Matthew 9:35-38

VIIITriumph of Christ over the reviling of the Pharisees. Royal preparation for the mission of the Apostles. The power of Christ unfolding in all its fulness, as also the misery of the people. The one Helper about to manifest Himself by many helpers.

Matthew 9:35-38

35And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel [good news] of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and everydisease [weakness, infirmity, μαλακίαν] among the people.27 36But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted [were harassed28],and were scattered abroad [abandoned], as sheep having no shepherd. 37Then saith he unto [to] his disciples, The harvest truly [indeed] is plenteous [great, πολύς],29 but the labourers are few; 38Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The general narrative given in the text serves as introduction to the following section, which describes the mission of the Apostles. At the same time, it also forms the conclusion of the preceding narrative. As the Lord unfolds His power, the misery and need of the people increasingly appear; He stretches forth His arms and raises up the Twelve Apostles, to carry on the work, and to spread its blessings. Thus His prophetic merges in His royal work.

Matthew 9:35. And Jesus went about.—From the parallel passages we gather that Jesus now travelled along the lake, through the cities and villages of Galilee. It is but natural that the popular misery should then unfold to His view in all its fulness. Accordingly, we distinguish three missionary journeys of Jesus in Galilee. 1. To the Mount of Beatitudes; 2. across the sea; 3. through the valley, along the shore, in the direction of Jerusalem. It is to the latter that the text refers.

Matthew 9:36. They were ἐσκυλμὲνοι.—Explanations: 1. The common reading, ἐκλελυμένοι, faint, tired. So some. a. With reference to the people, who had travelled a considerable distance and were faint (Fritzsche). b. In a figurative sense, a flock without a shepherd, and hence tired by going astray (Kuinoel).—2. According to the meaning of σκύλλειν, to tear, to plague. a. Bretschneider: torn by wolves. b. De Wette: plagued by hunger, by cold, by ravening beasts, etc. c. Meyer and the Vulgate: vexati. But the first point to be ascertained is, whether the term refers to the difficulties of a flock without a shepherd, or to positive sufferings which it had to undergo. As the latter is evidently conveyed by the verb, we explain it as meaning afflicted, beaten down, and scattered by thorns, by anxiety, by ravenous beasts, and plagues of every sort.—Ἐῤῥιμμένοι (ῥίπτειν, to cast down, to stretch down), not scattered (Beza, Luther, Authorized Version), but cast down, beaten down by flight or by weariness (Kypke, de Wette); or stretched down as sheep that are worn out (Meyer).

Matthew 9:37. The harvest is great (occurs in Luke 10:2, at the sending forth of the seventy);—i.e., the number of people who are accessible to the Gospel, and ready to receive it, is great.—The laborers are few.—As yet, Jesus was the only laborer. Their prayers were intended to prepare them for their mission.

Matthew 9:38. The Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers.—His work is the work of God: ἐκβάλῃ, the urgent necessity existing, should determine the Lord of the harvest to drive forth, or to thrust forth, laborers.30 De Wette calls attention to the circumstance, that it is God who is asked to send laborers. He is so far right, as the call of Christ ultimately proceeds from God, just as the kingdom of the Saviour is that of God.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The deep need of the world determined the Lord to manifest His royal dignity. Neither the priesthood nor the kingdoms of the ancient world were capable of bringing any real help to men. Even chosen Israel, with its high priests, sanhedrim, rulers, and rabbins, were but a scattered, broken-down, hopeless, and helpless flock. Under these circumstances it was that Christ manifested Himself as the Shepherd of His people, which implied that He was the Shepherd of all nations.31 The deep moral misery of the people appeared most clearly in the rich and fertile district of Galilee, with its numerous and prosperous cities.

