Matthew 9:36
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. 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.
When he looked on the crowds he saw people worn out and scattered, broken by sickness, sorrow, poverty and want, and at the same time helpless and perishing in sin without true spiritual care and without the light and bread of life in God's Word. His feeling toward them was deep yearning pity flowing from the tenderness of his heart and his sense of their worth, a love that belonged eternally to his heart and to the Father's heart and brought him from heaven to fallen humanity. That pity was not passive or indifferent, but moved him to relieve hunger, weakness and suffering by healing the sick, comforting mourners, bringing hope and strength, and teaching the way of salvation to body and soul together. Their need for shepherding care is why he spoke of the plentiful harvest and few laborers and appointed his disciples as his representatives, making his compassionate lifework the pattern for his people to deny self, bear burdens, and care for the weak, erring and suffering poor. The lack they suffered came because priests and teachers who should have fed them left them unfed, and the same need continues wherever people are left without faithful feeding and guidance, calling for urgent searching out and gathering of the lost sheep in every place by word, healing, teaching and personal care.
Weary Scattered Multitudes' Condition
The crowds are fainting, weary, exhausted and scattered abroad, seen in a state of physical weakness, sickness, sorrow, poverty, degradation, hunger, thirst and distress, with some fainting and falling under the burden. Their weariness drew deep sympathy because they were faint and scattered like a flock with no one to relieve their hunger and thirst. The need that moved compassion followed teaching, preaching of the kingdom and healing of every sickness and disease, showing a people in want of both care and guidance.
They are also spiritually weary, suffering, needy, helpless, lost and perishing in sin without Christ, longing for the blessing of grace in order to enter the kingdom and be saved. Bodily affliction points to a deeper illness of heart and soul, so that those who are rested, fed and healed become aware of spiritual need and begin a new life. Their destitution lays a continuing duty to relieve physical suffering, including caring for and treating the sick, and to present comfort and hope in Christ to souls perishing without Him.
To be as sheep having no shepherd is to lack faithful spiritual guidance and care, with spiritual shepherds failing to feed the flock. It is to be in darkness without the light of truth, earnestly reaching out hands for help and calling workers to lift the standard of truth among needy companies. It is to be spiritually distressed and hungry, hungering and thirsting for the bread of life and the living bread from heaven found in God's Word, which must be presented clearly and decisively. Where ministers give chaff instead of wheat they leave the people unfed, and the need calls for persevering work to reach and save those who are spiritually hungry and lack sound teaching.
The verse embraces people of every social standing and every condition, including the weak, helpless, ignorant, degraded, poor and suffering, all longing for the blessings brought to them and needing grace to become subjects of the kingdom. Every soul is precious in God's sight, and multitudes lie in destitute fields with no one to teach them truth. God regards each one's capacity and sees how surroundings have formed character, pitying even those marked by hardship and deeply ingrained habits among whom are souls who may embrace the truth. Their helpless, suffering, lost condition was not limited to those first seen, but continues as long as any part of the human family suffers physically and is spiritually poor without Christ.
Christ's Tender Compassion
His compassion flowed from the tenderness of his heart and his understanding of the value of people, and seeing human need moved him to bring the gospel of salvation so sinners could forsake sin, believe in him, and be saved. It was not unusual or forced, not new or separate from God's character, for it belonged eternally to his heart, dwelt in the Father's heart, and was revealed in his life. It led him from heaven to take humanity and to show tenderness toward people in their fallen, sinful condition.
When he looked on the departing multitudes and on distressed, scattered people, human woe moved him with yearning pity and deep, intense interest. His compassion was not indifferent, for he did not pass by those needing help or leave them without assistance. He still has that same compassion on the suffering poor, stretches out his hand to bless them, and teaches his disciples to remember them in prayer.
His compassion was active concern to relieve hunger, thirst, weakness, suffering, and want, for their physical weakness and distress drew his deep sympathy and desire to relieve them. He healed the sick, comforted mourners, soothed the afflicted, and brought hope and strength to those he met, serving all with tenderness and gentleness. His care and teaching gave people hope, while his words carried earnest, convicting power and sympathy. Compassion like his means looking on the poor, sick, poverty-stricken, and helpless with pity and benevolence, gladly helping them and supplying present necessities of life — food, clothing, blankets — with medical care such as treatments, hot baths and packs, and remedies for coughs, instead of spending on horse racing, cricket, and theaters. Bodily affliction pointed to a deeper illness of heart and soul, so his compassion led him to minister to both bodily and spiritual needs, and people who were rested, fed, and healed became aware of their spiritual need and began a new life.
His compassion is the key to his lifework and the pattern for his people, who are to reveal the same compassion by denying self, lifting the cross, and bearing one another's burdens. His example is the model for God's ministers, who are to meet people's needs from God's word and depend on the Spirit who dwelt in him for knowledge and power. That same divine tenderness is to take possession of the soul and be manifested in being pitiful and tender toward those regarded as weak and erring, so that his love flows out to brethren and through them to others and clears away misunderstanding. His followers are therefore to pity the unfortunate and generously consider the feelings and needs of the needy, troubled, and despairing, showing the same sympathy in words and work toward those they regard as weak and erring.
