Matthew 9 – He Had Compassion

Sermon Manuscript

Matthew 9 – He Had Compassion

Christ’s compassion for the harassed and helpless becomes the foundation of mission and shepherding.

The compassion of Christ is not merely a feeling. It is the love of God moving toward people who are lost, weary, and in need of a shepherd.

He Had Compassion on Them

Crossing over into the new year, God is blessing us with a chance to renew ourselves. Whether that’s to renew our weary spirit that we may start a new, or to set of with new hope to expect greater things from God this year than what we’ve witnessed from the past, or to be given another chance to work on what you couldn’t quite accomplish the past year, the new year is the symbol of a fresh start where everything is reset and we are no longer bound to the past.

But at the grand view of things, there is also something greater God hopes to reveal in us when a new year comes. Adding one more year also means we are becoming more mature than the year before. And this means we’ve received another year of experience, another year that we’ve witnessed the love of the Lord at work. And as a church, the body of Christ, we too are maturing together from every prayer and service we spent together. While becoming closer to each other, we’ve too become ever closer to Jesus Christ through the Words that permeates our ears and hearts daily.

Greeting the new year, I hope we can look at the heart of Christ more. Our hope and our ministry lie in Christ. It is Christ who took hold of us and set us on this journey to begin with. Where is he leading us? That is what we hope to know at the start of another 364 days ahead.

Like Sheep Without a Shepherd (Matthew 9:35-36)

The passage we read from refers to the ministry of Christ. To love the world, he went over to all the towns and villages throughout to preach. What was he seeking to achieve? To bring the good news and to heal.

From those whom the Lord meets, they become healed. The blind, the lame, and the paralyzed found miracles they’ve not experienced. Who is the blind? Because people can see, does it mean there is not such trait in them? It is the one who walks in spiritual darkness, unable to be certain of what is next. He is the one who live afraid that the next step he takes might be his last. It is the one who lives in constant fear because he has no confidence in the future.

What about the lame? It is the one who cannot walk on his own. In John 5, it explained how a lame of 38 years would envy those who would jump into the pool before him when the angel stirs it and complains that he always lost out because no one could help him. He is the one who feels constantly weak and dependent, while envying those who lived determined and independent. I used to run a bookstore, and there would be books that talks about self-help in all kinds of fashion, such books like the 5 Minute Manager. What I find in all these books are the same running theme: help yourself to become a winner. But if from the beginning your main issue is that you have no way to help yourself, where can you even start? This is the despair in the ones who lives as if in a curse and finds himself standing at the same spot time after time.

The paralyzed means the ones whose mind is alive, but the body is dead. He has many dreams and hopes, but his body could not lift a finger to actualize it. There are great ideals and hopes for what is in store in this life, but reality hits hard that nothing ever happens they way they hoped for. Its as if they could only live in a virtual reality, like a finding a world of games more fulfilling than seeing results, because they cannot expect dreams to turn into reality.

It was these kinds of diseases that Jesus healed in his ministry. He changed the life of those who cannot expect miracles in their lives, and they witnessed the impossible happen to each of them. This is the power of the gospel that the Lord preaches, and the same gospel that he has given unto us.

The gospel, or the good news, means the news of victory. It is the news that those who are anxious for the future wish to hear. The Greeks created the marathon out of respect for those who travel far distance to deliver the good news to the anxious citizens who worry to their deaths that their army might have lost.

It is the good news that this world needs. What can win the darkness that overwhelms the heart of the people in this world? When we are alone, we want to know we are loved. When we are weak, we want to know there is the one who is strong and will carry us through. When we are unsure of what is ahead, we want to know there is the one who has already paved the way and is already victorious. People die to their anxieties, and in desperation become enslaved by Satan all the more. The Lord came to set us free from the chains of slavery and find freedom in the Victor Christ who have overcame all things in this world.

To the Lord, the people he saw were like sheep without a shepherd. In his view, if they only have been led by someone who truly cares, they lives would have been surely different. And so, it says that the Lord took compassion on them.

Compassion comes from the Latin word “compati,” which means “to suffer together.” What is the reason for passion, what is the reason you would be willing to enter suffering for? To suffer not for myself, but for the sake of others, this is love. Christ showed us compassion by lowering himself and carried our sins. He took on our sufferings onto himself, and redeemed our sins so we would become righteous before God. This is the great love of God we have come to experience.

John 5:16-17

While others rest, Jesus continued to work. When others question why he does so, he says its because his father is always at work. This is the strange phenomenon in the ones who live for the gospel. There is a sense that another force is driving within them. Why are believers willing to go to lengths to love God and to love others when very few in this world is willing to go. It is because there is the love of Christ that compels them. Just as the Lord loved us restlessly to find us among the lost, that even one among many is precious in his eyes, we too find our passion in loving others to save those who remains in the darkness as we once were. “If they only know of this love, their lives will be forever changed.” It is the hope for what beautiful world the Lord could shape in souls and experiencing miraculous transformations if they come to receive the gospel. There is the restless enthusiasm for what God could transform that the world wished for so long.

Workers are Few (Matthew 9:37-38)

How passionate was the Lord for this ministry that he tells his disciples to pray to the Lord of Harvest for more workers. What he sees is the great harvest that is ahead and that it would be a pity if the time is missed. Who can enter the kingdom of heaven before the time should come and their lives are forever lost to darkness? In these words, there is a sense of urgency. The harvest must be done before the winter should come and all the crops that are unharvested are lost. So, pray that more workers can be sent out.

John Wesley’s famous saying was, “the world is our parish.” There is a great number of people in this world that have yet to hear the good news. Isn’t it so urgent that we must go? But how can we go everywhere even if our heart desires? We must ask the Lord of Harvest to send out more workers.

How does this happen? It is when we sow the seeds of the gospel into the hearts of everyone around us. Just as the Lord loved us and changed us, so when you show others the love of Christ, they too will change. The Lord brings transformation in others the same way that you were once transformed. Like fire that lights from one tree, it will spread to many others that the whole forest would become aflame, and they too will awaken to this work. The Lord will ignite the heart of many who come to discover him and bring about a large movement that would surely deliver the good news we know to the entire world.

In this New Year, I hope we can dream big, pray big. What we pray, God will grant. The fire of the Holy Spirit is more than capable to light the world aflame and heal the hearts of many who are in sorrow and in pain. May we find this New Year to be a year where the victory of Christ could be known across lands and seas to all souls who are in need.