THE COMPASSIONATE CHRIST
Matthew 9:36-38
We finally come to the section that concludes the miracle power and authority of Jesus Christ in Chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew. For the past seven lessons we have looked at various examples that indicate how Jesus has the authority over various powers. We’ve witnessed how Jesus has healing power over dominating diseases like leprosy, palsy, and fever, his power over cultural and military authorities, his power over demonic powers, his power over nature’s storm, his authority to forgive sins, his power to read people’s hearts, his power to cause someone to follow him, his power over traditionalism, his power over the religious leaders of his days, and his power to raise the dead. Tonight we’re going to examine the final evidence of Jesus’ authority, namely, that his power to send out workers into his harvest. And this point has profound implications as we shall see shortly.
Once again the focus of our text is Jesus Christ and the central focus of this message is Jesus. With that in mind, I would like to point out four essential truths concerning Jesus from our text this evening.
I. Jesus is most compassionate.
The phrase “he felt compassion for them” in verse 36 is better translate it to
“Jesus was moved with compassion”. In Greek this refers to moving of one’s deepest emotion and affection. While the word “compassion” is mentioned about 98 times in the Bible and the word “mercy” 101 times, this particular verb “moved with compassion” is mentioned only six times only in the NT and four of which are direct references to Jesus being moved with compassion, while other two are found in the parables of the Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son. All that is to say, this particular verb is mentioned all six times in the Gospels and it is introduced for the first time here in Matthew’s Gospel.
However, as I already mentioned the reference to compassion and mercy is found all throughout the Bible.
- NAU Exodus 33:19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
- NAU Psalm 103:13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
- NAU Lamentations 3:32 For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness.
- NAU Colossians 3:12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
So here in our text the first characteristic of Jesus that Matthew reveals to us is that Jesus is super compassionate. And this deserves much attention.
If we are pursuing to become better disciples of Jesus we all need to learn from this particular truth. It is my observation that generally we, especially, the men need to work on compassion. Compassion and mercy are not difficult if we reflect daily of God’s dealing with us. When people have difficulty with compassion and mercy it is because they have double standards. They’re glad and grateful that God is very merciful to them. When they sin they want God to use telescope on them, but when they deal with other people, they want to use a microscope on others. That’s having double standards. The smell of self-righteousness is the stench that grace has gone sour.
One of my favorite examples of Jesus’ compassion is when Jesus saw Mary and her friends weeping over the death of her brother Lazarus. John 11:33 says, “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.” And verse 35 records the shortest verse in the whole Bible – i.e., “Jesus wept.” Paul later picks up this sentiment and says in Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” Hence Jesus and his disciples were far from being stoic and lack of emotions.
Mercy and compassion need to constantly exude out of Christians. After all, who better understand this subject than Christians, the recipients of God’s sovereign grace? Christians are the people who truly understand that God did not save Christians because he saw something good in them. The fact of the matter is there is no reason in man that God should save. There isn’t anything that God wants in man that he should save. What prompted him to save sinners is solely within God alone. And such grace was ultimately demonstrated when Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God died as our substitute. And when we understand and focus on such grace, there is no reason that we shouldn’t be merciful and compassionate toward people, especially, the broken ones.
If you generally have hard time showing mercy and compassion, then let me encourage you to look to Jesus in this. But more specifically, I offer you another lesson of Jesus from our text. And this leads to our second point.
II. Jesus is perceptive of people.
It begins with biblical perception. The text says at the beginning of verse 36 Jesus “seeing the people.” The word seeing does not refer to casual seeing. Rather it refers to perception by close observation. For instance, the same Greek verb is used in 9:2 “seeing their faith” and 9:4 “Jesus knowing their thoughts.”
If you struggle in the area of having compassion for people, then learn from Jesus here. The text reads, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion,” that is to say, learn to see the people as people. That means recognize that he/she is an individual that God had created. Understand that people are not here by accident or coincident but they exist to fulfill God’s sovereign will whether or not they are Christians. God doesn’t only use Christians to fulfill his will. However, the difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians do understand God’s redemptive purpose as it is revealed in Scripture.
Up to this point in Matthew’s Gospel, the fame of Jesus was spreading. And many were following him. But as I mentioned before, many people followed him as mere spectators, not as genuine disciples. Like today many were more interested in healings than the Healer. Many wanted to get free bread, but not the Bread of life. They enjoyed getting gifts, but not the Giver.
Nonetheless Jesus saw them as people, not pests. Furthermore, he saw people through the perceptive eyes. Although he met many people with many needs it is clearly demonstrated in Matthew 8 and 9 that the greatest need of people isn’t physical, mental, or social well-being, but spiritual. To be more specific, it is the need of sinners to be reconciled with the Holy God through faith alone in Christ alone.
III. Jesus is the true Shepherd.
According to Matthew, Jesus was moved with compassion because they were, in Greek, harassed and thrown down or discouraged as in lying on the ground helpless. And the metaphor Jesus used to depict this sad picture is like sheep without a shepherd. The noun shepherd is the same word for pastor in Ephesians 4:11.
What this clearly implies is that sheep are generally harassed, taken advantage of, and discouraged when there is absence of shepherd. Sheep are by nature defenseless animals. Without a shepherd they are open and vulnerable to any attack. When there is no shepherd present sheep can be bothered and harassed by other bullying sheep. The shepherd not only protects the sheep from bullying sheep, but also from life-threatening hungry wolves and other dangerous animals. All that is to say, shepherd’s chief responsibilities are protecting sheep from dangers and properly feeding and leading to green pastures.