He also looked ahead with burdened compassion on his disciples as sheep about to be without a shepherd. He feared they would be left without his kind and tender counsel and without one who knew how to lead them in perilous emergencies. His compassion came from his understanding of the trials and difficulties that lay before them and the temptations to which they were subject.
Ministry and Harvest Setting
His pity came in the course of going through every city and village teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every sickness and every disease. That going joined the restoring and healing of suffering humanity to the ministry of the word, caring for body and soul together. The same care for body and soul is the purpose to be served by sanitariums. He saw the crowds weary and scattered as sheep without a shepherd and understood their lack of guidance and care as the reason for compassion.
He recognized their spiritual need and taught them the way of salvation while healing the sick and relieving suffering. Bodily affliction pointed to a deeper sickness of heart and soul, so compassion moved to meet physical weakness, hunger, thirst, and pain and also to meet the inward need. Those who were rested and fed and healed then felt their spiritual need and entered a new life.
Their need for care and guidance opens directly into the word about the plentiful harvest and the few laborers. The disciples are therefore to pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. He appointed the disciples as His representatives and teachers so the crowds accepting Him and looking to Him for the bread of life would not be left uncared for and without guidance when He returned to heaven into a time of darkness and discouragement. That call means a special, organized effort to preach and care for people in cities left without help, and a joining together of the church under the Holy Spirit to carry the good news of grace to the world.
Though the leaders maligned His works of mercy and accused Him of doing them through the prince of devils, He went on with the work from heaven. He kept unfolding truth, bringing light into the darkness of sin and superstition, and preparing receptive hearts to receive it. His example requires concern for people close at hand as well as for those in distant lands. That concern includes warning the cities and sending workers beyond them into places that have not heard the message, so the unreached may hear it.
Faithless Shepherds and Division
Israel's priests who should have taught and guided the people instead performed empty ceremonies and repeated a law they neither understood nor practiced, leaving the multitudes without faithful guidance. Though the scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' seat, they were not true shepherds but thieves and robbers who exercised power in an authoritative manner yet left the sheep unfed, and for this they deserve censure.
So also today ministers leave people spiritually distressed, hungry for the bread of life, and unfed when they give chaff instead of wheat and feed themselves instead of giving the flock sound teaching. A people may have a regular minister and yet be just as well without a shepherd when he does not truly feed and care for them but opposes the truth and warns them to keep away from hearing it. Others are left as sheep without a shepherd because ministers seldom visit or preach to them, do not visit them to give spiritual food, and instead of preaching the Word misinterpret the Scriptures while the people plead to be fed with light and help.
Discord, disunion, and division among shepherds scatters the flock as sheep without a shepherd and harms it, while their unity protects and benefits the church. Shepherds therefore should consult trusted people firmly grounded in present truth before advocating important new teachings, for such counsel and unity prevent division and keep the people from being left without guidance. In compassion he encircles the shepherds in his arms to forbid discord, calling them to press together and love one another as he has loved them so the sheep are not scattered. The condition of the flock calls for examining what kind of guidance it receives today, requiring much more well-organized effort to feed them and far less mere preaching, with instruction given modestly by teachers who do the Word themselves and open mind and heart to its light and understanding.
Scattered Sheep in History
The picture of sheep scattered without a shepherd describes the disciples after Jesus' death as helpless, disappointed, discouraged, confused and uncertain, unable to recall his warnings about what would happen. Cut off from their Master who had been rejected and killed, they felt loneliness and loss more deeply than ever. In that separation they realized how much they loved him, valued him and needed him, and how they had failed to show him love and gratitude while he was near, missing the love and counsel they had received and the compassion he had shown suffering people.
After the Holy Spirit was poured out they were changed and equipped to go out as united witnesses for the truth in Christian love, telling the story of Jesus' birth and death. Though humble and armed only with God's word and Spirit rather than weapons, they triumphed over opposition. The cross became the source of hope and salvation, empowering bold witness through God's Word and Spirit. The same picture also describes believers who had accepted him as Saviour and looked to him for the bread of life as soon to be left without a shepherd when he returned to heaven. He saw they would be vulnerable to darkness and discouragement without guidance and counsel, so he appointed his disciples as his representatives and teachers to keep them from being left uncared for.
It describes the disappointed people after 1844 as scattered, vulnerable sheep without encouragement and without guidance. Elder Morse, also called Bro. Morse, though once earnest in proclaiming the Lord's coming, became despondent when the expected time passed and did nothing to encourage them. Left exposed to derision, to those who would devour them like wolves, and to spiritual danger, they needed guidance and support. The same picture is applied to the Puritans who emigrated to America as few, isolated, and without friends or influence. Yet their faith and devotion to God enabled their influence to grow powerful and far-reaching.
