Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, 2 August, 2026, the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 18A). Readings for this Sunday: Genesis 32:22-31; Psalm 17:1-7, 16; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21
When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. (Mt 14.14)
If you remember television commercials of a certain era, and I say the phrase “only in Canada, eh?”, how would you respond? “Pity”, For decades, that was the catchphrase of Red Rose Tea, the idea being that this brand was so good, and so Canadian, that the English would drink it if they could. Today Red Rose is just another brand (in our house we drink Yorkshire Tea now), but it’s use of the word “pity” is what interests me.
“Pity” can be said with the same inflection as “that’s a shame” or “too bad”, so an emotion that is not very overwhelming and doesn’t really mean any commitment. However, to “have pity” for someone is more intense, it’s more akin to words like sympathy or compassion, the emotion that Jesus feels for the crowds in today’s gospel.
Compassion is a strong word, it’s originally from two Latin words that means “to suffer with”. Ideally it’s not just feeling the pain of another, but it’s also about being moved to do something to aid or comfort that person, which, really, is what Jesus is all about here. He wanted to be by himself after receiving some bad news, and yet all these people have followed him into the wilderness, not because they want to hear a sermon, but because they’re sick and all they desperately want Jesus to heal them. So Matthew tells us that Jesus “had compassion for them and cured their sick”.
Compassion is a strong word, but in Matthew’s Greek, Jesus’ reaction is even stronger. Matthew uses the word splagchnizomai, which literally means “to feel in the guts”. The ancient world believed that our strongest emotions come from deep inside, from out very guts. Sometimes we talk about having a visceral reaction, from the Latin word “viscera” or internal organs, which has the same meaning, and it’s a meaning that we still use sometimes today.
Have you ever felt something so strongly that you would say you felt it in your guts? Perhaps it was a sense that something was wrong, some instinct that told you that you had to act in some way. The psychologist Jonathan Haidt has written that most of our moral decisions operate on the level of instinct. Haidt says that we tend to favour one of two gut responses, either a disgust reponse, because we sense that something is just wrong, or a fairness response, because we sense that something is unjust. In Jesus’ case, his gut response of compassion is, I think, based on a sense of fairness.
What do I mean by fairness? When his disciples ask Jesus to send away the crowds, so they can buy food in the nearby villages, he says no, you give them something to eat. Why do you think he does that? I think Jesus wants to show the crowds the fairness, or if you will, the justice and the goodness, of the kingdom of heaven.
Does everyone in the crowd have money to buy food? Is there enough food in the nearby villages to feed so many people, even if they have money? What about the sick people who can’t go? And what about the money that the disciples want the people to spend? Whose head is on those coins? Do you remember when Jesus was tested about obedience and he said “give to Caesar what is his and give to God what belongs to God” (Mt 22:21).
I think Jesus is saying to the disciples, I’m not going to feed these people according to the way of empire, where some can eat more than others, and where there is no justice. If you remember at the start of our gospel today, Jesus has just heard some news, the news that his cousin John the Baptist has been killed by Herod. Maybe Jesus had heard the story of how John had been killed and his head brought to Herod at his birthday feast, where he was seated with his rich and powerful friends.
That was a dinner governed by the unjust and cruel laws of empire. Jesus says to his disciples, no, we’re not going to feed these people accordng to the way of empire. Instead, let’s feed these people according to the way of the kingdom of heaven. Let’s feed them all, men, women, and children, the healthy and the sick, and let’s feed them for free, as much as they want, with tons left over. And so Jesus takes what little they have, five loaves and two fish, and what happens next unfolds according to the rules of the kingdom of heaven (remember the parable of the yeast from last Sunday's gospel?).
I’ve heard it said that this story is really the first eucharist in the giospels and there are many elements of this story that reminds us of what happens every time we gather around God’s table. Jesus prayers, he blesses, he breaks the bread, and gives it to all who want it. OK, there’s no wine, but the Jesus’ motives here and at the last supper are the same. Jesus does all these things because of his gut-level compassion for the crowds, and in the same way, at the Last Supper, John tells us that he loved the disciples “to the end” (Jn 13.1). So what is said at the Last Supper, “this is my body”, is implied in this story, for the bread Jesus gives out comes from a love and concern that he feels in his very core
As we prepare to go to the table and share in the eucharist, I encourage you to think about why Jesus asked that we do this. It is a memorial, “do this in memory of me”, for sure, but think also about that core, gut-level compassion that Jesus feels for us. Think about his love for you as the bread is put in your hands and as you touch the chalice. We are loved. We are fed. And, in being fed, we are also being challenged.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus called on his disciples to remember his teaching and to do what he taught them (Mt 28.20). That seem obedience is asked of us. Jesus challenges us, will you see what needs to be done, but only feel a faint pity, or will you feel compassion deep in your guts, so that you act. And how should we act? Well, feeding people is always a good start. Pople Francis once said, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works.” The kingdom of heaven is the compassion of Jesus that is put into action by his followers. There's a simple way to understand why All Saints feeds people. We feed people because we are fed by Jesus at his table, so we share our tables with others. My prayer for us is thus that we are people who feel the kingdom of heaven in our guts, and show it in our actions.
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