MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 9:36-38
Preparing for change.—We seem here to be like men arriving at a new stage on their journey. At such a juncture they naturally ask, on the one hand, how far they have reached; and, on the other, what is required by them more. With regard to our Saviour’s ministry, we shall find that both these questions are answered for us in the passage before us.
I. The nature of the position arrived at.—This was a position in which, on the one hand, there were great evidences of success. Twice before we have had special mention of such evidences. One (Matthew 4:25) just before the delivery of the Sermon on the Mount. One (Matthew 8:18) before leaving Capernaum for “the other side.” So also here, as it were, we see the Saviour stirred by like evidence of success on seeing the “multitudes” at His feet. To a feeling heart it is always affecting to see a vast assemblage of souls. Still more to know that they have assembled together to hear what can be said to them by that heart. Much must have been done by it already, very much, before they were brought to that point. A position, on the other hand, in which there were still greater evidences of necessity. For what, in fact, and as they were were these vast multitudes like? They were like those who had already received very much; but who also, on that very account, were in need of still more. They were like unnumbered “sheep,” who, just because of their numbers, needed tending the more. They were like plenteous crops which, because of their plenteousness, needed reaping the more. If it was affecting, therefore, to see their abundance, it was still more so to see their condition. So many sheep waiting to be tended, and no one to do it! So many harvests asking to be reaped, and no one to reply! No one at any rate, in such way as that Master-shepherd desired; and desired so because only His wisdom knew as well the depth as the reality of their need. Oh! for more and better means of following up this success!
II. The nature of the requirements thus brought into view.—These are shown by reverting again to the nature of the comparisons which are here employed by our Lord. To what, e.g. are we pointed, on the one hand, by the figure of “sheep?” What do “sheep” need but to be shepherded? To be under pastoral care? Also to be so in such degree as both their condition and their numbers demand? Being so many, and being so exposed, and being also so recently “found” and acquired, as it were, and not having as yet gone very much farther—if all so far—as to “know the voice” of their shepherd, they required attention, so to speak, at every moment and side. Instead of which, as things were, the Saviour beheld them “fainting and scattered abroad”—fainting (so some) because “fleeced” (?)—deprived of support rather than supplied with it—scattered from the fold, not gathered into it. Under that aspect the great need was that of “pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11) to labour under the Saviour. On the other side what are we pointed to by the similitude of the “harvest”? Is it not to the fact that amongst those vast multitudes gathered together before the Saviour (representatives of others beside) there were very many who could hardly yet be rightly described as His “sheep.” They were rather ready to hear than hearers already; disciples rather in desire than in attainments; souls that “had need” of being made acquainted with the first principles of the kingdom of God (Hebrews 5:12). Little was possessed by such but the desire to possess. If they were to be taught, there must be some to teach them. If they were to be “gathered in,” there must be those to do it. Under this head, therefore, the great need was that of “evangelists” and preachers of Christ—reapers rather than shepherds—the men of the sickle rather than those of the crook.
This being so, what ought to be done? What ought first to be done? The close of this passage teaches to pray. “Pray ye, therefore”—because of these things—before anything else. This is the first lesson taught by this Scripture. In all your necessities begin with prayer. Too often too many of us only bring it in last. “There is nothing left but to pray”—we sometimes hear said of the sick. “I am sure I have tried all and every one. I see nothing now but to pray.” Observe here, therefore, how exactly different was the way of our Lord. Whether, on the one hand, with His counsel, in teaching His disciples. Whether, on the other hand, with Himself as we find at this very time from Luke 6:12-13. Why go to prayer first? Because it takes us at once to the right quarters. Who so certain to know about the harvest and all its needs as the Lord of the harvest? Who so likely to be interested in them? Who so able to help? Who so able, especially in this case where the need of help is extreme; where labourers have to be even “thrust forth” (Matthew 9:38) to this work? Who so able to do this as He who sent Saul of Tarsus into His harvest? Also, because it is not only worse than idle to begin anywhere else; but self-sufficient and presumptuous and distrustful also in an equal degree.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 9:36-38. Motives to missionary work.—The two emblems Christ uses present most strikingly the great motives to missionary work.
I. Compassion for the lost.
II. Zeal for the Divine glory.—“Sheep having no shepherd”—this appeals to our human sympathies; the Lord of the harvest deprived of His harvest for want of labourers to gather it in—this appeals to our love and loyalty to God.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Compassion for the multitude.—Under two aspects the state of the people appeared to the Saviour’s eye and affected His heart.