2. In the same moment, when Christ was about to manifest Himself as King, and in His compassion to condescend to the boundless misery of His people, He prepared to found the apostolic office, which He graciously endowed with His gifts and His Spirit, for the salvation of the world.3. In the life and actings of Jesus, we always find these two elements combined: provision for what is future and distant, with provision for what is present and immediate—a due regard for what was general, and care for that which was special and urgent.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Jesus went about doing good to all (Acts 10:38): 1. The extent of His labors (about all the cities and villages); 2. the order of His labors (teaching in their synagogues); 3. the characteristic feature of His labors (preaching the gospel of the kingdom); 4. the seal of His labors (healing every sickness, etc.).—While the Lord passed through rich cities and villages, His attention was mainly directed to the need and the sufferings of the people.—How wants seem to grow in proportion as the Lord gives help: 1. This help brings them to light; 2. it inspires with courage to make them known.—But when He saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion on them.—Christ looking on the scattered flock of man: 1. A look of penetration; 2. a look of sorrow; 3. a look of saving mercy.—The impression which the people made on the Lord: 1. Not admiration, but pity; 2. not aversion, but pity; 3. not discouragement, but pity.—The Church under the hierarchical shepherds of older and more modern times: 1. Without a shepherd, and therefore without protection, and broken down; 2. without a shepherd, and therefore not led to the green pastures, and cast down.—Christ born to be the Shepherd of men, and in His compassion the Shepherd of His people.—Christ born to be the King of men, by His compassion the King of His people.—What induced Christ to manifest Himself as King instead of Prophet.—The compassion of Christ enlisting heaven and earth for our succor: 1. The grace of the Father; 2. the prayer of His people; 3. the service of His messengers.—The harvest is great, but the laborers are few.—How those who judge according to the letter reverse this saying; but those who judge according to the spirit feel its deep import.—The great need of man, the great harvest of God.—The prayer to God for laborers forming the commencement of the kingdom of heaven: 1. The commencement of the apostolate; 2. the commencement of the Church; 3. the commencement of missionary labors; 4. the commencement of the final completion of the Church of God.—The right laborers; 1. They are sent by God; 2. in answer to the prayers of His people; 3. furnished by Christ for the work; 4. consecrated for the spiritual and temporal wants of the people; 5. instruments of mercy in the hands of Christ.—Our Father in heaven, the Lord of the harvest: 1. The seed is His; 2. the field is His; 3. the harvest is His.—How Christ is employed about the harvest of God. He takes charge, 1. of the seed, as being the Word from the beginning; 2. of the field, as being the great Laborer and Servant of the Lord; 3. of the harvest, as being the Son and the Judge of the world.—How Christ summons His own to coöperate with Him, in order to spread through them His blessings over the earth.32—The great King, in whom the grace of God itself has appeared to His people.

Rieger:—The Lord always looked upon the common people with pity, treated them with indulgence, and traced the cause of their misery to their leaders, who exclude others from the kingdom of heaven.

Starke:—Good shepherds are one of the most precious gifts of God, even as bad pastors are the greatest misfortune and plague of the world.—Quesnel:—The whole earth is the field where the harvest of the Lord is to be gathered.—Many labor in the name of the Lord; but few will He own as His servants.—Osiander:—Ministers are fellow-workers with God, 1 Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 6:1.—Successful laborers are obtained in answer to prayer.—Cramer:—This prayer enters into the three first petitions in the Lord’s Prayer.—The prayer of the pious members of the congregation is mightier than the protection of the state.

Heubner:—What an accusation against the scribes and priests!—Oh, if people would only pray as they ought for pastors!—That He send them (ἐκβάλῃ) by the mighty impulse of His Spirit.

Footnotes:

[27] Matthew 9:35.—[The words of the text. rec.: among the people, ἐν τῷ λαῷ, are retained by Lange, but omitted in all modern critical editions, German and English (including Wordsworth), and were probably inserted from Matthew 4:23.—P. S.]

[28] Matthew 9:36.—[Dr. Lange translates: zerschlagen, as he adopts the reading ἐσκυλμένοι, jaded, [illigible words] (from σκύλλω, to strip, to lacerate, then metaph. to trouble, to vex; hence the Vulgata: vexati), which is supported by the best MSS., א., B., C., D., etc., the ancient versions, and the critical editors, Griesb., Lachm., Tischend., Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth. The reading of the Received Text: ἐκλελυμένοι (from εκλύω, to loosen, debilitate, ἐκλύομαι, to faint, to be exhausted) has no weighty critical authority in its favor.—P. S.]

[29] Matthew 9:37.—[Lange after Luther: Die Ernte ist gross, i.e., great, which is more correct than plenteous, since πολύς refers to the extent of the harvest field and the labor to be performed which far exceeds the capacity of the small number of laborers. Comp. Conant ad loc.—P. S.]

[30][The verb ἐκβάλλειν, to expel, to cast out, like the Hebrew שָׁלַח and גָּרַשׁ, signifies sometimes to send forth; comp. Matthew 13:52 (E. V.: bringeth forth out of his treasure); Mark 1:12 (driveth him into the wilderness); Mark 9:43 (sent him away); Luke 10:2; Luke 10:35; John 10:4 (he putteth forth his own sheep), comp. Matthew 10:34, βαλεῖν εἰρήνην, ‘I am come to send peace on earth.’ But perhaps there is some reference here to the urgent necessity of laborers, as Dr. Lange explains above, or to the Divine impulse, as Dr. Wordsworth suggests, which constrains men unwilling and unable of themselves to labor in so great a work, and makes them feel and say: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’ (1 Corinthians 9:16).—P. S.]

[31][Dr. Whedon on Matthew 9:33 : “No doubt our Lord primarily has in view the Jewish multitudes before Him. Yet in more distant prospect is to be included the wide field of the world and its vast harvest in the coming age.”—]

[32][Dr. Whedon: “Pray ye therefore.—Divine operation waits upon human coöperation. God will do, in answer to prayer, what will not be done without prayer. Low faith in the Church produces slow development of the work of salvation.”—P. S.]