because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
The state of humanity without Jesus was like that of sheep without a shepherd. They were troubled in the way that sheep that wandered and were lost would be troubled. Such sheep did not know where they were going and had no sense of their value. They could intuit that their ought to be a shepherd because they were the sort of creatures that could only live in a fulfilled way if there was a shepherd. But they experienced only absence. If there was supposed to be a shepherd but there was not, why? Had they been abandoned?
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
Jesus' encounter with the crowds revealed that the shepherd did in fact desire to be near his sheep, to watch over them, and to care for them. There had been many long and lonely years building up to this. There were many stand-ins and substitutes in the form of prophets who did what they could. But what they could do revealed something greater that they could not do, something that could only be accomplished by Jesus himself. Only he could fully address the needs of the people. Only the mercy of his heart was sufficient to guide the sheep to the green pastures, there to be refreshed and restored.
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.
What Jesus brought to the crowds in need was the Gospel of the Kingdom. It was not a kingdom of this world in the vein of Rome or Assyria or Egypt. It did not achieve its end through violence or physical domination. But what the Kingdom delivered was thus more consistently and reliable available to all times and places than a kingdom of this world. It did not depend on the rise of fall of worldly rulers. Even in the midst of oppressive earthly kingdoms the Kingdom of heaven was present wherever Jesus, the king, was present. The different sort of power the Kingdom of heaven possessed was manifested in the transformation and healing of those who encountered it. Rather than overcoming armies of human enemies the Kingdom of heaven's power was such that it could defeat even sin and death itself.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
"Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Before Jesus there were only precursors and preludes to the sort of shepherd God intended for his people. But Jesus desired to extend his own ministry through the world through his disciples in such a way that sheep would henceforth be able to avail themselves of genuine contact and encounter with the shepherd through them. It was for this reason that Jesus taught his disciples to see how his own heart was moved with pity for the crowds and how he responded to them as a consequence. He desired the disciples and their successors to embrace his response as their own, seeking out lost sheep just as he himself had done, and bringing them safely home to the Kingdom.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
This idea about giving without cost might have taken a bit of adjustment before it could be embraced. After all, that to which Jesus called his disciples was in fact a lot of work. It would have only seemed natural to try to profit thereby. And this was especially true for disciples who often seemed to think of Jesus and his Kingdom in terms of what advantage they could gain for themselves by their role in it. Instead, they were to learn to be generous, and to freely give, because of the way that God himself had first been generous and given so freely.
No longer will your Teacher hide himself,
but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,
While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:
"This is the way; walk in it,"
when you would turn to the right or to the left.
The closeness and availability of the Teacher described by Isaiah was what Christians were meant to experience in the proximity of Jesus the Good Shepherd. It was this guidance which would never be lacking to those who continually reminded themselves of the truth that, as he said, Jesus would be with them always, even unto the end of the age.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
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