in the manger came to bring compassion and his final act of compassion was his death on the cross

While we were helpless we were cast down. We were broken like lamb chops Unable to get up from the weight of our sin

Jesus took that burden on himself hoisted it on his shoulders and carried it to a hill outside of Jerusalem and let our

Sin die with him if you believe

Jesus is King King of a kingdom that will go on forever and ever and ever and you've asked him to take your burden from you to restore

You to forgive you to make you whole again To help you then I'd encourage you to come and take communion this morning

There's table set up in the back table set up in the front of a couple lines and we'll go through Dave's gonna come and Play a song, but if you're here

This is a remember kind of like a memorial or remembering service That's why we do it every week is to remember to bring everything back to the point of the cross that that is the centerpiece

That sacrifice is the greatest act of compassion ever given to us And it doesn't make much sense for you to get up and here's the rationale and the reason why

I would ask you to remain Seated if you haven't given your life to Christ you haven't acknowledged him as Lord You haven't asked him to save you then you're not you're not really remembering something

He's done for you because you don't believe he's done it for you. Is that is that logical? Does that make sense? I'd ask you to just remain seated.

Nobody's keeping tabs He's you know Checking to see who gets up and who doesn't just encourage you to sit in your seat and take in a song and think about This message that there is compassion for you

That Jesus loves you and if you haven't given your life to him and you haven't acknowledged that there's compassion for you

There is hope for you and please come and talk with me You've got that connection card check on the back of that that you'd like to meet with me at some time or talk with me

And talk with a lot of the people here You can talk with Dave or any of the band members or whatever. It doesn't have to be me

Man don't don't let that go this this this Christmas season There's compassion Jesus came to bring compassion to a broken and messed up human race.

Let's pray Father I thank you for thank you for your awesome compassion

I We're I'm not worthy of that. I know that none of us are and Just I acknowledge that I couldn't do it on my own and you and you saved me and I praise you for that I Thank you for the cross.

I thank you that you came and in this this whole scope of things you came in humility you

You got your hands dirty with humanity and you came down here and you messed up your reputation and people didn't like you and they accused you of things that weren't true and Spat on you and mocked you and put you on a cross

You did that out of compassion You did that because you were emotionally engaged with us all of us in this room and you love us and you see us as Sheep without a shepherd and you came to be the good shepherd.

And so I praise you for that God, would you would you let that image be in our mind over this

Christmas that of a shepherd and of a humanity in need of a shepherd

I Pray that as we come come to take the juice that represents your blood that was shed for us

We take that cracker to remember your body that was broken for us that our hearts would overflow with joy

Not with some morose sadness, but with a joy that you provided a way There was no other way and there is no other way and you provided the way for us to be made whole