Matthew 9:35-38 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
The scene Jesus describes here is kind of heartbreaking. Imagine a farmer who has done everything needed to prepare soil, plant seeds, and nurture the investment of the crops. Everything has gone as it should have, and all the crops have grown and are ready to be harvested. There is just one problem, there aren’t enough laborers to bring in the harvest. All of that soil tilling, all of that seed planting, all of that watering, all of the preparation and expense will have been for nothing because instead of being harvested, the crops will simply die. Everything that needed to be done in order to yield a harvest had been accomplished. The farmer had made sure of it. There just weren’t people who were willing to do the work of harvesting.
In verse 36, we read that He had compassion on the crowd because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. So, we have two images here, a farming image and the picture of a shepherd and his sheep.
Jesus saw how hopeless people were, as they lived disconnected from a true relationship with God. It impacted every area of their lives. That is the sheep without a shepherd part of his metaphor. When sheep have a shepherd, they travel together. They are never alone. The sheep look to the shepherd for everything. They totally rely on the shepherd. You take the shepherd out of the equation, and it is a bad situation.
Sheep are vulnerable to being attacked without a shepherd. They are defenseless without the shepherd. They aren’t good foragers. They don’t know how to find food. They depend on the shepherd to lead them to green pastures. They have to have a stream slowed and stilled by the creation of a dam so that they can even get a drink. Sheep are scattered, confused, hungry and vulnerable without a shepherd. I don’t want to be any one of those four things. How about you?
Do you find yourself scattered, confused, hungry and vulnerable? You need a Shepherd! What I am about to tell you might not be the primary motivation for following Jesus, but it isn’t a bad one. Are you ready? If you follow Jesus like sheep follow their shepherd, you will have everything you need to live a full, protected and satisfied life. There are greater reasons than that, like needing eternal salvation when you die, but whether Heaven was ever offered to me, these basic realities are more than compelling for me to want to walk with Jesus.
And when Jesus encountered people with no shepherd, He had compassion on them. We were made to need a Shepherd. That’s why life is harder without one. We need a Shepherd. Religion cannot be your shepherd. Sex, money, prestige or power cannot be a shepherd. Social media cannot be your shepherd. Your friends cannot be your shepherd. Even education and career pursuits cannot be your shepherd. Only Jesus can offer what a shepherd offers his sheep.
When the text says that Jesus had compassion, it means that it pained Him to see them in the condition they were in. He felt so bad for people who didn’t know what was available to them. They were missing out. They didn’t know anything else was possible. Maybe that is you today. Maybe you didn’t know or still aren’t sure that a different life is possible. Maybe you have been living in a chaotic, anxious state. Maybe you are getting up each day just hoping for the best when you could actually live with a real sense of hope.
We all go through tough times, but the difference is that for those who know the Shepherd, for those who are truly following Jesus, we understand that the Lord WILL get us through those time times, and we can lean on Him for direction, provision, protection and strength. Tough times are a lot tougher, a lot harder, and way more complicated without Him. Believers know Jesus will shield us from unnecessary trouble and hardship.
As Jesus was processing His feelings about the state of people’s lives, He said this to His disciples, 37 “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Jesus didn’t pray for the lost. He prayed for us to show up for work.
Picture Jesus with a “Help Wanted” sign. I wonder, if we could chat with Jesus face to face about this topic, if He would simply say, “I can’t get anyone to work.”
Jesus said we are to pray for laborers, and I don’t think He meant that we should bow our heads and say, “Lord, send someone else.”
Maybe you have a long prayer list of people you are praying for to come to Christ. That’s a good thing. To pray for people to get saved is strategic, and the unsaved, the spiritually lost, should populate our prayer requests. However, here Jesus says we are to work to win the lost. If we have prayed, but haven’t worked, we have only done half of the assignment and doing the first half without doing the second half won’t get the job done. We are to pray AND work.
What if we lived to make Heaven crowded?
Here’s what I know. We are running out of time. Farmers know that when you are out of daylight, no more harvesting takes place. The work stops. Friends, the Bible talks about this very thing.
John 9:4 says, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”
When Jesus returns, “daylight” will be no more. There won’t be another opportunity to gather a harvest. Believers, in light of that reality, how will you work now to bring in the harvest?
Do you agree with Jesus that there are a lot of people who are helpless, harassed, and hopeless, like sheep without a shepherd? Can you see them? Can you see how susceptible they are to sin, to danger, to being manipulated by the gods of this age? Can you see their confusion about what is true? About what is important? About what they should live for? Do you see how they struggle to get by when He would love to provide and care for them? Let it move you to be an answer to the prayer Jesus asked His disciples to pray. Become a harvester that helps many others get connected to the Shepherd who longs to take them to His forever home.
