Mission begins with vision, with seeing the world with compassion.
This Sunday begins a three-week sequential reading of the missiological discourse of Jesus (Matthew 10). Since the lectionary divides this reading into three sections, I thought we might have a three-week sermon series titled “The Lord of the Harvest.” In the series, we will meditate on how Jesus sends out His disciples and equips them for mission. He does so by: Opening Our Eyes to See (Pentecost 3); Opening Our Hearts to Trust (Pentecost 4); and Opening our Lives to Love (Pentecost 5).
Immediately before this section of Matthew, Jesus has been performing miracles; stilling the storm, healing the blind, and casting out demons. And the response to His Messianic deeds has been mixed. Matthew tells us that, on the one hand, the people are marveling at His work but, on the other hand, the Pharisees are claiming He casts out demons because He is the prince of demons (Matthew 9:33-34).
When confronted with this resistance, Jesus does not back down. He does not change His message. Instead, He expands His ministry. He gathers His disciples and equips them to do His work in the world.
The Pharisees may have thought Jesus was Satan, ruling over demons, but Jesus reveals He is the Savior, ruling over His disciples and sending them out into the world. Jesus sends His disciples to announce the Kingdom of God among the Jews and, in this action, He previews His later commissioning of His disciples to go to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28).
Even today, Jesus continues this ministry among us. In His death and resurrection, Jesus revealed that He will go to the depths of Hell itself to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all people. He bears the punishment of all sin that He might bring the comfort of forgiveness to all people. You know this because this is what Jesus has done for you. He saw you in your suffering and He saw you in your sin and He saved you through baptismal waters with words of promise from His Father. In these next three weeks, we will come before the Lord of the Harvest and, by His grace, we will see how He works.
He saw you in your suffering and He saw you in your sin and He saved you through baptismal waters with words of promise from His Father.
Today, Matthew teaches us that the Lord of the Harvest opens our eyes to see. Matthew writes, “When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (9:36). Jesus sees and, not only does He see, but He cares about what He sees.
Mission begins with vision, with seeing the world with compassion.
Think about how easy it is for us not to see the people around us. Too often, our minds are so filled with our tasks for the day that we encounter other people as those who are performing a service for us. They are acting out a part in our personal drama, either helping us accomplish what we want to do or posing problems for us that we need to overcome.
When the Lord of the Harvest comes into your life, however, you see things differently.
Consider how Jesus opens the eyes of His disciples in John 4. The disciples go into Sychar to find food (4:6) but Jesus stays behind and talks to a Samaritan woman at a well. When the disciples return from the town with food, Jesus opens their eyes to see. The Samaritans who have spoken with the woman are coming out to see Jesus. Jesus asks the disciples to lift their eyes, to see it through God’s eyes: “Look on the fields... they are white for harvest” (4:35). Those people who before were simply a means to get food have suddenly become the harvest field of Christ’s Kingdom. Jesus opens our eyes to see the people He desires to save.
Who are the people in your life that Jesus is opening your eyes to see? The Kingdom is not far off. It is near, as near as your neighbor. Jesus calls us to stop overlooking people and see them as He sees them, as people who have forgotten what rest truly feels like.
Our Lord not only has compassion for them, but He also does something about it. The second thing the Lord of the Harvest does is open our eyes to see ourselves as His disciples in mission.
Jesus did not come into the world just to observe it. He came to save it, to recreate it, to bring about the fulfillment of all things. In reading the gospels, we can be accustomed to Jesus working miracles. Jesus sees a need and He addresses it. The lame walk, the deaf hear, and the blind receive sight, all because Jesus graciously acts. Such a pattern can make us simply observers of the working of God. But Jesus wants more than observers. Jesus wants participants.
And that is what He opens our eyes to see. Notice how Jesus calls for prayer that God would send out workers into the harvest and then Jesus answers that prayer... immediately. He calls disciples (10:1-4) and then sends them (10:5-7). Calling and sending go together. Surprisingly, frighteningly, by grace and the power of the Spirit, we become God’s answer to our prayer. He makes us participants in a kingdom that refuses to stay distant. It is a kingdom that begins close to home, among the people we text, in the stories we post, among the people who come when someone finally sees them. Not the polished version that they rehearse but the tired, scattered, unraveling truth of them.
When you follow the Lord of the Harvest, the God who is with you also works through you.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-20).
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-20).
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
