CHRIST'S COMPASSION ON MULTITUDES - Robert Murray Mcchene
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 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. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38).
I. “When Jesus saw, he was moved with compassion.” From Matthew 4:23, we learn that, when Jesus first entered on the ministry, Galilee was the scene of his labours: ‘He went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.’ And we learn also (verse 25) that great multitudes followed him. Chapters 5, 6 and 7, contain a specimen of what he taught and preached; chapters 8 and 9, of the manner in which he healed; and now, at verse 35, we are told that he had gone over all the cities and villages of Galilee – he had finished his survey; and ‘when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.’ Galilee was at that time a thickly populated country – its towns and villages swarmed with inhabitants; so that it got the name of ‘Galilee of the nations’ or populous Galilee. What I wish you to observe then, is, that it was an actual survey of the crowded cities – of the over-peopled villages – of the crowds that followed him – it was an actual sight and survey of these things that moved the Saviour’s compassion. His eye affected his heart: ‘When he saw, he was moved with compassion.’
This shows that Christ was truly man.—The whole Bible shows that Christ was truly God: “he was with God, and was God;” he was “God over all, blessed for ever”. But this event shows that he was as truly man. It is the part of a man to be overcome by what he sees. When you sit by the fire on a winter evening, hearing the pelting of the storm, the rain and the sleet driving against the window, if you think of some houseless, homeless wanderer, your heart is a little moved, you heave a passing sigh and utter a passing expression of sympathy. But if the wanderer comes to your door – if you open the door, and see him all wet and shivering, the sight affects the heart, your heart flows out in a thousandfold greater compassion, and you invite him to sit before the fire. When the full bloom of health is upon your cheek, if you hear of some sick person, you are a little affected; but if you go and see, if you lift up the latch of the door, and enter in with quiet step, and see the pale face, the languid eye, the heaving breast; then does the eye affect the heart, and your compassion flows like a mighty river. This is humanity – this is the way with man.
This was the way with Christ: when he saw, he was moved with compassion. Once they brought him to the grave of a dearly loved friend. They said: ‘Come and see’; and it is written, ‘Jesus wept’. Another time he was riding on an ass’ colt across Mount Olivet, the hill that overhangs Jerusalem: and when he came to the turn of the road, where the city bursts upon the view – ‘when he came near, and beheld the city, he wept over it’. And just so here. He had gone round the cities and villages of Galilee; he had looked upon the poor, scattered multitudes, hastening on to an undone eternity: ‘And when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.’
Let me speak to believers. Jesus is your elder brother. He says to you as Joseph said to his brethren: ‘I am Joseph, your brother.’ In all your afflictions he is afflicted. For he is not an high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; but he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Some of you have little children pained, and tossing in fever. Jesus pities them; for he was once a little child. Little children, if you would take Jesus for a Saviour, then you might carry all your griefs to him; for Jesus knows what it is to be a little child. Grown believers, you know the pains of weariness, and hunger, and thirst, and nakedness. Tell these things to Jesus, for he knew them too. You know the pains of inward heaviness: of a drooping heart, exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; of the hidden face of God. Jesus knew them too. Go to Jesus then, and he will heal them all.
This shows that Christian should go and see.
Many Christians are content to be Christians for themselves – to hug the gospel to themselves, to sit in their own room, and feast upon it alone. This did not Christ. It is true he loved much to be alone. He once said to his disciples: ‘Come into a desert place, and rest a while.’ He often spent the whole night in prayer on the lone mountain-side; but it is as true that he went about continually. He went and saw, and then he had compassion. He did not hide himself from his own flesh.
You should be Christ-like. Your word should be: ‘Go and see.’ You should go and see the poor; and then you will feel for them. Remember what Jesus said to all his people: ‘I was sick, and in prison, and ye visited me.’ Be not deceived, my dear friends; it is easy to give a cold pittance of charity at the church door, and to think that that is the religion of Jesus. But, ‘Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourself unspotted from the world.’
