Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Mark 9:35-38
Why were people scattered in Jesus’ Time?
Jesus saw the people in distress, weary, and scattered. The scattering in the Bible, many times it is the consequence of sin and rebellion. Sometimes the leaders were ungodly and oppressive and much of the time people rebelled against God. In Jesus’ time, the leaders were not really leading the people of God and the people had lost faith that their religion could make a difference in their lives! They were looking for someone who could save them from oppression both politically and religiously.
The First Scatterings
Do you know where the first scattering happened in the Bible!? It was at the Garden of Eden! God had to drive out Adam and Eve out of the Garden, because they were not qualified to enjoy the privileges that God had designed for them. They also lost access to the tree of life! Subsequently, God scattered people after they tried to reach the heavens with their own self efforts and build the tower of Babel. God brought about confusion to stop the fruitless madness of man reaching God through their own ingenuity.
Current Scatterings
In our current times, we see scattering in many spheres of our communities. We see broken homes, church splits, and national divisions. We are so used to seeing divorce all around us, that we don’t see it as scattering. But every time a family has been broken due to divorce, there is a scattering that takes place.
We also see scattering in the church. Church splits happen because of division at the top leadership. At others times a large group of people leave due to offense and accusations in the church and everyone is impacted by the scattering.
In addition, we see division in politics and people divided over various issues. Politicians promising to help the sheep with their “bright” strategies and policies, and walking away from working with the other party. At the same time, people cry out against unrighteous laws, injustice, lawlessness, and oppression. All these issues lead to division and scattering among the people.
Intentional Shepherds
Jesus had compassion on all people who had no shepherds to guide them in the right way. It’s important to note that even in Mark 9, Jesus spoke of forgiveness of sins. Without the forgiveness of sins and people getting their lives right with God, we cannot have healthy individuals and thereby healthy society. Most of us don’t desire to see families, communities, or our nation to be scattered, but we don’t focus on the real solution to the problem!
Jesus never denied the root of man’s condition, which was sin. Because if sin is not dealt with, nothing will have a lasting affect. Our sinful condition will cause us to see the world through our lens and our prejudices, and we will make determination of right and wrong based on what impacts us and our loved ones. That is partial truth!
Our Roles as Shepherds
Jesus was calling the shepherds to help the weary and scattered. The true shepherd leads people in green pastures and gives them clean water to drink, but the shepherd also uses the rod and the staff to protect and guide the sheep. The shepherd must be truthful and diligent with his/her sheep. When the sheep is rebellious and goes off track, the shepherd has a responsibility to call it out, but he/she is also responsible to protect the sheep from the predators and do his/her part to protect them from harm.
Our society is not going to be healed by one or two issues that I care about or you care about. When the church begins to take its place in the community and becomes truthful about right and wrong and how God sees things on various issues (not just those that we care about) then we can take our truthful and rightful place in society!
We all have a position of leadership in the body of Christ and we serve a group of people. We all have different spheres of influence where we can help shepherd people. Christians serve as husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, grandparents, teachers, friends, sisters, brothers, employees, bosses, coworkers, and neighbors. We all have relationships that we need to be intentional about and do our part to help, lead, mentor, and guide them into all truth, and be God’s shepherds for people.
Why did Jesus say that the workers were few!? This is the subject of the next devotional.