Sermon for August 2, 2026, Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 14:13-21 (Tenth Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 13—Series A)

“The Lord’s Compassion Satisfies”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield CT

August 2, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is the Gospel Reading recorded in Matthew 14:

¹³Now when Jesus heard [about the death of John], He went away from there in a boat to a deserted place by Himself. And when the crowd heard, they followed Him on foot overland from the towns. ¹⁴And when He got out of the boat, He saw a great crowd and had compassion on them and healed their sick. ¹⁵And when became evening, the disciples came to Him saying, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away so that they might go into the villages and buy themselves food.” ¹⁶But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” ¹⁷But they said to Him, “We do not have anything here except five loaves of bread and two fish.” ¹⁸And He said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹And when He had commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass, and when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish and looked up into heaven, He blessed. And when He had broken them, He gave the loaves to His disciples, and His disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰And all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the abundance of the fragments—twelve full baskets. ²¹And those who were eating were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

          As you observe our society, how would you rate the amount of compassion that people have for one another? Are Americans generally compassionate people? Recent large-scale studies show that most people in the United States believe compassion is present but also declining. The 2025 Muhammad Ali Index Compassion Report found that 61% of Americans feel compassion has decreased in the past four years, though 43% remain optimistic about compassion’s future.

          What is compassion? It is a quality of showing kindness or favor, of being gracious, or of having pity or mercy on someone. Compassion, like grace and mercy, is not merited or earned. It is something that one freely gives to another out of love. Listen to the words of Psalm 103, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him (Psa. 103:8-13 ESV).

          God has mercy on up according to His steadfast love. It is because His gracious favor toward us on account of the saving work of Jesus Christ that He does not deal with us sinners according to what our sins deserve. God shows compassion on us as a loving Father shows compassion to his children. It is an act of His undeserved loving kindness to us. Our sins and our sinfulness separated us from God and left us under the condemnation of death and hell. God, being just and holy, must punish sin. His judgement and wrath are necessary. Nevertheless, God is gracious. He has a loving purpose: to redeem all people from sin and its punishment of death. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3, “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” (Lam. 3:31-33 ESV).

          It is the Lord’s steadfast love, His mercy, for sinners that prompts His compassion. His heart is full of compassion (Hosea 11:8). While we deserve condemnation and death, we receive forgiveness and new life. Why? Because God chose to have compassion on us lost and condemned people. And we see and understand the compassion of the Lord best in the gift of the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ.

          God the Father sent His only Son into our messed-up world with all its problems, troubles, and lack of compassion. The Son of God was made man and lived and dwelt among us in time, in history. Jesus, the sinless Son of God-made flesh, endured what we endure: the temptations, the suffering, the heartache. What was Jesus going through as our Gospel text opened? Grief! His relative, probably his cousin, John the Baptist, had been beheaded by King Herod. And Jesus had just heard the news from John’s disciples who had buried John.

          It is at this time that Jesus needed the compassion of His disciples as they dealt with the news of John’s martyrdom. That’s why they went away, literally, to a desert place, with no one around. Having heard that Jesus had left the area by boat, the crowd followed Jesus on foot overland. Matthew tells us, “And when He got out of the boat, He saw a great crowd.” Put yourself in Jesus’ sandals. How would you feel, knowing you needed time alone, time for grief, time for prayer and consolation, and there before you is the crowd you had left? Would you have been annoyed, disappointed, or frustrated? Maybe you would have wanted to tell them all, “Go away, I need some time to myself! I can’t deal with you all right now.”

          Jesus doesn’t say anything remotely like that. In fact, Matthew doesn’t record any of His words. But what Matthew does write through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says everything that needs to be said. “And when [Jesus] got out of the boat, He saw a great crowd and had compassion on them and healed their sick.” The Son of God incarnate had mercy upon these people according to His steadfast love. Jesus’ compassion showed itself in His undeserved loving kindness in healing the sick. He didn’t have to heal anyone. He didn’t have to deal with the crowd right then and there. But He did just that out of His gracious favor toward sinners who were dealing with the reality of sin in the world and in their own lives as shown by their sicknesses. The apostle Paul has written in Romans 9, quoting Exodus 33, “For [the Lord] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” Paul comments, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:15-16 ESV).

          God chose to have mercy on the crowd that day in Galilee. Jesus, the Son of God, out of His great love for hurting sinners, gracious provided healing, and then, a meal. Late in the day, Jesus’ disciples approached Jesus with their concern, their compassion. “This place is desolate and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away so that they might go into the villages and buy themselves food.” There is nothing unreasonable here. There are so many people gathered, so late in the day, who need to eat. For the disciples, the best plan to meet that need is to send the people into the villages so that they can get some food. But for the Son of God, the best plan is different. “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

          Jesus’ compassion for the crowds would now be extended to them through a miraculous feeing, much in the same way that He had fed the children of Israel miraculously in the wilderness for forty years with the manna and quail. We read from Deuteronomy 8, “And you shall remember the whole way that Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of Yahweh” (Deut. 8:2-3 ESV). The disciples only needed to look to the promised Word of compassion, the undeserved loving kindness and mercy, of the Lord who stood before them in human flesh.

          As our Gospel text concludes, Matthew wrote, “And when [Jesus] had broken them, He gave the loaves to His disciples, and His disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the abundance of the fragments—twelve full baskets.” The Lord’s compassion satisfies. His loving kindness and mercy to the crowds brought healing to the sick, overcoming the effects of sin, satisfying them with health in body and soul. The Lord’s compassion to feed again His people in the desert satisfied the hunger of those to whom He was sent in the flesh, bringing the reign and rule of heaven to them.

          It is the compassion, loving kindness, and undeserved mercy of God in Christ that has saved us from our sins and satisfies us with the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation through faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus. God the Father gave His judgment against our sins when Jesus suffered and died on the cross, receiving our punishment of condemnation. We receive what we do not deserve—compassion and mercy in the forgiveness of sins through the shedding of Christ’s blood for us. As the words of the prophet Micah foretold, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:19 ESV).

          Jesus Christ has fulfilled His Word of promise and trampled our sins underfoot, conquering them by the blood of His cross. Our sins are drowned in the depths of the waters of Baptism as the Lord has compassion on us sinners. Our Savior satisfies us with forgiveness and eternal life through Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and His very Word of love and compassion to us in Holy Scripture.

          Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord’s compassion satisfies. In Christ Jesus, God has looked upon us in mercy. He has not sent us away empty but has fed us with Himself—with His forgiveness, His life, and His salvation. As Jesus had compassion on the crowds, healed their sick, and gave them bread until all were satisfied, so He continues to have compassion on you. The Savior meets you in His Word. He washes you in Holy Baptism. He feeds you at His holy table with His true Body and Blood with the bread and wine. Therefore, take heart. Your sins are forgiven. Your life is in Christ. Your Lord is compassionate and gracious, abounding in steadfast love, and in Him you are satisfied now and forever. Amen.