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

The trip would usually take about 5 hours.  Back in those days interstate highways had not been built yet in South Florida.  But it didn’t take a long time to get to most places unless you were traveling out of town.  Population density then wasn’t what it is now.

We live on a strip of land between two bodies of water — the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades.  Anywhere you go locally means inevitably going north or south.  So when we drove across the state to visit my grandfather on Florida’s West Coast, we went north and then west, or west, crossing the ‘Glades on Alligator Alley, and then north.  One road we traveled on suddenly ran out of asphalt and become a gravel path.  My dad insisted it was a shortcut.  It was the most exciting and bumpiest part of the trip.

I loved my grandfather.  “Pop-pop” we called him.  He was silly all the time, a 24/7 jokester, at least with us kids.  My brother and I would get up early and go over to Pop-pop and roll him off the sofa, waking him up.  He never failed to act dazed, confused and surprised.  We would giggle and laugh.  And I remember whenever we would leave to return home, this big knot would fill up my throat and my eyes would get teary as we drove off waving goodbye.  Of course, there wasn’t a real object in my throat, but something happened inside that made me feel like there was.  Maybe you’ve had a similar experience.

There is a real parallel to this when Jesus had compassion for the crowds.  Matthew. 9:35 says that Jesus was busy — very busy — “teaching…preaching…and healing every disease and sickness.”  I get the picture of the Savior being swamped with people around him, swarming to get close for a glimpse or a touch, an opportunity to have a huge need met.  I do a fair amount of teaching and preaching, and it can be tiring after a while.  But “healing every disease and sickness”?  I don’t think so.  Those gifts and powers are not mine.  Clearly Jesus had his hands full.

But then he lifted up his eyes and the extent of what he saw hit him, and hit him hard.  He saw the crowds, multitudes of people, all struggling with similar things those individuals whom he healed had coped with.  On them “he had compassion.”  But the NIV doesn’t quite grab the intensity of the word.  The NKJV says, “he was moved with compassion.”  The translation of this Hebrew expression comes from the Greek word that literally means “intestines” (see Acts 1:18).  This expression indicated that something so profound had come over a person that it would make a physical impact internally in the abdominal area.  In other words, it would hit you in the gut, in the stomach.  You would feel it, and it wasn’t a pleasurable feeling.  Something like the knot in my throat that made it hard to swallow.

Don’t lose the point: the Son of Man, God in human form on planet Earth, knew from eternity past that he would see human misery face to face.  Indeed, he had observed it from heaven since Adam and Eve forced it into a formerly pristine world.  But with people surrounding him entirely, begging, calling his name, pleading for help, and then seeing multitudes more in the same pitiful condition, well, this was too much.  It hit him; it moved him emotionally, physically, long before the nails hit his hands and feet.

Notice what happens next.  When people are thus moved, something comes over them, something kicks into gear.  What did Jesus do?  He first tells 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.”  In other words, he says two things.  First, “Guys, start praying!  There’s a lot of work to be done here.”  But second, “The situation is such that it requires a team effort!”  Imagine that: God the Son saying that this particular need requires more than what he can do alone!  He needs more ‘hands and feet,’ more workers at his side in the fields.  So in 10:1 Christ “gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness,” exactly what he was doing.  In 10:11 he sent them to “town[s]” and “village[s].”  In other words, stuff happens when you’ve been moved like that.

Did you know we too should be moved with compassion?  Check out Col. 3:12.  It’s the same Greek word.  He was moved when he saw you.  What moves you?  God?  People’s needs?  Anything?