Bible Passage – Matthew 9:35-38
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36
A favorite story of many of my students is told from the point of view of a four-year-old being brought up in the care of a stern grandfather well-respected by his neighbors for the rectitude of his life, a harsh punisher of the sins of a little boy. He was, Davy says, “a true Christian. He knew the will of God and wreaked it on us.” Privately Davy prayed to be saved “from the Christians.” It was only when he saw from his grandfather a humble, loving, self-sacrificial act of compassion that he understood that he had “a granddaddy is on our side” and thus a new understanding of “a true Christian.”
Perhaps all too often an unbelieving world, like Davy, sees the will of God as something joyless “wreaked on us” in punishment. In wonderful contrast, the gospel writers’ portraits of Jesus emphasize his compassion and the compassion he wants to see in his followers.
In the miracle stories before our passage, Jesus had met huge needs, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, quieting a rough sea. But he saw in those he healed A deeper illness, the spiritual sickness of sin, and he healed the souls as well as the bodies of needy sheep.
Then the figure of speech changes from sheep harassed and helpless to an abundant harvest in need of harvesters. The waiting harvest is the crowds with desperate needs, needs of being healed and comforted, fed and clothed, loved and saved. Jesus calls us to the fields where the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
“Lord, make me a compassionate worker in the harvest today.”
Lyna Lee Montgomery