A Window into God’s Heart
“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” (Mark 8:2-3)
On the risk of being overly theological, let me present something for your consideration. When we consider someone’s personality, we are thinking of their character, this heart, their gumption – what makes them tick. Personality belongs to persons. When we see the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, He is the exact image of His Father. He is very God of very God, very Light of very Light. What His Father loves, He loves. What His Father does, He does. They are two of the three persons of the Trinity, but they are the one God with the same one being, one glory, one heart. And so, when Jesus assumed human flesh, when the divine nature of the Son united with human nature, what was the personality of the God-man? The personality of the person of the Son. The personality of the God-man was the personality of the Son of God.
Now, why is this important? Read our passage again. “[Jesus has] compassion on the crowd.” The heart of Jesus is our window into the heart of the triune God. Here are poor souls, and they are spiritually hungry. Jesus stays with them three days. Here are poor souls, and they are physically hungry, on the verge of fainting. Jesus feeds them until they are full as a tick. His heart propels Him towards His weak and weary people on the hillsides of Judea, and His heart propels Him towards us now. We know His heart hasn’t changed because Jesus Christ is the unchangeable God – the same yesterday, today, and forever.
No more of this, “I wish I lived in Jesus’ day.” Or, “I wish I could be near Jesus.” The heart of Jesus is the heart of the triune God. “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Ps. 145:8-9) Though He may be in heaven, His heart remains with His weak and weary people on earth. Our God will no more let us faint on the way to heaven as He would let these people faint in the wilderness. The heart of Christ is our window into the heart of God, and the love of Jesus is the pattern of the love of God for us.
