Genesis 18:1-15; Matthew 9:35-10:6
“…they were harassed and helpless
like sheep without a shepherd.”

Have you ever seen a flock of
sheep without a shepherd?

This image might be foreign to
you particularly if you were not
raised on a farm.

To the people He spoke to
this was a powerful image.

“…they were harassed and helpless
like sheep without a shepherd.”

Have you ever seen a flock of sheep without a shepherd? This image might be foreign to you particularly if you were not raised on a farm.   To the people He spoke to this was a powerful image.

Perhaps you and I would better understand what Jesus was saying if the scripture read, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like a family without a father.”  Single parent families and dead-beat fathers are, unfortunately not the exception.   Fathers are all too often neglecting their responsibility to provide for the spiritual, emotional, physical, financial and social well being of their children.

“The harvest is plentiful
but the workers are few.”

Think of this verse in terms of companies cutting back and down sizing.   Many of you in the working world can relate to what Jesus is saying.   You are doing a job that was once done by three people.   The shortage of workers is not just evident in the working world but it is even more evident in the church and other volunteer organizations.   The common complaint, “It’s always the same people doing the work. ten percent of people do ninety percent of the work.”

Why do you think this is true?

Some people would blame the times we live in but then how do you explain that this problem existed in Jesus’ time?

Other people might question their ability.   They might feel that someone else is more qualified.   They might feel the task is impossible.   This is certainly not new either.   Take for example Sara’s response to God in Genesis.   When God said,

“I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Sara “laughed to herself.”

Unfortunately Sara’s response is not the exception.   Many people have a good laugh at God’s expense and the expense of humanity.   We take God’s call as a joke.   Surely God doesn’t mean me.

Perhaps we laugh at God because we suffer from compassion fatigue.    It seems everyone owns a piece of me or some of my money.   The appeals are so great and numerous that I have become tired of hearing them and tired of giving.   It isn’t that I don’t have compassion it’s just that I am tired.

We are tired because we don’t make it a daily practice to Be still in the presence of God.   We attempt to do it alone.   We don’t seek God.   We deprive ourselves of our refuge and our strength.   Compassion without God’s help is hard. Compassion with God’s guidance is not.   As God responded to Sara’s laughter,

“Is anything to hard for the Lord?”

Make it a habit to insert God into your specific need?   Is this day in my life toq hard for the Lord?   Is this habit that I’m trying to break too hard for the Lord?   Is this tasking of raising up this child of mind too hard for the Lord?   Is this conflict that needs resolution too hard for the Lord?

If God was able to give Sara a baby at the age of eighty, if God was able to destroy the power of sin and death is there anything that is too hard for God to do?

“When he saw the crowds,
He had compassion on them…”

You and I are called to have compassion.  St. Francis summed up this call in a beautiful prayer.

How did Jesus respond to the situation?
The obvious answer is that he called His disciples, gave them authority and sent them out to minister, but that is not for me Jesus’ response.    The calling of disciples was his plan of action.    His response was compassion.