2. What it was that Jesus saw.
He saw the multitudes.—He had gone through the crowded cities and villages of populous Galilee; and O how many faces he had looked upon! This made him sad. There is something very saddening to a Christian too look upon a multitude. To stand in the crowded streets of a large metropolis, and to see the current of human beings flowing onward to eternity, brings an awful sadness over the spirit. Even to stand in the house of God, and look upon the dense mass of assembled worshippers, fills the bosom of every true Christian with a pitiful sadness.
Why is this? Because the most are perishing souls. Ah! it was this that filled the bosom of the Redeemer with compassion. Of all the bustling crowds that hurry through the streets of your town, of all the teeming multitudes that issue forth from your crowded factories – ah! how few will stand on the right hand of Jesus. Nay, to come nearer still, of the hundreds now before me in this house of God – souls committed to my care and keeping – willing and anxious as you are to hear, yet how few believe our report! How few will be to me a crown of joy and of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus!
Just think how dreadful, my friends, if there be one soul here that is to perish – one body and soul with us, in health and strength today, that is to be with devils in a short while, feeling the worm, and the flames, and the gnashing of teeth. If there were but one in the whole town, I do think it would be enough to sadden the soul. But, ah! does not the Bible say: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen?’ Ah! then, you will know why Jesus was moved with compassion; and surely you will never look upon a crowd but the same feeling will rise in your breast.
He saw the multitudes fainting.
Perhaps for hunger – poor, weak, frail men! There is something most moving in the sight of weak men, when they are in an unconverted condition. What would a spider be, if it were thrown into one of your great blast-furnaces? It would be as it were nothing – so weak, so miserable, so unable to resist the scorching flame. Just such was the sight Jesus saw – poor frail men fainting for lack of food, and yet perishing for lack of knowledge; and he thought, Alas! if they be unable to bear a little bodily want, how will they bear my Father’s anger, when I shall tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury’? Oh! no wonder Jesus was sad. Think of this, you who are very feeble and frail – unable to bear hunger or a little sickness. Think what a poor thing you are in a fever, when you need some one to turn you in your bed; how will you bear to die Christless, and to fall into the hands of the living God? If you cannot contend with God now, how do you think you will contend with him after you die’?
He saw them scattered abroad.
When the sheep have been driven away from the fold, they do not all go in a flock; but they are scattered over the mountains – they run every one to his own way. This is what Jesus saw in the multitudes – they were all scattered, turning every one to his own way. In the cities and villages he saw men going every one after different things. One set of men were going after money, making it their chief good; toiling night and day over their work yet not enjoying the money they made. Another set went after pleasure – the dance, the song, the pipe, and the tabor. Another set went after the joys of the deep carousal – their bellies were their god, and they gloried in their shame. Like the leech, they said: ‘Give, give.’ Another set went after still darker and more abominable things, of which it is a shame even so much as to speak. Jesus saw all – the hearts of all – and had compassion; because they were all thus scattered – none seeking after God. Observe, Jesus was not angry – Jesus did not threaten. Jesus was moved with compassion.
Let me speak to the unconverted. You are thus scattered, every one to his own way. Each of you have got your favourite walk in life – your favourite footpath. You all go different ways; and yet all away from God. I do not know what it is that your heart loves most; but this I know, that you love to go away from Christ and from God. Christ’s eye is upon you all – your histories, your hearts. He knows every step you have taken, every sin you have committed, every lust that reigns in your heart. His eye is now on this assembly. ! will ask you a question. What does Jesus feel when he looks upon you? Some will say, Anger, some will say, Revenge. What does the Bible say? Compassion. Christ pities you. He does not wish you to perish. Oh, the tender pity of Jesus! He would often have gathered you, as a hen gathers its chickens; but you would not.
As sheep having no shepherd.
