(Tuesday, July 9)
Have you heard the expression “grasping for straws?” It refers to the image of a drowning person, desperately in need of help, who will grab at the nearest object to save him, even a floating straw. This reminds me, in many ways, of our age. There are many young people who have given up on the promises that the world has offered them and, needing something firm to hold onto, began “grasping for straws.” They will grab onto a person who offers to give them cheap fun and entice them into drugs. They will grab onto philosophies, political movements, or modes of entertainment that promise to provide a solution to happiness. When we see their faces, our hearts are moved with pity.
Jesus faced a people who were grasping for straws. They had put their hope in their country Israel, and yet they watched it fall apart. Rome was taking over the world, and they were not strong enough to resist. When Jesus walked through the villages he announced that God was establishing his own kingdom on the earth—not a “straw” but a rock of safety that would never be moved (Matthew 9:32-38).
“Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.”
He offered them hope, not in the form of a political takeover, but in the form of a new nation that God was about to form on this earth—a nation that had room for everyone including Gentiles, one tailored-made for the poor.
What was going on in Jesus’ heart as he ministered to the people?
“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity forthem because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.”
Troubled and abandoned! Does this not describe the lost sheep of our age? They are looking desperately for answers and finding none, they start “grasping for straws.”
Who will be there to lead them into the arms of the Good Shepherd and help them let go of the false gods to which they are clinging. Who will draw their eyes off the world and onto Jesus?
What was Jesus’ prayer for the troubled and abandoned crowds that flocked around him?
“Then, he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest.”
Jesus spent only a day or less in these scattered towns. He would bring them a touch of God’s healing love and give them a message of hope. Then, however, he would depart and move to another place. He prayed that down the road when God’s kingdom was born at Pentecost, thousands of laborers would return to these places and bring these crowds into God’s kingdom on earth. Jesus saw ripe fields but few people who were willing to leave everything, go out into the fields, and invite the troubled and abandoned sheep into the kingdom of his Father.
We do not have to look far to see lost sheep and potential laborers. It is our job to pray relentlessly that the Good Shepherd will rescue the lost and even turn them into fearless laborers in his vineyard—bringing thousands like them into the safe Kingdom of his Father.
Will we let our hearts be moved with pity and pray relentlessly, day and night, for the lost and broken people of our generation—especially the young?
“I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:14).
