Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The Harvest Is Great, the Laborers Few
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The Twelve Apostles
10 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zeb′edee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;[a] 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
The Mission of the Twelve
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And preach as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Why did we come here today? Why do we come here on any given Sunday? Why do we give of ourselves – of our time, our talents, and our treasure – to keep St. John’s going?
There are as many answers as there are people here today. Many are unique to the persons giving them, but many overlap. A short list of these common answers might be:
Tradition. “I am a member of St. John’s because my family has been involved with St. John’s since the beginning.”
Fellowship. “I am a member because of the friends I’ve made here and the support I have enjoyed from them.”
Values. “I am a member because St. John’s reflects my own values.”
Faith. “I am a member at St. John’s because this is the place where I can best live out my faith.”
All of these reasons for being a member here are totally valid. But underneath them, I would bet, is what Jesus himself felt for all those unnamed people in the cities and villages he visited: Compassion.
That might strike you as odd. “Compassion” might not be the first word that leaps to mind when we think about why we are members of St. John’s. But when we read today that Jesus went all over the place “preaching the gospel of the kingdom,” the obvious question – even though we have pretty good idea as to the answer – is “why?” Jesus “preached the gospel” – gospel meaning, of course, “good news.” What is one of the basic elements of the good news if not the overwhelming love and compassion of our God? If God were not compassionate, he would never have come to earth in the Person of Jesus in the first place, and we would not be here today. I shudder to think what the world would be like if God had not “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, RSV). Jesus came and delivered that all-important message, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God has drawn near.” If God didn’t care, didn’t have compassion, that message would never have been delivered.
The word “compassion” means literally “to suffer with.” When we have compassion with another, we enter into their suffering and share their anguish and pain. Regarding Jesus’ reaction to seeing all those lost and forlorn people in his travels, William Barclay tells us that “[t]he word which is used for moved with compassion (splagchnistheis – σπλαγχνιστεις) is the strongest word for pity in the Greek language. It is formed from the word splagchna, which means the bowels, and it describes the compassion which moves people to the deepest depths of their being. In the gospels, apart from its use in some of the parables, it is used only of Jesus (Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 15:32, 20:34, Mark 1:41, Luke 7:13). When we study these passages, we are able to see the things which moved Jesus most of all.”[1]
Compassion is that quality that makes it possible for first responders like firefighters to rush into a burning building when everyone else is following their natural human instinct and rushing out. They don’t do it just because it’s their job, because there are countless other ways to make a living without risking life and limb for strangers. They do it because they care about others – more at times than they care about their own lives. That’s compassion.
Compassion is what causes a person to stop in the middle of the night in the midst of a blinding rainstorm to help change someone’s flat tire, and then, after making sure that the tire’s on right and that the other driver’s OK, they just drive off. That’s compassion.
Compassion is what makes us dig into our pockets or our purses to hand some change to a homeless person at the top of an exit ramp.
Compassion is whipping out our checkbook to contribute to the emergency fund for a perfect stranger’s operation.
Compassion is what makes you, the members of St. John’s, give money to our Back Door fund, and to the various ministries covered by Our Church’s Wider Mission.
We do these things, and we do them frequently, we do them cheerfully, and we do them sometimes without even thinking about them.
Compassion is a hallmark of a deep-seated recognition that we are all part of the human community. As John Donne wrote so many years ago, “no man is an island.” Whether we are always aware of it or not, we are all connected. The Chinese proverb that says, “When your shoe is off, my foot is cold” rings true. And so it’s no accident that Jesus shows today that his motivator, that which drove him to take on our human condition, was compassion. God wanted to save us from ourselves, not because we deserved to be saved, but because he loved us and had compassion for us. And Jesus came to us.
“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Significantly, the very first thing he tells the disciples to do is to start putting that compassion into action by praying. Everything else they do follows from that.
As we are today’s disciples, this passage gives us our marching orders. It starts with prayer.
A couple weeks ago, we talked a lot about prayer, so I’m not going to rehash it now, except … for the following.
