Matthew 9:36-38 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad… When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. Notice how his daily work of healing must have brought Christ sympathetically near to all the sorrows of men. Illustrate from the itinerating work of the Eastern hakim, or physician. It is usual to bring out all the sick of a district when the hakim arrives. Compare the crowds in our marketplaces round the quack-medicine vendor. I. THE IMPRESSION MADE ON CHRIST BY THE SIGHT OF MULTITUDES. Show the effects which great crowds produce on us. They greatly excite us; but when we regard them as religious men they greatly depress us, for they convince us that large masses of humanity are yet unreached by the redeeming and elevating influences of Christianity. Show the effects that great crowds produced on Christ. 1. Sympathy with bodily needs. (As in the case of feeding the five thousand.) 2. Compassion for soul-suffering. (Regarded as "sheep having no shepherd." ) 3. Our Lord seems to have been specially distressed, because they thought so much of body, and were ready to sacrifice so much for it, and yet scarcely knew of the wants of their soul - of the "hunger of the soul." II. THE LESSONS FOR THE DISCIPLES WHICH OUR LORD'S IMPRESSION'S SUGGESTED. 1. That there was abundant room for spiritual work. 2. That the multitudes of men form the Lord's harvest-field. 3. That there is still no proper correspondence between the harvest and those who labour at its ingathering. The harvest is wide and great; the labourers are but few. 4. That they should think and pray about this divergence, and so very possibly come to hear the Divine call to go into the harvest-field. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. |
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