1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word on the 2nd
Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Matthew 9:35-10:8, it’s entitled, “Help
Wanted,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Vision, Compassion, Gathering,
Sending, that is the movement in the Gospel reading for today. It is also the
movement of Jesus’ response to those who are harassed and helpless, of God’s
interaction with His fractured and fallen creation, and of the sanctified
Christian life as it lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. In our text today from Matthew 9 & 10
Jesus says that there is Help Wanted for service in His Kingdom.
3.
Dr. Martin Luther called
experiencing life on this earth as going through a “vale of tears.” It
certainly is with its multitude of sorrows, pain, heartaches, and death. During
the bubonic plague in Germany, Lutheran Pastor Philip Nicolai buried 1400
hundred members of his parish in one year, having as many as 30 funerals in one
day. Truly those days were evil. Strife, misery, despair, sickness were all
around, and the smell of death was in the air.
4.
Everywhere Jesus journeyed in
Israel, He found illness, misery, and strife. Jesus saw the whole world of
humanity straying and losing itself in the grief of sorrow and death. People
were scattered by doubt, unbelief, and apathy. They were lost in fear,
self-pity, and the stress of daily living. No one cared for their souls. As He went throughout the cities and
villages, Jesus saw. This is not a minor detail. Many people go through life
wondering if anyone sees them, if anyone notices them. The crowds Jesus saw
were “helpless and harassed” (v. 36; these verbs could be translated
more literally “whipped/flayed” and “thrown down”). Jesus noted
they were like sheep without a shepherd, which meant they had neither protector
nor provider.
5.
Jesus does not name the source of
their harassment, but it is not hard to imagine. Simply look around today. Some
are tossed about by injustice, grief, and abuse of authority. Others are flayed
by disease, economic strain, and isolation. Everyone is harassed by a sinful
inclination to respond with (un)righteous anger, fear, and self-righteousness.
6.
The problem, in part, is many people
do not see. Maybe they cannot, having never put themselves in the position to
see. Maybe they will not, refusing to look outside their own lives and their
own bubbles. Contrast them (us) with Jesus. Jesus sees. He sees the crowds in
the text. He sees their helplessness. He sees those who are harassing them, and
He does not look away. This is not surprising, for He is the Son of the One who
sees all things—good, bad, and ugly (cf. Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 139:1-3; Jeremiah
23:24).
7.
Truly seeing others and their plight
is a necessary beginning. But if being seen is not accompanied by being helped,
it does not do much. This is the second movement in the text. Having seen the
crowds, Jesus has compassion. That is, He suffers with them (from the
Latin, com·passio). In this sense, the suffering of Jesus is not limited
to the events of Holy Week. It encompasses His entire ministry (even His entire
incarnation). Jesus came among us to suffer with us before He suffered on
Golgotha for us.
8.
The Lord came with a heart of
compassion. As He walked the streets and lanes of the villages, He looked on
the people with sympathetic eyes and reached out His hand to help. He gave
sight to the blind, new life to a dead girl, and delivered a demon-possessed
man from the devil’s tyranny. No matter the sickness, He was ready to touch the
hurting with His healing hand. Then
Jesus went to Calvary to give His life as a payment for the world’s sins that
we might be gathered into His sheepfold. Only in Christ can one find healing
from the pain of sin and His protection against the evil foe. He laid down His
life for the souls of all people that they might be redeemed from the guilt of
sin and the fear of death.
9.
We are not as good at suffering with
others. Luther’s explanations to the 5th and 8th Commandments
come to mind. We are to fear and love God by helping and supporting our
neighbors in every bodily need. We are to defend them, speak well of them, and
put the best construction on everything they do. We fall short, which must not
be easily excused even though it is true. But Jesus does not. He protects and
provides for His people as the Good Shepherd they have been missing.
10.
The compassion of Jesus, which
arises from seeing the suffering of the crowds, leads Him to gather. He begins
by gathering the twelve (they are first listed in Matthew’s Gospel here at the
beginning of chapter ten). But He does not stop there. As Lutheran Theologian Robert
Kolb likes to say, we worship a God of conversation and community. That is, God
continually speaks to us through His Holy Word and continually gathers.
11.
It is still a little odd to speak of
gathering these days. Some congregations remain unable to gather in groups
larger than nine. Others have resumed gathering, but not within six feet and
not without facemasks. This points to an important aspect of the gathering Jesus
does in this text. He does not gather the disciples for their own edification;
not primarily, at least. He gathers them so He might send them.
12.
Matthew 10:2 is the only time in
Matthew’s Gospel where the twelve are called “apostles”. In this
instance, Jesus sends them to cast out demons and heal diseases (this is a
related, but different mission than His sending in John 20 where the
resurrected Lord sends them and His Church to forgive sins). It is not a
stretch to say Jesus sent the Apostles to do what he had come to do: To see, to
have compassion, to gather, and to send.
13.
The situation has not changed today.
Sheep are still scattered. People are without hope, trying to make themselves
look good before God by self-appointed acts of mercy that will induce God to
grant them salvation. Jesus is still
compassionate today. He offers Himself in the Scriptures and the Sacrament as
the Light, Hope, and the Savior of the world. We know how much He loves us.
14.
The search for scattered sheep is
limitless. The blessed Savior asks that our eyes behold this tragic scene. He
asks that we pray He will send workers to proclaim His mission of salvation
through the cross. Jesus continues to send His people to see others (especially
the widow, the orphan, and all who suffer injustice) as human beings and
fellow creatures of a loving God. He continues to send His people to have
compassion on those who are helpless and harassed; to suffer with them and help
them bear their burdens. He continues to send His people to speak words of life
and forgiveness that not only create saving faith in the hearts of individuals,
but also gather them together for life as His body. And He continues to send
His people to continue sending others until all have heard and believed and
come together in His name. Romans 10:14-17 comes to mind here.
15.
Last week the Gospel reading came
from Matthew 28. We call it the Great Commission. In a sense, this
week’s reading gives us the background. Before the sending is the gathering.
Before the gathering is the compassion. Before the compassion is the seeing.
And it all starts with a gracious God. Vision,
Compassion, Gathering, Sending, that is what God does through Jesus. He does it
for you, for your hearers, and for all creation. May our compassion for lost souls be followed
by our prayers and support for those laboring in the harvest field for the sake
of the Kingdom of God. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life
everlasting. Amen.
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