Matt.9:35-38 – 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.”
Jesus came to heal broken lives. Matthew described the crowds following Jesus as weary and scattered. They were weary or worn out from bad teaching and the hard life that everyone faces. They had no truth to sustain or guide them in their difficult lives. Matthew also said they were scattered or thrown down. They could be thrown down by horrible adversity or just laid low by the consequences of bad decisions in life. Robertson’s Wordbook describes it like this….
“Erimmenoi denotes men cast down and prostrate on the ground, whether from drunkenness or from mortal wounds”: This perfect passive participle from rhiptō, to throw down. The masses were in a state of mental dejection. No wonder that Jesus was moved with compassion.”
This is extremely relevant in our modern world. How many people have been laid low by alcohol or substance abuse. Really the only way out of the pit those bad choices put us in is the mercy and power of God. Barclay also describes the ramifications of the word scattered or rhipto.
“The word that we have translated as scattered is errimenoi. It means laid prostrate. It can describe someone prostrated with drink or someone laid low with mortal wounds.”
So if it wasn’t poor choices that we made that caused us to be thrown to the ground it would be the wounds that we experience from trying to survive in this crazy world. Interest rates, jacked up insurance, and medical bills are enough to smash anyone. Thayers’ Wordbook also has something to say about this word rhipto.
“This is describing someone who has thrown themselves down from weariness and exhaustion.”
Thayers says this is talking about people who can’t take anymore and they just give up. That’s what Jesus saw that day when He looked in the crowd, that’s what we see everyday as we see the weary and scattered just about everywhere we turn. The solution? Come to Jesus. Bring people to Jesus. That’s what our lives are all about.