Gathering Today's Scattered Sheep
The scattered lost sheep are found everywhere and must be urgently searched out before the work is cut short, for the work of caring for them is being neglected. They are to be sought in cities and throughout the land, in towns and forests, in the highways and byways, in out-of-the-way places, and in every city and locality. This includes earnest, anxious people in destitute fields with no one to teach them truth, spiritually hungry and left without a shepherd, needing care and the food of truth. Their condition is urgent, for Christ points to them as fields already white for harvest that call workers to go to them.
The towns and settlements around Cooranbong, Maitland, Newcastle, and Wallsend are without Christ and without hope in the world, fainting and scattered in spiritual need without shepherding care and guidance. They are hungering and thirsting for light, for someone to open the Scriptures to them, strangers, outcasts, and poor souls weak in moral power, waiting for the third angel's message. They are precious souls of value in God's sight because Christ gave His life for them, and as Prince of life He knows what they need. Those who have the light and knowledge of the truth must therefore work in every way to save them without delay, seeking them out, visiting them, and laboring for them with persevering, simple teaching drawn by love, since their salvation is at stake.
Other named companies are likewise sheep without a shepherd because they lack regular spiritual guidance and need compassionate care and truth. This includes people in Texas long without a shepherd and hungry for the word of life, church members in Iowa left without visits or needed help, and Sabbath-keepers in Queensland and other localities who began through books but have no living preacher to visit and instruct them. It includes small groups and outlying families and settlements convinced of the Sabbath yet needing instruction, encouragement about making a living, weekday visits, Sabbath or Sunday meetings, and help to establish a house of worship with seats. It includes nearby groups reaching out for help and asking how to be saved, and communities whose minister seldom comes yet whose people want to hear the truth and are left spiritually hungry and open to receiving spiritual food.
People in one region of country are left without shepherds as poor scattered sheep torn by wolves and starving without food. They come in from all directions, cling to the truth though they have had no labor, and hunger for food that takes hold upon their hearts. Their condition calls for testimony and preaching where it is greatly needed, and for continual prayer for God to work in any way and send by whom He will, giving His word to the people as spiritual food, as an instrument of righteousness and a channel of light. So also hillside hearers were in that shepherdless condition, and speaking to them brought words of light and comfort that some remembered.
Compassion like His looks with pity and benevolence on the poor, sick, poverty-stricken, helpless, poor and suffering, gladly helping them and supplying present necessities of life instead of spending on horse racing, cricket, and theaters. This means food, clothing, blankets, treatments, hot baths and packs, and remedies for coughs. His care for the multitudes joins the healing and restoring of suffering humanity with the ministry of the word, and the work in all its branches is to be one, never separating the health-restorative gospel from the ministry of the word. Health institutions and sanitariums are therefore to be established in every part of the world as part of the gospel work and a special illustration of the gospel for magnifying truth, with medical missionary work as the helping hand to open the way, teaching important principles of health and life, receiving people of every class, and adapting the handling of the work to the classes met.
Gathering them requires reaching them with books that present the truth for this time, for the scattered lost sheep found everywhere are being neglected. Their shepherdless condition, living scattered and far from meetings and religious privileges and hungry for spiritual help, is met by calling them together and feeding them Bible truth through papers, pamphlets, and meetings, with the gospel message carried out to all in the highways and byways of life to bring them in. It requires schools that lay the Bible at the foundation of all education and join theoretical teaching of its precious truths with practical use, giving students, especially those with talents, time apart from heavy studies to do missionary work, become acquainted with families where they live, and carry truth to those in the darkness of error where they are. It requires meetinghouses as folds where the helpless can be gathered and taught, with weekday visiting and appointed Sabbath or Sunday meetings, and workers including women missionaries supported by cutting off every needless indulgence and placing the money saved in the Lord's treasury to give meat in His house.
True laborers share His pitying, tender love for lost souls, His loving sympathy for the afflicted, His tender, watchful care for the sick, and His compassion for the suffering, seeking to save souls with the same faithfulness they show in caring for bodily needs. They regard the needy as special objects of care, preach the gospel to every creature, and give the invitation to the supper as glad tidings for all people. They are care-worn and oppressed in spirit when they see crookedness and impenitence and people who will not listen to the Word of the Lord. In God's great day of preparation, with the last message of mercy going to the world, this compassion forbids sleep and indifference and drives zeal, living interest, and intense effort with all might for the precious men and women around them, with vital concern and work for souls perishing in sin.
Needy companies of different sizes are in darkness without the light of truth and are earnestly reaching out their hands asking for help, pleading to be fed with the Word of God because they want light and help. Christ Himself points to them as fields white already to harvest, calling workers to lift up their eyes, go to them, and lift the standard of truth among them. His compassion means giving them the gospel of truth, preaching the Word to them, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with long-suffering and doctrine, in season and out of season, because the ministers of the churches are not preaching the Word but misinterpreting the Scriptures.