Introduction
Not long before Christmas, I had to do a bit of shopping, so I went to my local supermarket, walked up and down, selected my groceries and placed them on the conveyor belt.
Joining me in the queue, and dotted around the crowded store, were many customers, some of whom looked exhausted and overwhelmed. Some were losing patience with their unruly children, others were filling their baskets with sugary foods, crisps and alcohol.
The cashier looked bored and demoralised, I’m guessing, all the worse for taking on a bit too much overtime to deal with the seasonal rush.
I myself had a pretty busy few weeks ahead of me and I was a bit distracted, my mind elsewhere. I absently glanced around and, honestly, felt precious little empathy for those around me. If anything, (I say this to my shame), I was inwardly a bit critical and judgemental of some.
Why is he wasting so much money he doesn’t really have on so much unhealthy food she doesn’t really need, or on so many presents no one will really want? The truth is, again - I am not proud to confess it, I didn’t really care.
I say this to contrast my wrong and sinful attitudes, and my cool, unfeeling heart, with that of Jesus, which is where our passage from Matthew’s Gospel begins today.
Matthew is going to take us today into the most holy place - the beating heart of our Lord and Saviour. We are going to see what his inner thoughts, his emotions, his very feelings are like.
So starting at Matthew 9.35, let’s read this next section of Matthew. I’m reading from the NLT, which is the version I’m using this year.
Jesus travelled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
Into chapter 10. Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. Here are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (also called Peter), then Andrew (Peter’s brother), James (son of Zebedee), John (James’s brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (the tax collector), James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon (the zealot), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).
Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! Don’t take any money in your money belts—no gold, silver, or even copper coins. Don’t carry a traveller’s bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to be fed.
Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. When you enter the home, give it your blessing. If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day.
Prayer…
From Disciples to Apostles
This passage, make a note of it in your Bible, marks a clear and vital transition in Matthew’s Gospel.
Up to this point, Jesus has been modelling his stunningly attractive and effective work to his team of twelve and to a wider group of followers.
Matthew has already told us how that all went down. In chapter 7 people are amazed, he says, at Jesus’ teaching, because he teaches as one who has authority, quite unlike the pompous and ineffective clergy of the day.
Matthew has also told us, earlier in chapter 9, that people are filled with awe not just at his marvellous words, but also at his miraculous works and they can only praise God saying, “we’ve never seen anything like this before.”
And, once again summarising the comprehensive excellence of Jesus’ ministry, here in v35 Matthew says, “Jesus travelled through all the towns and villages of that area… And he healed every kind of disease and illness.”
Think about that. Every kind! I drew up a quick A to Z of complaints and infirmities this week just to give an indicative insight into the far-reaching span of Jesus’ healing ministry.
Here we go; he healed things like arthritis, broken bones, cancer, deafness, epilepsy, flatulence, gastroenteritis, heart failure, infertility, jaundice, kidney stones, leprosy, meningitis, narcolepsy, osteoporosis, polio, quadriplegia, rabies, scabies, thrush, urethritis, vertigo, whiplash, xerostomia, yellow fever and zinc deficiency. Jesus had authority to heal it all - and more.
But here comes the transition I mentioned earlier. Up to this point, Matthew has only ever described the twelve as ‘disciples’ and he has done so on ten occasions.
The word ‘disciple’ literally means ‘learner’ or ‘apprentice.’ These guys have watched Jesus closely, and listened to his teaching, and asked him questions, and taken copious notes. For about two, or two and a half years they have been students in Jesus’ school of ministry, learning and gleaning from the Master.
But now, all that changes. For the first time in his Gospel, in chapter 10, v2 and v5, Matthew begins to describe the twelve as ‘apostles’ which means ‘sent ones.’ It means ‘envoys,’ or ‘emissaries’ or ‘representatives.’
That’s because Jesus is now going to send his twelve students out to say the same things he said, and do the same things he did, and most scary of all, they are going to do all that without him being there beside them. The time for observation and note-taking is over. Now is the time to go and replicate what they have seen and heard.
Compassion for the Crowds
Why this sudden change of direction? Jesus’ ministry was going so well, as we have seen. There are in fact two reasons.
Firstly, time is running out. Jesus knows that his ministry will last about 3 and a half years. He knows the tide of popular opinion will turn against him. He knows he will go up to Jerusalem, be rejected, tried, crucified and killed. He knows that he has just over a year to pass on the torch to his followers. He knows that they will have to sink or swim.
And he knows that eleven will swim and one (Judas) will sink. But time is short. So there is a growing sense of urgency.
