Matthew 9:36 — But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
O.K., So the all the “C”s were a bit forced … but the message is vital.
How’s your compassion tank? Full, or empty? It seems never ending, doesn’t it, the stream of demands for sympathy. Children with cancer, refugees fleeing brutal persecution, the survivors of natural disasters … It’s non-stop, every day there’s another tug at the heartstrings. Does it wear you out sometimes? It wears me out.

One of the amazing things about Jesus was that he never suffered from compassion fatigue. It seems that no matter who He encountered, He cared for them. There was the centurion’s servant, the temple ruler’s daughter, Lazarus, the Syro-Phoenician woman, and — of course — the “multitudes” of our key verse.

The multitudes “fainted” and were “scattered abroad”. The magisterial JFB commentary says this about their condition:

as sheep, having no shepherd—their pitiable condition as wearied under bodily fatigue, a vast disorganized mass, being but a faint picture of their wretchedness as the victims of pharisaic guidance; their souls uncared for, yet drawn after and hanging upon Him. This moved the Redeemer’s compassion.

These are not the folks I was talking about earlier, I think. These might be the people all around us. They have day-to-day problems — sickness, anxiety, poverty. Amongst all their woes though, there is one thing much worse. They are without a shepherd. The guidance they are getting — if they are getting guidance at all it is law-based, not love based.

The King James text “they fainted and were scattered abroad” translates two Greek words. The word given as bewildered is “eskulmenoi”. It can describe a corpse which is flayed and mangled. The word translated as scattered abroad is “errimenoi”. It really means laid flat — like dead drunk or laid low with deadly wounds. The sheep without a shepherd are in a dreadful situation.

So look around you. Who do you see? Sheep with shepherds, or sheep without shepherds? Most likely, there are a lot more of the second kind than the first. So what’s to be done? See what Jesus said next:

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. (Matthew 9:37-38)

There is only one way the sheep are going to find a shepherd. Someone who cares is going to have to find them, and lead them into the sheepfold. That’s a Christian that cares. If we stop, they are going to be flayed, mangled, and laid flat!