This was the saddest thing of all. If the sheep be driven away from the fold, fainting and scattered upon the mountains, and if there be a number of shepherds to seek the lost, and bring them back to the fold, the sight is by no means so painful; but when they are sheep that have no shepherd, then the case is desperate. So it was with the people of Galilee in Christ’s day. If they had had pastors after God’s own heart, then their case would not have been so bad; but they were like sheep that had no shepherd. This made Jesus sad.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. Just as he went through the towns and villages of Galilee, beholding the multitudes, so does he now go through the towns and villages of our beloved land; and, oh! if his heart was moved with compassion over the thousands of Galilee, surely it must be breaking with intensest pity over the tens of thousands of Scotland.
There may be some of you who can look coldly and carelessly on the fifty thousand of Edinburgh that never cross the threshold of the house of God. There may be some of you who can hear unmoved of the eighty thousand of Glasgow who know neither the melody of psalms nor the voice of prayer. There may be some of you who can look upon the haggard and vice-stricken countenances of the mill-population of your own town, thousands of whom show, by their dress, and air, and open profligacy, that they are utter strangers to the message of a preached Saviour. Some of you may look on them, and never shed one tear of pity, never feel one prayer rising to your lips. But there is one above these heavens, whose heart beats in his bosom at the sight of them; and if there could be tears in heaven, that tender Saviour would weep; for he sees the multitudes fainting and scattered, and, oh! worst of all – as sheep that have no shepherd.
Some of you have no compassion on the multitudes. Some of you think we have enough of ministers. See here, how unlike you are to Christ. You have not the Spirit of Christ in you – you are none of his. Some of you know the Lord Jesus, and tremble at his Word. Learn this day to be like-minded to Jesus: ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’ Christ had compassion on the multitudes; and, oh! will you have none’? Christ gave himself for them; what will you give? Surely the stones of this house will rise against you in judgment, and condemn you, if you be not like Christ in this: ‘Freely ye have received, freely give.’
3. The remedy.
More labourers “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.” Christ looked upon the towns of Galilee as upon a mighty harvest – field after field ready for the sickle. He and his apostles seemed like a small band of reapers. But what are they to such a harvest? The ripe corn will be shaken, and shed its fruit upon the ground, before it can be cut down and gathered in. The word of Christ, then, is: ‘Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.’
There is a striking resemblance between this day and Christ’s day. (1) Our cities and villages are crowded like those of Galilee, and the little band of faithful ministers are indeed nothing to such a harvest. (2) The people are willing to hear. Wherever men of God have been sent, they have gathered around them multitudes, eager to hear the words of eternal life. The harvest is ripe – ready to be gathered in. Oh! then, do not say it is a scheme of man’s devising – do not say we are seeking to enrich ministers – do not say we are seeking our own things. We are doing what Christ bids us do: ‘Pray ye the Lord of the harvest.’
Labourers sent of God.
(1) This shows we should seek ordained ministers: – men sent out or thrust out by God. Some well-meaning people are satisfied if we can get private Christians, or unordained men, to do the work of the ministry. This is a deep snare into which Satan leads good men. Does not the whole Bible bear witness that no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron? And even Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest. Woe be to them that run unsent! It was a good wish in Uzzah to hold up the ark; yet Uzzah died for it.
(2) Converted ministers. If men may not run without an outward call, far less without an inward call. There were crowds of ministers in Christ’s day. At every comer of the street you might have met them. But they were blind leaders of the blind. So we may have plenty of ministers raised amongst us, and yet be as sheep that have no shepherd.
Ah! you that know Christ, and love him – ye Jacobs who wrestle with God till morning light, wrestle ye with God for this. Give him no rest until he grant it. I have a sweet persuasion in my own breast, that if we go on in faith and prayer, building up God’s altars that are desolate, God will hear the cry of his people – and give them teachers according to his own heart, and that we shall yet see days such as have never before shone upon the Church of Scotland – when our teachers shall not be removed into comers any more, when the great Shepherd shall himself bless the bread, and give it to the under shepherds, and they shall give to the multitudes; and all shall eat, and be filled.
St. Peter’s, November 12, 1837