Jesus Seeing the People.
Note:
I. What Jesus saw. He saw the multitudes. The range of His vision could not be limited, nor His ministry confined, to the immediate requirement of the more palpable of life's sufferings. He saw the multitude scattered abroad, and as sheep without a shepherd. He commiserates their condition instead of condemning them, and sees that the people had been sinned against quite as much as they had sinned. The people were scattered and distressed. Sin is sure to scatter; untruth always disunites. Man was far from man as Christ saw him; he did not know himself, and because he did not know himself he could not know his fellow, and could never know much of either until he had known God as the Father of both.
II. What Christ felt. "He was moved with compassion on them." The farther we are from sin the more we can be to the sinful. When we are sinful ourselves we avenge, as we have ability, the sins committed against us by others. The day is afar off, but it is coming, when society will seek to save, and will save itself by saving, and not by condemning. Jesus was tempted like as we are, and yet was without sin; and being without sin He is able to succour them that are tempted. He could pity and help because there was no sin in Him.
III. What He said. When Jesus spake He changed His figure, ceased to be the shepherd, and became the husbandman. To Him the world was as a harvest-field, ready to be gathered. Christ calls us all to the harvest. There is work for us all on the field, for His field is the world. If you cannot do you can prepare to do by cultivating definiteness of purpose and consecration of heart. The labourers who labour must not be discouraged because the labourers are few; the Master knows how few you are and how great is the field.
J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul,p. 119.
References: Matthew 9:36. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vi., p. 18; Preacher's Monthly,vol. x., p. 121; Expositor,1st series, vol. iv., p. 30; W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit,p. 290; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 24.Matthew 9:36; Matthew 9:37. E. W. Benson, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 177. Matthew 9:36-38. Homiletic, Magazine,vol. ix., p. 141; Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 116. Matthew 9:37; Matthew 9:38. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xix., No. 1127. Matthew 9:38. C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons,3rd series, p. 1; R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England,p. 232.