Matthew 9:35-38 reads,
“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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”
Most biblical scholars believe that, as Jesus engaged in this teaching tour in Galilee, he banished illness from those areas in an unprecedented display of healing.
“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.”
Imagine that! Every ailment, malady and physical affliction eradicated from an area. And yet this accomplishment did not elicit a sense of ultimate satisfaction but rather intense compassion.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Why? Such incredible physical needs, representing years of pain, suffering and heartbreak, had been eliminated!
Answer. Spiritually they remained “weary and scattered,” as the people’s spiritual needs were even more desperate than the need for physical healing.
Bishop JC Ryle in the 19th century wrote about this passage,
“He saw them neglected by those who, for the time, ought to have been teachers. He saw them ignorant, hopeless, helpless, dying, and unfit to die. The sight moved Him to deep pity. That loving heart could not see such things, and not feel.”
Addressing individual’s spiritual brokenness and bankruptcy, apart from the substitutionary, saving work of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, must always remain priority one for every evangelical ministry across the globe. Even as we care for the bodies of victims of poverty and injustice, in obedience to Scripture and motivated by Christ’s sacrifice, we must prioritize the care of souls, found only in the Gospel.