First, there’s no “right” way to pray. Choose your method of praying in the same way that you choose your shoes – as it fits you. A prayer is a conversation with God – your conversation with God – and so it can happen in any number of ways, at any time, and in any place. At issue is not how you do it, it’s that you do it.
Second, never forget: Prayer has power to change lives – others’ lives, and our lives.
“Harold Hughes described himself as ‘a drunk, a liar, and a cheat.’ He was so convinced that he would never change that he decided to end it all. At the last moment, however, he remembered enough from the Bible to realize that to take one’s life is wrong. So he knelt down sobbing and explained [in prayer] why he was going to end it all. Suddenly, something happened that he never experienced before in his life. He wrote later: ‘God was reaching down and touching me. Like a stricken child lost in a storm, I suddenly stumbled into the warm hands of my Father. Joy filled me, so intense it seemed to burst my breast.’ Ten years later, Harold Hughes was elected governor of Iowa.”[2]
One of the books in my library is one that my Dad had. It’s called Making Religion Real, by Professor Nels F. S. Ferré of Vanderbilt University. It was published in 1955. Chapter III of that book is titled “Making Religion Real Through Prayer.” Here’s what Professor Ferré wrote so many decades ago:
“Prayer is the main highway to making religion real. Unless we meet God in prayer we never meet Him, for prayer is meeting God. Unless we meet Him, He can never become real to us. A person can be fully real to us only as we get to know him personally. No amount of mere talking or thinking about him can take the place of knowing face to face. Not even the most intimate correspondence with a ‘pen pal’ can substitute for knowing him in person. To learn to know God, then, we must learn to pray.”[3]
The next thing we notice is what Jesus specifically tells the disciples to pray for: “pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
That is to say: 1. Pray; 2. Pray for help; and 3. Be the laborer you pray for.
Every one of us is a compassionate person. We are in the “compassion business.” That’s how we show our allegiance to Jesus. As Professor Greg Carey, of Lancaster Theological Seminary, writes, “Jesus commissions his disciples to perform the very works that he does, calling them to advance beyond him into new and emergent contexts. Whether with Jesus or commissioned by Jesus, the authentic proclamation of God’s realm is marked by healing and liberation.”[4] It would seem that Ghandi’s advice to “be the change you want to see in the world” started with Jesus. But it doesn’t end there!
This can’t be overemphasized: Jesus needs us. Jesus needs us to be laborers in that harvest. Prayer is the indispensable start – but it is just the start. We also need to act. Some anonymous person once said, “I am truly poor, not when I have nothing, but when I do nothing.”[5]
But then the question is unavoidable: How are we to act? This is where things might get a little murky. More often than not, we might feel like we belong more in the group that’s “harassed and helpless” than in the group that’s laboring in the vineyard!
That feeling, I think, pretty much sums up the human condition. So often, our lives do seem out of control. We feel as though we’re aboard a runaway train and the brake lines have all been cut.
But the thing is, if we waited until we felt ready, or prepared, or in control, we would never do anything. We would never even take the first step.
Well, that’s exactly how the disciples must have felt, too. As we’ve seen before, they were under no illusions; they knew they were unqualified. The enormity of the task before them must have made them feel as though they had the weight of a mountain on their shoulders.
Jesus knew that, too; and that’s why he, again, first told them to pray. But then he gave them his own authority. Imagine what a shot in the arm that must have been!
But the takeaway for us is this – we don’t need to “have it all together” before we act. Any act done in love and compassion toward another person, whether or not we have it all worked out, is valid, and valuable.
Just like what we’ve learned about praying, it’s not how we go about it, but that we do it.
Our world needs prayer and compassion now more than ever. My hope is that each one of us will answer the call of Jesus as the original disciples did, so that our names, too, will be on that illustrious list!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] Barclay, William, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. One, Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, p. 409
[2] Link, Mark, S.J., Jesus: A Contemporary Walk with Jesus, Allen, TX, Resources for Christian Living, 1997, p. 173
[3] Ferré, Nels F. S., Making Religion Real, New York, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1955, p. 51
[4] Carey, Greg, “Commentary on Matthew 9:35-10:8 [9-23],” “Working Preacher,” June 15, 2008, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=98
[5] I added the italics.