I. As scattered sheep having no shepherd.—In all antiquity, both heathen and Hebrew, it was usual to speak of nations as flocks and their rulers as shepherds. A people without instruction, guidance, and motive, were sheep without a shepherd. The Old Testament uses this mode of speech frequently. In the time of our Saviour’s sojourn in Galilee the rulers, priests, and scribes were bound to shepherd the people, to watch over them, and feed them with knowledge, disclosing to them the love of the Divine Shepherd of Israel. But these men went about to establish their own righteousness, exalting and pleasing themselves, while the people were perishing for lack of knowledge.
1. The eye of Christ, while fixed on men’s outward condition, is fastened most earnestly on their moral and spiritual condition.—So should ours be.
2. The Lord spoke of the fault of the shepherds rather than of the sheep.—i.e. He will reckon most strictly with men that have positions of trust and opportunities of usefulness.
3. The cure of moral and spiritual neglect must be gradual.—Why did not the Son of God, at one stroke, with Divine power, remedy all that was wrong? Conversions may be in the twinkling of an eye, but much has to be done and taught before, and much after.
II. As a plenteous harvest spoiling for want of reapers.
1. Labourers are needed.
2. The Spirit of God blesses the pains we take to bring our instruments to the best efficiency.
3. But men are demanded sent by the Lord of the harvest Himself.—How to get them is clearly indicated in Matthew 9:38. There is another array of reapers coming for whom you do not need to pray (Matthew 13:41).—Donald Fraser, D.D.
Matthew 9:36. Compassion for the multitude.—This compassion is:—
I. The incident of brotherhood.—The one great mark of the humanity of Jesus is the perfect naturalness of the feeling which it expresses the moment the scene calls it forth. Nothing is ever arranged for. Nothing is ever got up. As He goes, that happens which sets the fountain playing. That is Christ’s brotherhood, and Christ’s brotherhood is not a thing of yesterday, it is to-day too. He is what He was. “I am He that liveth and was dead.” Wherever there is the Christ-spirit there is the sense of kinship with the struggling, with the weary, with the restless, with the ever moving multitudes.
II. The mainspring of action.—Human action, like human life, is very complex. Motives are various. There is a man who does kind things now and again. He does generous things even now and again, but it is by a sort of fluke. He is, perhaps, religious in a sense, but he is essentially selfish. The mainspring is self. And the multitudes—why, they are only to him what he can get out of them! His interest does not really travel beyond that. There is another man. Occasionally he does a hard thing; occasionally he speaks a harsh word and his judgment is harsh, but it is a mistake. In the core of his being he is a really generous-souled man. And yet, because Christ loved the multitudes so well, He never pandered to them. That is what a great many people are doing in this day. It is very very difficult to find persons who will speak honestly and deal faithfully and truly with the multitudes.
III. The revelation of God.—He who is thus moved is the very brightness of the Father’s glory. All love in us is a reflection of a love that is greater than ours. But Christ is more than a reflection; He is the exact likeness. He is God in our very flesh. What you behold in Him is the sign of that which God eternal is.—J. M. Lang, D.D.
Multitudes.—A right view of a multitude cannot but deeply affect a right-hearted man.
1. Diversified histories.
2. Conflicting emotions.
3. Opposite relations to God and truth.
4. Different destinies.—J. Parker, D.D.
Pity.—Balzac, in “The Alchemist,” in depicting an ideally perfect love, makes the object of it deformed, thus profoundly indicating that love is not at its height and perfection without the element of pity (T. T. Munger). Nothing but the infinite Pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life.—Shorthouse’s “John Inglesant.”
Matthew 9:37-38. The abundance of the harvest and the scarcity of the labourers.
—
I. The harvest.
II. The labourers.
III. The Saviour’s plan for increasing the number of the labourers.—
1. Where persons offer this prayer in sincerity, they make a solemn acknowledgment that God must do all the work.
2. They mean that, when God raises up men, they will furnish the means to convey them to the heathen, and support them when they get there.
3. When young men utter this prayer, they mean that, if it is the will of God, they are ready to become labourers.
4. When Christian parents offer up this prayer they express their willingness that their children should go.—Richard Knill.
Matthew 9:38. The Lord of the harvest.—
I. The seed is His.
II. The field is His.
III. The harvest is His.—J. P. Lange, D.D.