Author, C.S. Lewis had his finger on our pulse when he wrote the following words about pain and the human experience.

“We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and everyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

I want you to mark two phrases from this quote. “God shouts in our pains” and “Pain is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world (last line). In the gospel lesson for today we read about a crowd of people that was awakened by the shout of God and roused by His megaphone.

St. Luke tells in the ninth chapter of his gospel us they were a diseased company of desperate people that needed relief from their pain. Their HMO would only pay for one day and one night and their Medicaid wouldn’t pay period. So, in a flight of desperation, they leave their homes, and all their resources in search of the only One who could give them what they needed.

But unfortunately, when they arrived at His office, Jehova-Ropha, The LORD Our Healer, wasn’t seeing patients. In fact by the time they got there He’d already left on a cruise with His office staff. Rumor had it Dr. Jesus was exhausted.

He needed some rest and relaxation so He made reservations in Bethsadia, a small town in the middle of nowhere. The note in the Galilean travel guide said “deserted place; no historical markers.” But that didn’t deter the crowd. They followed the Great Physician and His interns into the wilderness.

Illustration: In a different sort of way, these people remind me of Bill Murray in the movie, “What About Bob.” Bob is a needy and dependent patient who is afflicted with more personality disorders than Sybil. Bob’s dependent upon his psychiatrist, Richard Dryfuss. When Dryfuss escapes to his vacation home, guess who shows up for a meal of hand shucked corn? You guessed it, Bob. The Freudian Psychiatrist is enraged and does everything he can to rid himself of the neurotic pariah, Bob.

As I read this story, I’m struck by the fact that when these people finally locate Christ, they’re not met by a frustrated physician who’s vacation has been interrupted. Instead they’re embraced and enfolded by a compassionate Savior. v34 “And Jesus when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.”

Here I want us to answer three questions that jump from this page and beg to be answered.

• Why did Jesus have compassion on these people?
• When did Jesus have compassion on them?
• How did He feed them?

Let’s begin by answering the first question: Why did Jesus have compassion on these people? The answer is in the text, v34. Because “they were like sheep without a shepherd.” This phrase is first used in the OT in the book of Numbers. Before he died, Moses prayed for the people of God, “Let the LORD set a man over the congregation who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” (Numbers 27:15)

What was Moses concerned about? He was concerned that if God did not designate a man to shepherd the people of Israel they would act like sheep.

This isn’t flattering. Sheep are basically dull-witted animals. How do they act when they don’t have a shepherd? Mindless. They act like they don’t have a functioning neuron in their head. Without a shepherd they self-destruct. They are easy prey for the enemy. They go places they shouldn’t go and do things they wouldn’t normally do if they had someone to look after them.

This is the reason Jesus felt deep sympathy and sorrow for these people. He was staggered with a desire to lift their burden and relieve their suffering because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Now, when was Christ moved for these people? Again, mark verse 34. Christ was moved with compassion for them when He saw them. There’s more to this word “saw” than three dimensional images and 20-20 vision.

When Christ looks at someone he not only sees what’s on the outside, He sees what’s on the inside as well. He sees them as they really are. He sees that they are fractured people who have been bruised by sin and the human experience. And when He sees them, something takes place inside Him. He’s moved with compassion for them.

The disciples on the other hand need radiocaritodymy. They need their spiritual cataracts surgically removed. V37 “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” When they see these spiritually impoverished people they immediately think of economics, resources, money.

The disciples are looking at what they don’t have instead of Who they do have. They forget that they serve the God of heaven and earth and that He’s standing in front of them giving them an order to minister to lost people.

Jesus is teaching His followers that ministering the gospel their eyes must be fixed upon His Power and love and His ability to bless their obedience.

Who is the One that supplies the resources? Christ. Why does He supply the resources? To reach the lost. To minister His love to those that He loves.

When Christ sees these people, He’s moved with compassion because they’re like sheep without a shepherd. When the disciples see them, their moved with financial indigestion because ministering to them will mean that they’ll have to spend the money God gave them to do the very thing God commanded them to do. Good LORD deliver us.

Next, I want to consider how Christ feeds these people in the wilderness. Read vv35-37. When Christ wants to minister to lost people who are genuinely seeking His help, He calls on His people. “You give them something to eat.” He commands His followers to give what they do not have, and to share what they can not produce.

The Good Shepherd leads His disciples into the wilderness, into an impossible situation where they are helpless and totally dependent. Why? To demonstrate His power and love for lost folk. Is there anything the twelve can do? They are totally dependent on Christ. Just how God likes them. Dependent.

• II Chronicles 12:3-9; v12 (pg. #443)
• Acts 4:6 “Silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give to you.”

We are God’s only means of rescuing lost people from a Christless eternity in hell. How else could He save sinners except by His people? Why doesn’t He take us all to heaven right now? Because He has a job for us to do. And our job, our duty is to share His love with those who need Him.

As I said last week, we are the conduit through which His love and mercy flows to lost people who need Him. It’s no accident that in I Corinthians 12 God’s people are called the “body of Christ.” When the “body of Christ” was present in the world what did it do? It came to seek and to save the lost. It restored an alienated world to it’s creator. What is the body of Christ to be busy doing today? The same thing.

When it comes to loving lost people, God doesn’t call those who are equipped. He equips those who are called. He calls ordinary people like you and me and then He equips us with the vision, the burden, the compassion and the message to deliver to those who need Him. 

You may be saying, “Doug, I’ve never told a person about the love of God and what He did for the world through His Son and the Holy Spirit.” I understand. It’s not easy. But God sent His Son into the wilderness so He could triumph over the devil in our behalf. He’s given you a shepherd and provided you with food in the wilderness. Why? So you can fulfill your duty and tell others about His power to forgive sin and His ability restore that which is broken.