Understanding Compassion in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 14:13–21)

Abstract

The compassionate-love Jesus feels moves him to solve the problems of the suffering. Hence, everything Jesus thought, said, or did in his mission to salvage humankind was motivated by compassionate love. Jesus demonstrated that his mission-mandate should be done on the platform of genuine compassionate love. That is why, in the gospels, he was described as always being moved by compassion. Jesus demonstrated that his followers are to carry on the mission-mandate of the church in compassionate love. But in this era, the church has undergone a paradigm shift from this model of Jesus’ compassion. The problem of the church being less compassionate is hindering the contemporary church from achieving mission-desired goals. Consequently, this article studies the concept of compassion as an underlying theme in the gospel of Matthew and its implications for the mission-mandate of the church in Nigeria. Through the application of the redaction-criticism method of doing biblical exegesis, the study found that the church in Nigeria lacks the model of compassion which Jesus exemplified.

Problem-Based Learning Model According to Matthew 14:13-21

“…Yesus menunjukkan bahwa mandat misi tidak hanya untuk fokus tentang keselamatan jiwa orang-orang. Namun Yesus terlibat dalam belas kasih yang tulus dengan memperhatikan kebutuhan fisik dari masyarakat (Ukeachusim et al, 2021). Yesus memberikan suatu tujuan yang jelas kepada umat-Nya agar setiap manusia saling mengasihi dan terlebih memberi dampak lewat bersaksi dan melayani (Arifianto et al, 2021).…”