The second reason is made clear for us in v36. Matthew, himself one of the twelve, an eyewitness who studied Jesus closely,records here what he could not fail to notice about Jesus’ heart.
He would not have seen this in me, queuing up in Aldi the week before Christmas. But this is what he says about Jesus: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
The dominant impression Matthew has when he looks at Jesus in that moment is his compassion.
The word in Greek translated ‘compassion’ is an intense one, it’s when something disturbs you profoundly and you feel it deep down, it grieves you to the pit of your stomach; it literally means ‘Jesus was gutted by what he saw.’
Jesus cannot, and does not, hide his overwhelming depth of feeling when he looks out on the masses. He is visibly churned up inside, he has a strong and pronounced emotional response to what he sees; he wells up, his heart goes out to the crowds and breaks for them.
The multitudes are weighed down, their lives are a mess, they are preoccupied, helpless, harassed, distressed, directionless, exposed to exploitation and harm, they are at a loss to know where to find help.
Their political masters have burdened them with crippling taxes. Their religious leaders are indifferent and uncaring; they just pile pressure and guilt on them, blaming them for not doing better, failing utterly to feed them or protect them.
So, because of his immense compassion Jesus commissions the twelve to multiply his ministry and mission.
Let’s just pause to reflect at this point. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being totally uncaring and self-centred, 10 being Jesus-level compassion and love, what score would you give yourself? Would those who know you best agree with your self-evaluation?
Jesus turns to his followers and he tells them what he’s seeing. These needy crowds are an immense harvest. And the harvest is right here. Look at our foodbank for example; hundreds of people in need at our door every week.
But, says Jesus, there’s a complication and a problem. The harvest is here. But there are so few workers. In fact, this is something of an understatement; really there’s only one worker and it’s Jesus.
If that was me, I would naturally say, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, therefore let’s all roll our sleeves up and get to work.” But, surprise number 1, Jesus calls them first to prayer, and only then to action. There’s so much to do, and so few to do it, so let’s get on our knees.
There was a time in the early days of the Mission that Mother Teresa founded in Calcutta when the sisters were becoming overrun by the demands placed on them.
There were more desperate people on their doorstep than they could cope with. They had to start turning people away. Open wounds were being left untended and exposed to infection until the next day. Homeless orphans were going away disappointed to sleep in the streets.
So, one of the novices approached Mother Teresa and said, “What are we going to do? We are sending people away. We are overwhelmed. We do not have the resources we need. The sisters are discouraged and exhausted.”
In other words, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
Mother Teresa thought for a moment, and do you know what she said? “Thank you sister for bringing this matter to my attention. We shall get up in the morning one hour earlier. And we shall spend that extra hour together on our knees before God in intercession.”
It sounds completely mad. But it isn’t. It’s what faith looks like! Thank God they had Mother Teresa running that place and not me. I think I would have said, “Do you know what? We’ll have to get up an hour earlier and finish an hour later to fit everyone in.”
When I work, I work. But when I pray, God works. That’s a word for some of you today, I know it.
“The harvest is plentiful. The problem is that the workers are few. So ask God to send out workers into his harvest field.”
What this means is that intercessory prayer is the means of attaining a goal that will certainly be reached. We pray that God will raise up and send out workers and that the harvest will be reaped not because the outcome is uncertain if we don’t pray, but because God has appointed prayer as the means by which the world will be reached for Christ.
Then, Jesus springs surprise number 2. To the shock and possibly dismay of the twelve, Jesus enlists them to be workers in his place. He is going to multiply his ministry by twelve.
I say “dismay” because these twelve disciples, the Gospels tell us, were so often annoyed by the crowds. They are usually found appealing to Jesus to send people away.
“It’s late, Lord, tell them to go home.” “They’re crowding around you, Lord, tell them not to push.” “All these people Lord, they’re getting hungry, they’re a problem, they’re a burden.” “Get these kids out of here, the Lord has more important things to do.” These disciples just find the crowds a bit of a nuisance.
But now, in 10.1-4, they are going to become the answer to their own prayer that God will send our workers to reap the harvest. And tellingly, chapter 10 indicates that Jesus has no expectation that his ministry will be diluted by this move.
The names at the start of chapter 10 can look a bit random. Some we know quite well. Peter, James, John, maybe Thomas. Others are more obscure, apparently significant only to their mums. “Ooh, look, my Thaddeus is in the Bible, such a good boy!”
And look, Matthew doesn’t give us very many impressive details about these men probably because there weren’t all that many to record.
He doesn’t say, “Philip, who was top of the class in Bible College,” or “Bartholomew, who had an amazing prophetic gift,” or “Andrew the anointed worship leader” or that youth leader, Simon the Zealot.
