Compassion and workers

Jesus went about teaching, preaching, and healing in that region. As He went about, He felt compassion for those He saw.

"And Jesus was going about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd." Matthew 9:35-36

This is what His disciples recognized; Jesus had compassion for those He saw. Compassion was integral to the work He did. The people He saw were not specifically those on the fringes of society; He did not just have compassion on the failures and outcasts. He had compassion on the people of the land; mankind was "distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd". Those He saw may not have felt distressed and downcast; they were living "normal" lives. In comparison to others around them, they were OK.

But Jesus saw them like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep cannot survive on their own. Sheep need care. They are defenseless, near-sighted animals. Jesus, the good Shepherd, looked at the multitudes with the eye of a shepherd. The multitudes needed to be tended to. Sheep need their feet trimmed, or they get foot rot. Sheep need the wool on their rumps trimmed, or they get a load of manure stuck to them. Maggots eat away their flesh under the manure. Sheep need fresh pasture, or parasites build up in their guts. Untended, sheep are not OK. The multitudes were not OK.

But even though Jesus went about teaching, preaching, and healing among these people, He felt compassion on them, for they did not have a shepherd. His very powerful ministry did not fill the role of a shepherd. Jesus turned to His disciples, and told them to pray for workers.

"Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38

Workers are needed to be the shepherds for the multitude. Jesus understood that.

We need to understand this as well. The greatest Sunday services do not fulfill this need. Someone is needed who will get his hands dirty tending the sheep.