Sheep without a shepherd (Compassion 1)

Matt 9v36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (NIV)

One of the things that is fascinating me at the moment is sight - how we see the world and how that impacts how we behave in the world. If we see the car coming we will not step into the road before it. Or if we watch our steps we will not trip on the last step and fracture our ankle, and I wouldn't be sitting her with my leg in a cast.

How we see influences how we behave.

If we see people positively we behave to them in a friendly manner, if we see people less positively then we may feel uncomfortable around them.

It says "When he [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

I wonder how we would have seen that crowd if we had looked upon them?

The crowds came because Jesus had been teaching and healing. The dead girl, the sick woman, the blind and the mute and every sickness and disease, and so the people were coming to Jesus.

It would have been easy just to see a crowd, more work, hadn't he done enough, wasn't he tired. He comments that,

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

However, this was not a moan of self-pity. The start of Chapter 10, he does something about it, he sends out the 12.

Jesus has compassion, but what does compassion mean? The word used is to have the bowels yearn, to feel sympathy, to feel pity, to be moved. The Jews thought that the bowels were the seat of sympathy. The idea is that this is not just some mental note, some thought of "Oh these poor people." Jesus was physically moved, it was so to speak a gut reaction.

Why was he moved?

He saw them as they were.

The launchpad of his mission (see Chapter 10) was his sense of compassion for the lost. He really did feel their pain, their misery, their suffering.

We see the idea of sheep without a shepherd in terms of leadership, we look at the Pharisees and we see that spiritually speaking they were blind guides and therefore they were unable to lead.

However, if we take a step back we can see the image of a sheep without a shepherd in a different way. The shepherd that Jesus was thinking about was not the sort of one man and his dog, who drives them through the gates to try and win the points. This was the shepherd of the 23 Psalm, which we can believe reflects David's glimpse of God's longing for His people.

The shepherd who cares for the sheep who leads it beside still waters, who brings it into pasture, who protects the sheep from danger, who cares for the sheep, who is even prepared to lay down his life for his sheep. Instead these people are like sheep without a shepherd, they have no one to tell them where the water is, no one to tell them where the good fresh grass is, and no one to protect them when the wild animals attack. Therefore they wander not knowing where to go, and are picked off by the wild animals.

To be a sheep without a shepherd - to be a sheep that no one wants or cares for - is a terrible predicament and Jesus is moved to compassion. He looks at these people and sees them through eyes of love, he identifies with them, and cares for them.

The word compassion comes from the Latin which comes from com meaning together and pati meaning to suffer - therefore to suffer together, to suffer with, or to feel the pain.

As Christians we are called to feel the pain. The together element of it matters, for the first question of compassion is connection, it is a connection with the pain of others and therefore we need to be able to connect, to sense our togetherness.

In Genesis 4 we hear of Cain and Abel. Cain goes out into the field and murders Abel because he is a better man, and God asks him, "Where is your brother?" and Cain lies to God and says, "I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?"

It is the question that humanity has been asking ever since, for if we truly saw each other as brothers and sisters then we would not behave to each other in the manner that we do.

Christianity needs to be a rediscovery of brotherhood, not just of the people within the church, but of everyone. If we just see the world as us and them we will never connect and never truly have compassion.

We live in a world that has been described as tribal, with a culture that is so diverse and fragmented that the "us" in "us and them" can seem incredibly small - and we look after our own.

Jesus calls us to a totally different perspective - not of us and them, but of universal compassion, of universal togetherness.

We live in a world with sheep without a shepherd and it is easy to look at programmes, services, plans and ideas - but if we do so without compassion we have missed the point. We need to be moved by others, we need to feel it in our bowels. The world is lost, Wesley described there as being "here and about ten thousand souls going headlong into hell."

We can celebrate action, but God does not want action heroes, he wants people who see and do, people who feel and act, people who are moved. People who see the suffering around them and are changed, who become people who act. Not because they ought to, but because God's love compels them to act.

Mission begins not with meetings and plan and strategies, but a crazy little thing called love. It all starts with compassion. He took pity on them, He saw their suffering, He felt their pain, and in our disconnected world we need to as well.

Mercy street

I read in the news today of some women accused of prostitution who had been beheaded in Pakistan by Islamic militants.

When Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery, he said let him who is without sin cast the first stone. The crowd melted away. For they saw in the woman something of themselves, they had all been caught may be not so publicly as the woman they all deserved judgement, they all needed mercy.

Normally I presume that this encounter with Jesus was life changing for the woman. She met Jesus, she was shown mercy and she did leave her life of sin. However, the Bible does not cosily tell us how she gave up her sinful life and lived a saintly life from then on.

We think surely if people encountered the love of God, the mercy of God, then they would change - but that is not always the case. For we have encountered the mercy of God, and how much have we changed?

The truth about God's mercy is that it is based on unconditional love. Jesus showed love not because He was an optimist who thought that every individual who met Him would be changed, but because God shows mercy to sinners with His eyes open - and He gives us the opportunity to change.

Mercy is truly mercy, because it is not based on some certain formula that says mercy means change, mercy is shown to sinners that they might have the opportunity to change - but God knows that does not always happen. God shows us mercy as sinners, far off, dirty, gritty, sinful, and He loves us.

Our faith needs to have a gritty realism to it that faces the reality of life on earth. Jesus came he showed perfect love and yet we crucified Him. He showed mercy and forgave those who sinned against Him, and some were impacted and changed, but some went on to try and destroy His followers.

Some of our ideas of mercy are skewed by images of merciful gods that are not really that merciful. However the facts challenge this, God offers forgiveness and mercy to even those who crucify Him, and He knows full well that they are not all going to suddenly change. Some will, but many will not.

We need to face our own sinfulness, and then receive mercy and the church needs to become a place of mercy. We are called to offer mercy to the perishing - many of Jesus warns will continue to perish and some of whom will persecute us for giving them the good news.

The church needs to become a mercy street, and it is there the reward is - lend and don't expect to get it back. We will have our reward in heaven, mercy often does not get a reward on this earth.

As we are confronted by those whose need for mercy is particularly evident, we need always to remember, as Jesus reminded the crowd, that we are not the morally superior looking onto the inferior but that we are all sinners. We show mercy as people who have been shown mercy. Everyone needs mercy.