They were just plain ordinary. God wants you to know for your encouragement that he calls and uses average and unremarkable people.
But this is no arbitrary list of nobodies either. It’s a register of called and equipped people through whom God will bring in a massive, indeed ever-expanding, global gospel harvest which we ourselves are part of. And that harvest is still being reaped all over the Earth.
Is the harvest ripe? In the UK? In Darlington? Is that the impression you have? Don’t people seem more closed, more antagonistic than ever?
Former lecturer at Wycliffe Hall Theological College Elaine Storkey tells of the day a few years ago she was running for a train in London. She had had a tiring day with difficult appointments and was looking forward to getting home.
When on the train, she found herself seated opposite a woman who began, inexplicably, to rant about religion. She was angry about her granddaughter’s confirmation service she had recently attended. She herself, like her parents, grandparents and grown-up children was a secular humanist and she was incensed that her son’s daughter would get involved with Christianity.
The ‘cringeometer’ on that train was off the scale. The tension was palpable. Everyone in the carriage hid behind their mobile phones or shrunk down in their seats, looking out the window.
Elaine, to this day, does not know why this woman opposite her launched into this tirade. Elaine was not wearing a conspicuous cross or carrying a large-print Bible or anything that would mark her out as a follower of Jesus.
But, with everyone else in the carriage looking like they might prefer death by electric chair to engaging in conversation, Elaine gently said to her fellow traveller, “Obviously you feel strongly about this, I wonder why that might be?” The woman continued to vent.
Then Elaine leaned forwards and said, “Let me ask you a question; What would it take for you to believe in God?” The woman scoffed, “Well, it would have to be something pretty spectacular!” So Elaine said, “How about if God sent somebody to tell you how much he loves you?” The woman looked down her nose once more. “Well, that would be a start, I suppose.”
Elaine just looked at her and said, “What if God sent me on to this train, to this very seat, the last seat available, to tell you how much you are loved?”
The other passengers by this point were dying of embarrassment and desperately pretending they weren’t listening. But the woman suddenly seemed deeply touched, she began to well up and a profound conversation followed. It was a breakthrough.
The harvest doesn’t always look ripe, but Jesus says it is, and I for one am not going to argue with him.
Standing instructions
Then Jesus, like every good line manager, gives his guys clear instructions with dos and don’ts. He tells them what they can expect, how to maximise opportunities and what to do when things go badly.
Here’s a very quick summary:
1. v5-6. Start with the people you have most in common with. In their case it was those sheep without a shepherd from his own people, Jesus had compassion for. For us, perhaps it’s people who used to do church but have fallen away.
2. v7-8. Make your message clear and simple but don’t just talk, listen and offer to pray when you see a need.
3. v9-10. Trust God to give you everything you need.
4. v11-13. Look for an open door from interested and responsive people.
5. v14-15. Don’t waste your time with argumentative people but do tell them that rejecting Jesus’ message is a serious mistake.
Ending
Not long before lockdown, I went up and down a couple of roads in the neighbourhood where I lived at the time meeting people and giving them Alpha invitations. About a quarter of the doors I knocked on people were out. Or pretending to be. But in less than two hours I had three really good conversations about the Lord with genuinely interested people. Just two small roads in secular, post-Christian Britain.
One person I met was in a right state because she had just heard some traumatic news on the phone the moment I arrived. So we got talking and she shared with me the trouble she was in. I just listened as she opened up and I felt for her. I said, “I’m a Christian, would you like me to pray with you right now?” She said, “Oh, yes please.” So right there and then I just asked the Holy Spirit to come, and I prayed into the situation as best I could, and I watched her become calm and at peace as I prayed.
150 years or so after Jesus said these words, Irenaeus of Lyons wrote about the ongoing mission of the church in his area.
“Those who are truly [Christ’s] disciples” he said, “receive grace from him to perform miracles in his name... For without doubt some truly drive out demons, so that those who have this been cleansed from evil spirits frequently join themselves to the church. Others foresee things to come: they see visions, and other prophetic expressions. Still others heal the sick by laying their hands on them, and they are made whole. Yes, moreover, as I have said, the dead have even been raised and have remained among us for many years. What more shall I say? It is not possible to name the number of gifts which the church throughout the whole world has received from God in the name of Jesus Christ... For as she has received freely from God, freely also does she minister to others.”
Ask God to use you to touch the lives of those you know. Most will not even have thought much about God or what place he should have in their lives.
They’re harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And the harvest is ripe.
Let’s pray…
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 14 January 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment