09.15.08
See What Jesus Saw, Feel What Jesus Felt…
Many years ago I heard a literally unforgettable talk by Josh McDowell on Matthew 9:35-38. I can still remember the four main points, which seem to be very appropriate to Seaford Church today. The four points are:
See what Jesus saw
Feel what Jesus felt
Pray what Jesus prayed
Do what Jesus did
Four points, very simple and easy to remember. I’m going to split them up into two posts here.
The passage reads (ESV),
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
See What Jesus Saw
Jesus was traveling the cities and villages, stopping in at the places of religion, which were after all the main gathering spots in those days. Chances are there was nothing out of the ordinary in any of those places: your normal mix of successful, wealthy people, along with the poor, the diseased, and the hurting. If we had been walking the streets of Capernaum, say, chances are you and I would have noticed nothing but business as usual. “This is the way things are, this is the way people are.” That’s our usual response, today in Virginia, too. I confess I’m often so preoccupied I don’t notice the most obvious things about people in the stores and restaurants; while, on the road, they’re often just obstacles to my getting where I want to be.
Jesus saw differently. When he saw the crowds, he saw people who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” We don’t have lots of experience with sheep these days, so the figure of speech may be partly lost on us. “Harassed and helpless” ought to communicate, though. Young’s Literal Translation says they were “faint and cast aside.” The Message says they were “confused and aimless.”
It’s a description of their spiritual state. Without Christ, they had no direction, no guidance, no way of sorting out truth from lies, no peace, no connection. Where others saw the crowds as business as usual, Jesus saw them as spiritually needy.
I wonder if he just took the time to look into their eyes? I wonder what would happen if we took the time to see what’s going on around us?
Feel What Jesus Felt
When he saw the crowds this way, Jesus “had compassion for them.” Our English word compassion comes from root words meaning “to feel with another,” to share their hurts and pains. The Greek word used there, if I recall correctly, is even stronger. It relates to the inner person, the gut. Jesus’ stomach ached, seeing the pain of the people.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t care for pain. I don’t prefer having my stomach ache. Not only that, but having a tendency to think I have enough pain of my own to deal with, I’m not often eager to give myself over to hurting for someone else. But we know that Jesus wept–for Lazarus and his family, for Jerusalem. He was willing to be vulnerable to their pain. Ultimately he took on every person’s pain and bore it on the cross.
Are we too aware of our needs? Too conscious of our own problems, our own pains? Are we willing to see the crowds for what they are (even if the “crowd” you see is just a couple of neighbors working in their yards)? Can we allow ourselves to look beyond ourselves, our family, even our church to see the deep spiritual needs of people around us? For no matter how our church is struggling, we have life and we have direction from Christ. Our problems compared to the world’s are small.
And then what? There are two more points to this borrowed talk yet to come.
(Follow-up: … Pray What Jesus Prayed, Do What Jesus Did)
