“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 9:36 (NAB)
Jesus was moved with a heart full of pity when He looked at the crowd and saw all those who were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. What a grace filled image of God’s compassion is in these words.
I don’t know why, but I cannot move past the theme of the Good Shepherd this week. One meditation this week was about how the Shepherd prods His sheep to keep them on the right path, and the next one was about His lost sheep who are drawn into the arms of the Shepherd, by the aroma of gratitude.
Today, the scripture reveals the heart of Jesus, who looks at the whole crowd, yet feels pity and compassion for individuals with troubled hearts.
I wish I had the capacity to see a crowd the way Jesus did. Lately, when I look at a crowd, I see trouble makers instead of troubled hearts.
I was watching live news coverage this week of the violent crowd of protesters in Chicago, who defied the boundaries and broke the fenced barriers, causing a lot of chaos.
Watching it live, my first reaction was anger, not pity. I need to remind myself of this scripture, how Jesus saw the crowd as individuals who are troubled and abandoned, lost, like sheep without a shepherd. Instead, my first human reaction is to mentally label the whole bunch as a group of trouble makers. It’s a good lesson to carry into other areas of our lives.
God sees people as individuals, not as a group. He sees the individual heart, and doesn’t label people, based on political ideologies, or theologic and religious positions. Every soul with a troubled heart stands out in the crowd to Him. To Jesus, they are lost sheep, but His lost sheep. They all need a shepherd, but only the Good Shepherd, they need Him.
God’s love is free to all people, He doesn’t offer Himself only to people who represent His causes. He sees people, not in light of their opinions, but in light of their need for Him. Jesus was moved with pity for the troubled hearts and lost sheep within the crowd that day. His compassion is unconditional and He even reaches out to those whose ideology conflicts with His teaching.
How can I be so sure of this? Because I was once one of those lost sheep, whose way of thinking was far from what God would approve of, but He saw me in the crowd and pitied me. I wasn’t a protester but I was rebellious and needed His grace when I was completely clueless of who or what God is all about. In His pity, He drew my troubled heart closer and I believed. He gave me a peace that passes all understanding. The same pity that He had toward me, He now expects me to have toward others.
If we want to follow Jesus, we will look at the crowd differently, and have pity and compassion on the troubled hearts who are within it, just as He does.
I learned through this scripture that if I can replace my anger with pity, it’s one tiny step in following Jesus. If I can see the troubled hearts in the crowd, instead of labeling a whole group, it’s another step closer to doing what Jesus expects of me.
The heart of God is a heart of a Shepherd, always looking for His lost sheep. Jesus can share His heart of pity with us, and move us with His compassion, diffuse our anger, and help us to see the crowd as He does. He still sees every single troubled heart in a crowd and desires to love, gather and heal.
Lord, whatever crowds we look at, help us to see them as you did, as troubled hearts and abandoned sheep without a shepherd, and give us your heart of pity and compassion for those would usually provoke us to anger. Amen