Matthew 9:35-10:8
If the driver is annoyed by the person sitting in the passenger seat constantly telling them where they should turn, what street to take, why they should do this…who is the person who doesn’t like to be led? It’s both, right? The driver doesn’t like the passenger trying to lead them, and the passenger is not content to let the driver take the lead and get them where they are going.
We all have those times when we don’t care for someone leading us. It’s the child who doesn’t want to hold grandma’s hand while walking along a busy street. It’s the young person who doesn’t care for his parents’ rules. We think we know better than the boss sometimes.
We don’t always behave when we don’t want someone else leading us either. The husband and wife in the car have attitudes as they disagree on the route. The child yells, “No!” The young person sulks or just does what they want to do anyway. We say some things that are not so nice about the boss.
When it comes to Jesus leading us, it’s different. And we should behave differently as he leads us. He knows the perfect way. He’s the perfect hand-holder. His guidance is perfectly crafted for our good. So, we can trust him…and follow him…and listen to him. Notice today that Jesus Leads Us…with Compassion and into His Harvest Field.
Jesus Leads Us with Compassion
Have you ever noticed that as you read the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that Jesus is constantly moving. He doesn’t grab a table at the Galilee Seaside Café and wait for people to come to him. He doesn’t sit up on a mountaintop waiting for people seeking his wisdom to climb up. He taught in the synagogues, he preached outdoors, he talked as he walked along and when he met with individuals. He goes to the people—village after village and town after town. Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.
They needed to know about God and salvation. They were sick and hurt. So, Jesus went to them. We get some insight into his feelings too: When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were troubled and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.
Have you ever looked at someone’s difficult or tragic situation, and your feelings were so strong that it was like your gut hurt, your heart ached, you had this deep empathy maybe it even moved you to tears? If you know what I’m talking about, then you know the kinds of feelings Jesus had when he saw the people around him. It broke his heart.
They had an even bigger problem than their sicknesses and diseases. They had no hope. They were wandering spiritually. There was no one leading them to God and his forgiveness. You might want to protest and say, But there were priests and Pharisees and elders all sorts of Jewish religious leaders!
Here’s the problem, though: they pressed the people with law, preaching that they had better start doing all the right things in order to escape God’s judgment. There was no good news. There was no grace. There was no free forgiveness by the love of God. There was no leading them to the Son of God, their Savior, who walked among them.
Matthew used a really vivid word to express their trouble. Maybe this will help us to understand:
Imagine hiking in the desert and you slide down a hill and get caught in patch of shin daggers and prickly pear cactus. You have no choice but to try to work your way through it and find a way out. Your feet and legs getting stabbed…feeling the toxins from the shin daggers…the skin on your arms and torso ripped and torn by hard cactus needles. And you can’t find your way out
The word used to describe what these people were going through meant to have your skin torn open or torn off! That’s a lot more disturbing than our English word “troubled,” isn’t it? This is how God pictures what they were enduring spiritually. Brutal.
Have you ever pictured people without God in this way? Perhaps you should. It’s the way Jesus viewed them. Part of our sinful problem is that we don’t see people who don’t know Jesus that way and so, we lack the compassion Jesus had and wants us to have. We can be as bad as those Jewish religious leaders when we don’t care enough to lead people to know the comfort of God’s love and forgiveness. That’s a tough truth, isn’t it?
Please know that Christ’s compassion extends to us too. He sees that sin of ours…and he forgives it. Maybe as we repent over that, our eyes will be open to have compassion on people and help them, leading them to the Shepherd of their souls.
Jesus Leads Us into His Harvest Field
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest.” That’s what Jesus said.
It’s not the picture of sheep now. It’s a harvest. Picture a field, fully ripe with grain, ready to be brought in. This is also how he sees the crowds of people in the towns and villages. The people need to be brought in by hearing the good news. They need to know God’s forgiveness… his love…his salvation…their Savior. But there’s a problem. There are all these people who need to know or they will die under a burden of guilt and be lost forever and no one is telling them.
So, what could be done? Pray. That’s what Jesus told his followers to do. We mistakenly sometimes think that prayer isn’t that big a deal. But Jesus looks at the crowds and sees fields ready for gathering, and his answer to the urgent problem is to pray.
We also sometimes mistakenly only pray when God also calls us to action. We see the perfect pairing in Jesus, don’t we? He tells them to pray, then he takes action. He sends out twelve men.
The very people who are told to pray that workers be sent out become the answer to their own prayer! Jesus calls the Twelve, gives them authority, then sends them out.
This is kind of funny—Jesus tells us to pray that he would send out people to share the gospel. And so, we do, “Lord, please send people to share you with those who need to know you.” And the Lord of the harvest says, “Excellent idea! I was thinking of sending you!”
Jesus’ disciples then and today learn that prayer and mission belong together. You pray, and you go. You were the object of people’s prayers and leading once upon a time. It may have been as a baby. Family prayed for you and parents led you to baptism and church and taught you about Jesus. Or it happened later in life for you that people prayed for you and shared the gospel with you.
Now it’s your turn. The disciples were to proclaim, The kingdom of heaven is near! The Savior is here. Forgiveness is here. Grace is here. Salvation is here. Jesus leads us to share that gospel message.
You know, our world is spiritually much the same as it was in Jesus’ time. The people were troubled and downcast, harassed and helpless, because they were bombarded with the same false messages we hear today: Try harder. Do better. Fix yourself.
The sheep Jesus saw without a shepherd felt the weight of that guilt and there was no relief, no help from anyone. The disciples the Savior sent out were to point them to him, the One who is the relief from it! The message they needed—and we need today is a simple message:
Jesus carried our sins to the cross. He paid for every failure there as he died. He rose from the dead, declaring peace between God and sinners and eternity in heaven with God after we die.
That is the gospel message Jesus leads us to proclaim. That’s not difficult to remember because you know it for yourself. It’s the message that gives you comfort and confidence and joy. You can easily share that with hurting people who are out there with no one to lead them.
And if you think, Who am I to do this? that you’re no one special, think about this: the disciples Jesus sent out were pretty ordinary guys: Fishermen, Tax collector, Political activist, Business owners.
They had certain skills and strengths, but also weaknesses. They made mistakes even some really big ones like denying Jesus and doubting him. Yet Jesus sent them. Can we find comfort and confidence to serve in the fact that Jesus knew they weren’t perfect but sent them out anyway? They would never be perfect, but they could point people to a perfect Savior.
We’ll never be perfect, but Jesus sends us out too. Let me tell you, when pastors and teachers and staff ministers graduate from Martin Luther College and our Seminary, they have a joyful installation service at their churches, but there is an intimidating part of those services. We are called to teach and preach and to set an example for God’s people in the way we live. In that moment, we know our imperfections in the face of God’s expectations. But we go forward anyway because we know we’re forgiven, and the message we share is not about us or how good we are. It is about Jesus.
This is how you go out there too. You go out as Christian parents and grandparents, as good friends, as caring strangers even. Our worship theme for a number of Sundays is Say It Out Loud. Jesus leads his people into his harvest field to speak his truth. The sheep out there are still troubled and downcast. The harvest is still plentiful. People still need to hear about God’s grace in Jesus.
Did you hear this that Jesus said when he sent out the first disciples? Freely you have received; freely give. God’s grace was freely given to you. You are to offer it freely to others.
We are simply sheep pointing other sheep to the Shepherd. We are forgiven sinners pointing other sinners to the Savior who leads us all with compassion and continues to lead us out into the harvest field to share the saving gospel.
When you look at the world around you, see what Jesus sees. See people who need compassion. See people who need the gospel. See a harvest of people ready for gathering—and go to them. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.