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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_9:35-38
35Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 36Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."
Mat_9:35-38 There are two possible ways of relating this summary statement (1) as a summary going back to Mat_4:23 or (2) an introduction of the mission of the Twelve in Matthew 10.
Mat_9:35 "proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom" The kingdom of God was the focus of Jesus' first and last sermons and most of His parables. It apparently referred to the reign of God in men's hearts now that will one day be consummated over all the earth (cf. Mat_6:10). See special topic at Mat_4:17.
The term "gospel" (euangelion) is used in summary statements by Matthew in Mat_4:23; Mat_9:35. It is used by Jesus in Mat_24:14; Mat_26:13. The term becomes a standard way of referring collectively to the life, teaching, death, resurrection, second coming, and offer of salvation in Paul. Only in the second century does the term begin to denote the four written accounts on Jesus' life (i.e., Gospels, in Ireneaus and Clement of Alexandria).
Mat_9:36 "He felt compassion" It is comforting to know how caring Jesus the Messiah was (cf. Mat_14:14; Mat_15:32; Mat_20:34) to the socially and religiously outcast. His compassion for them is expressed in these same terms in Luk_13:34.
▣ "like sheep without a shepherd" "Shepherd" was a common metaphor for religious leaders (cf. Num_27:17; 1Ki_22:17; Eze_34:1-16). It was sometimes used in the sense of false shepherds (cf. Ezekiel 34; Zec_11:5). Jesus is the good shepherd (cf. John 10; Zec_11:7-14; Zec_13:7-9).
Mat_9:37-38 God sees His world in an entirely different light than humans (cf. Isa_55:8-9). Believers need to be praying for God to thrust or drive out laborers into His harvest field. Seeing the need does not constitute a call but, thank God, when we pray, God sometimes allows us to go! Notice that the world is seen as God's harvest field. This is His world. He loves it. He wants it redeemed (cf. Joh_3:16; 1Ti_2:4; 2Pe_3:9).
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