- NAU Psalm 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
And this is what the religious leaders have failed in the days of Jesus. What Matthew says here in verse 36, about how Jesus was moved by compassion because he saw the people like sheep without a shepherd, is actually a powerful indictment on the religious leaders of his days, namely the scribes and Pharisees. One Bible teacher said, “The scribes and Pharisees offered a religion that added burdens instead of lifting them. They had great concern about their self-made traditions but only superficial and hypocritical concern about the true law of God. And for them, the common people were the object of disdain not compassion, to be exploited not served.”[1]
Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ days, many religious leaders today are guilty of keeping people out of the Kingdom of God by failing to protect and provide the truth. They are guilty when they give people false assurances of salvation and hope, and lead people to be content with themselves with no need for repentance. The compassion that Jesus provides is for the broken ones, not for the proud and unrepentant.
Sheep are by nature eager to eat. But Jesus saw them unfed and unprotected; hence he was moved with such compassion for them. A true shepherd feeds and protects the sheep. People have all sorts of ideas about what a good pastor is. Generally, people think a good pastor is one who loves, cares, understands, and frequently visits people and etc. Although those things are wonderful characteristics that people expect, one should not separate those things from the biblical mandate to feed. That is to say, one should not see the distinction between loving and caring from preaching and teaching properly and regularly. In other words, if pastor fails to preach and teach God’s Word regularly and properly, no matter what people think he fails to be a true shepherd. In the same psalm that I read earlier, verse 3 says, “He (the shepherd) restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
According to Ezekiel 34 the characteristic of false shepherds or pseudo pastors is that they fail to feed the sheep. With in mind would you please turn your Bible with me to Ezekiel 34? Let me draw your attention from verse 1 to verse 16. Please follow me as I simply read the text. After that, I’ll make brief comments.
First, notice how many times the emphasis is on feeding the flock? It is all over from verse 1 to verse 16. Next, notice the explicit implications found in verse 4. It contains the results of not being fed. The implications are if pastors would truly feed God’s flock the people would be strengthened, they would be healed, especially the ones that are broken to pieces would be bound up in every way, and the lost would be brought back and be found.
That is why I do what I do for Sovereign Grace Bible Church, namely to feed this local congregation by preaching and teaching the Word of God. As you have seen from Acts 6:4, as a pastor I must devote myself to prayer and to the ministry of the word. That is what 1 Peter 5:2 means by “shepherd the flock of God among you.”
Hence according to our text Matthew wants his readers to know that Jesus Christ is the ultimate true shepherd. Because he is the true shepherd he was moved by compassion to feed the unfed and protect the unprotected sheep.
IV. Jesus is the Lord of the harvest.
End of verse 38 indicates that the harvest is his – i.e., “his harvest.” In other words, it is God who has planted, watered, and now he will receive his harvest. There are some who would view harvest to mean God’s judgment (cf. 13:39; Isaiah 17:11; and Joel 3:13).[2] However, it is better to understand this to mean normal harvest by natural reading of this text since the word plentiful is indicated. What Jesus is saying is that “there is a large number of people in some sense simply waiting to hear the gospel of the kingdom. The fields of people are ready, waiting to be harvested. They are urgently in need of workers to go and proclaim the good news to them.”[3] What this implies is that though God is fully capable of harvesting people into salvation on his own, he nonetheless chooses to use people to harvest. In other words, God generally works through means.[4]
- NAU Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
Now I have just pointed out four essential truths concerning Jesus Christ from our text: 1) he is most compassionate, 2) he is perceptive of people, 3) he is the true shepherd, and 4) he is the Lord of the harvest.
Now, what does all this mean to me and you? Let me offer two applications.
First, pray to be sent out so that you can work the harvest and also pray that the Lord will send out other workers into his harvest. Here the verb to pray or beseech in verse 39 is imperative in Greek, not an option. D.A. Carson writes, “This does not mean that we should do nothing but pray; it does mean we should do nothing without praying.”[5]
In his book A Call to Spiritual Reformation, D.A. Carson pens these words concerning intentional praying:
We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray. What we actually do reflects our highest priorities. That means we can proclaim our commitment to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions disown our words… The reason we pray so little is that we do not plan to pray. Wise planning will ensure that we devote ourselves to pray often, even if for brief periods: it is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length. But the worst option is simply not to pray – and that will be controlling pattern unless we plan to pray. If we intend to change our habits, we must start here.[6]
Pray that God would grant you a heart that is soft, tendered, sensitive, merciful, and compassionate toward the ones that are broken. Pray that God would grant you the deepest affection for sheep that are unfed and unprotected. Remember, the text reads that Jesus was “moved by compassion.” Pray that God would grant you such affection for people. Pray that you would have deepest affection for Christ’s church. Pray that you would be moved with compassion for churches that are unfed and unprotected. Do people move you emotionally, namely, those that have been beaten down by religious legalism, its leaders, and wrong doctrines?
Also, pray for churches without true shepherds, especially, in many of the Third-world countries. Truly there the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beg and beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest!
Secondly, be an active worker for God’s harvest. Jesus clearly says that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Remember, God chooses to use means to accomplish his purpose. Hence don’t you want to be one of his means to save others? A true Calvinist is an active evangelist and worker for the gospel.
[3] D.A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World (Toronto: Global Christian Publishers, 2001), 244.
