Joe American.

He’s got nine friends. Drinks the milk in the bowl after the cereal is finished. Eats 25 pounds of candy per year — but generally not in a single sitting.

Joe American recycles stuff, at least occasionally. Usually goes to bed before midnight.. Isn’t famous — and doesn’t necessarily want to be. Believes in God, and goes to church at least once a month.

So … who is this guy? I bet you’re wondering. According to Kevin O’Keefe, a former magazine writer, Joe is the single most average person out of today’s 280 million Americans. O’Keefe devoted two years to crunching numbers and developing average criteria such as age and the ability to name all three of the Three Stooges. In case you are curious, the average American is 36 years old, and he can name the Stooges.

“There were a lot of surprises along the way,” O’Keefe tells Newsweek magazine (October 31, 2005). “We have this image that the average American lives on a farm in rural America.” But guess what? The last time farms were in the majority was in the 1920s. These surprises, and others, have been compiled by O’Keefe in a book called The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation’s Most Ordinary Citizen.

It is certainly significant that Joe American believes in God, and has never doubted his existence. And it’s worth noting that church attendance remains important, at least a dozen times a year. This sends the message that the average American is turning to Jesus in the 21st century with the same level of need and desire that was felt in the first century. And in both of these eras, Jesus shows a level of concern that is way above average.

At the start of today’s passage from Mark, Jesus is luring his disciples away from their work to a deserted place, where they can rest and recharge. I know that I needed a vacation this summer, and I have to believe that the disciples deserve one as well. So they take a boat across the Sea of Galilee to a spot where they hope to enjoy a spa day — maybe a sauna, a little steam, an exercise class, a healthy lunch. They’re anxious to relax and recharge their bodies, minds, and spirits.

But a crowd of Average Galileans has another idea. They see Jesus and the disciples going across the sea, so five thousand of them hurry on foot from all the towns and arrive ahead of them. They are like fans of Nine Inch Nails, Audioslave, and Weezer, rushing to get tickets before the concerts sell out.

As soon as Jesus steps out of the boat, he is greeted like a rock star. The crowd swarms around him, and he sees their need for direction and protection and healing. Then he has a reaction that comes as kind of a surprise — Mark tells us, in the original Greek of the Gospel, that Jesus “is moved in his bowels” (Mark 6:34).

Yuk. Sounds kind of gross, doesn’t it? But hold on — Mark isn’t saying that Jesus gets sick to his stomach, overcome by intestinal distress. In the world of the Bible, the bowels were believed to be the source of kindness and pity, the place deep within each person where feelings of compassion came from. Today, we would say that Jesus was moved “in his heart.” But in the first century, he was moved “in his bowels.”

The point is this — Jesus has a deep, powerful, physical feeling when he sees the crowd. He has intense and overwhelming compassion for them, because they are wandering through life like sheep without a shepherd, and his feelings for them come from the very core of his being. He doesn’t just think about them, he feels for them. In his heart. In his bowels.

And then he takes action. Jesus begins to teach them (v. 34), feed them (vv. 35-44), and heal the sick throughout the region (vv. 53-56). His deep feelings of compassion for the Average Galilean lead him to change his plans for a spa day, and instead focus on healing people in body, mind, and spirit.

This is an inspirational story, but what does it say to Robert Burns, the one person who was discovered to embody the average characteristics of an American man or woman? Yes, there really is an average American, and his name is Robert Burns. He lives in a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, and works as a maintenance man. He’s 5-foot-8, and weighs 185 pounds. He has three children, and prefers smooth peanut butter over chunky. He embodies 140 of the average American statistics, and because of this he has earned the right to be called “Joe American.” He is, according to O’Keefe, our most ordinary citizen.

So what does Jesus do for Joe?

What does he do for Joe’s three children? For his friends and his neighbors?

For you? For me?

For starters, Jesus feels compassion for the Average American. He knows how much we are hurting, whether we show it to the world or not. He is moved in his bowels by the pain of a computer specialist who has just been fired … by the anxiety of a teenager who is confused about her sexual identity … by the fear of a child who is being secretly abused by a parent … by the disorientation of a woman who has just lost her husband of 49 years … by the hunger of a baby who is put to bed every evening without enough food to eat. Jesus is moved with compassion for those who need healing of body, mind, and spirit, just as he was moved by the suffering of lepers and demoniacs during his earthly ministry (Mark 1:41, 5:19). Jesus feels pity for the 280 million citizens of the United States, just as he felt pity for the four thousand hungry people who gathered near the Sea of Galilee (8:2).

For years now, people have been asking the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” Well, I think a better question is, “What Would Jesus Feel?”

The answer, today and every day, is: Compassion. Deep, heartfelt and unconditional compassion for the powerful and the powerless, the misguided and the misunderstood, the least and the lost, the nuisances and the nobodies.

Compassion … for us.

Jesus also teaches the Average American. He doesn’t want us to wander aimlessly, like sheep without a shepherd, so he instructs us in his will and his way. Now this is where some people balk, because they find that the teachings of Christ are not as easy to accept as his gift of compassion. After all, it is Jesus who issues stern warnings against anger, adultery, lust, divorce, and greed, and who commands us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).

Jesus is loving. But he’s also tough.

There are some Average Americans today who seem to be adhering to Karl Marx’s teaching that religion is the opiate of the masses. Well, it certainly is, if you look to Christianity only to ease your pain. But for true followers of Christ, the therapeutic value of the faith is always linked to a high moral calling.

As Jim Wallis points out in his book God’s Politics, our faith does not allow us to live in a way that is self-centered and self-indulgent. Followers of Christ are commanded to care for the poor and vulnerable, and to act as good stewards of God’s creation. We are challenged to be peacemakers, and to respect the image of God in every person. Our views on abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, weapons of mass destruction, and AIDS cannot be determined by our personal preferences — instead, they have to reflect a consistent ethic of human life, in line with the biblical challenge to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Jesus teaches us, so that we won’t wander in the wrong direction.

Finally, Jesus heals the Average American. He comes to us when we are broken in body, mind, or spirit, and gently puts together our scattered shards. He heals the sick, comforts the grieving, and forgives those who are shattered by their sinfulness. When a teenager named James Dungy committed suicide last fall, it was a shock to his father Tony, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Many prayers were lifted up as the Dungy family mourned this loss, and eventually Tony Dungy returned to his work with the team. In a post-practice interview after his return, Dungy thanked the Colts organization for its support, and then said, “My faith in Christ is what’s gotten me through this.”

Dungy gave Jesus credit for putting together the shattered pieces of his life.

And so should we.

For the Average American, Jesus is a powerful source of compassion, instruction, and healing. Our mission trip participants discovered this when they went to New York, and found the power of Christ at work in their worship, in their acts of service, and in their bonding as a community. They found that whether you are a teenager from Northern Virginia or a veteran from Upstate New York, Jesus Christ is close and available, with a deep desire to help and to heal.

This is a great gift because each of us, in our own way, is stressed and needs to rest. We are like sheep without a shepherd, wandering in dangerous and destructive ways. We have brokenness that needs to be healed, whether it is physical, mental, or spiritual.

So let’s turn to Jesus for the help he can give us. There’s nothing wrong with being ordinary when we are in the presence of an extraordinary Messiah. Amen.


Sources:
Joseph, Nicole. “Here’s Joe American.” Newsweek. October 31, 2005. 8.
Wallis, Jim. God’s Politics. (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). xxvii-xxviii.