{"id":626,"date":"2015-04-10T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=626"},"modified":"2015-02-26T23:13:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T23:13:36","slug":"matthew-935-38-the-workers-are-few-word-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/04\/matthew-935-38-the-workers-are-few-word-study.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 9:35-38; The Workers Are Few (Word Study)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 9:36 reports this of Jesus, \u201cWhen he saw the crowds, he had compassion<\/em> on them\u2026\u201d (italics mine). That two-word phrase the NIV translates as \u201chad compassion\u201d is actually just one word in the original Greek: splagchn\u00edzomai<\/em>\u2014and it means more than we might assume.<\/p>\n

Our tendency is to look at Matthew 9:36 and think that Jesus \u201cfelt sorry\u201d for the people. That is, he felt sympathy and wanted to help them\u2014but he was also somehow separate from their suffering. As one theologian describes it, \u201cGod\u2019s mercy on the miserable\u2026acts of healing [that] grew out of his attitude of compassion.\u201d\u00a0His divine hand was reaching in from the outside to alleviate pain, we think.<\/p>\n

There is a measure of truth to that thinking, but it\u2019s not entirely correct. The more accurate interpretation of splagchn\u00edzomai<\/em> is that Jesus not only saw\u00a0and sympathized<\/em> with their suffering, but that he experienced<\/em> it emotionally within himself as well. You see, splagchn\u00edzomai<\/em> connotes more than just sympathy or even basic empathy; it means literally \u201cto feel deeply or viscerally, to yearn.\u201d Synonymic meanings include \u201ca feeling of distress from the ills of others\u2026to suffer with another.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, Jesus didn\u2019t simply feel sorry for those in misery, he incarnated their misery into his own being. He suffered alongside them, in both their physical and spiritual anguish. It was out of that shared suffering that he enacted his compassionate acts of healing\u2014physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual\u2014that changed people forever. That\u2019s a heartbreakingly beautiful truth: Our God cares for us because he knows, literally, our pain (see Isaiah 53:3).<\/p>\n

The even better news is this:\u00a0Christ still splagchn\u00edsth\u1e17somai<\/em> (\u201cwill have compassion\u201d) on you and me today. He knows intimately what we suffer\u2014and he’s willing to help. Somebody say Amen!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[NIB, 741-742; CWD, 1306]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 9:36 reports this of Jesus, \u201cWhen he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them\u2026\u201d (italics mine). That two-word phrase the NIV translates as \u201chad compassion\u201d is actually just one word in the original Greek: splagchn\u00edzomai\u2014and it means more than we might assume. Our tendency is to look at Matthew 9:36 and think that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15],"tags":[284,16,285],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-wordstudies","tag-compassion","tag-jesus","tag-suffering"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 9:35-38; The Workers Are Few (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/04\/matthew-935-38-the-workers-are-few-word-study.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 9:35-38; The Workers Are Few (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matthew 9:36 reports this of Jesus, \u201cWhen he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them\u2026\u201d (italics mine). 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Our tendency is to look at Matthew 9:36 and think that…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/04\/matthew-935-38-the-workers-are-few-word-study.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-10T12:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-26T23:13:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 9:35-38; The Workers Are Few (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/04\/matthew-935-38-the-workers-are-few-word-study.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 9:35-38; The Workers Are Few (Word Study) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Matthew 9:36 reports this of Jesus, \u201cWhen he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them\u2026\u201d (italics mine). 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