“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
You probably have heard this saying before. It’s attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, who served as President of the United States from 1901-1909.
It seems appropriate in light of our Gospel lesson today. The foregoing chapters in Matthew’s Gospel certainly show us how much Jesus knows. He has an unusual command of the Law and the prophets, and he teaches the people with unique authority. We may think especially in this connection of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7.
But the chapter in front of us today shows how much he cares. It certainly gives us an open window into his heart, into his affection for God’s people.
Note that he goes to all the cities and villages to bring the good news of the kingdom to the discouraged and brokenhearted and healing to the sick.
He has compassion on the people because they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. The word translated here as “compassion” refers to a visceral state, a state that results when our heart is moved by the sight of suffering and a lump forms in our throat and a tear in our eyes.
But here’s the thing. Here’s what’s highlighted today. There have always been people in need. They’re everywhere. And until Christ returns to restore all things, there always will be. Everywhere there are hurting people in need of someone to care for them.
And yet the workers, the people who are willing to let their hearts be moved to action, are all too few. To be more precise, the people who are willing to serve the kingdom, to be laborers in the fields for the Lord of the harvest, are few in number.
Moved as he is by his own compassion, Jesus turns to his disciples to urge them to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Jesus is realistic. He too sees the task as overwhelming. The numbers of people who do not have the shepherd is enormous. The numbers who do are very small. This has always been the case, and remains so today. In face of the numbers, the task seem hopeless. But numbers are not the ultimate. The living God is. In urging them to pray, Jesus refers his disciples to this God, with whom all things are possible.
Then there emerges an interesting turn of events: Jesus makes the disciples themselves an answer to the prayer.
Matthew reminds us of who these disciples are by name. These are ordinary men from ordinary walks of life who are now called to do more than they could’ve ever imagined. But it is Jesus who gives them power to help their fellow human beings, to relieve another’s suffering, to be a source of hope in the lives they touch (Chelsea Harmon).
Jesus designates them as apostles, an exalted title that elevates them above the rest. But it is worth noting that he sends them out as laborers. He does not say the need is for experts, professionals, or ordained clergy with letters after their name.
To be sure, these can be included among the workers too. “Whenever we see a lack of good pastors, we must lift up our eyes to him, to bring us the remedy!” Calvin wrote in the sixteenth century. This applies no less to us in our century. People are just as harassed as helpless now, like sheep without a pastor (lit. shepherd), as they were in Calvin’s time, not to mention in Jesus’ own time.
But at all events we recognize that the call is always for simple, obedient workers who will go out and gather in what has already been made ready (Dale Bruner). The mission field to be harvested belongs to God. It is his harvest, and so it is he who sends out whomever he wills.
But he does not call to mission without first equipping them for it. Jesus gives the disciples authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness (Matt. 10:1).
It is significant that Matthew uses the very same words of the disciples that he uses of Jesus and his ministry of healing a few moments before: “heal every disease and every sickness” (Matt. 9:35).
There is an enduring principle for Christian ministry implied here. In the trades there is a master/apprentice relationship. If you want to learn to pour walls, lay floor tile, or install heating and cooling systems, for example, you have to apprentice yourself to a master, who teaches you everything you need to know.
Jesus pours himself into his disciples, as a master does his apprentice. And as the apprentice himself becomes a master, he then pours himself into an apprentice, and the cycle continues through the centuries to the present day.
This is act of giving of the whole self, holding nothing back. Jesus gives of himself to his disciples. And he commands them to do the same. “You received without payment; give without payment” (Matt. 10:8).
The translation here is needlessly cumbersome. In the original, it simply reads: “Freely you have received; now freely give.”
This is another one of those enduring principles. God gives us grace. In the churches of the Reformation, they use to refer to the gospel as the gospel of the free grace of God. God gives grace freely; it is ours to receive freely. But it is not to be hoarded. It is meant to be given away.
Indeed, we don’t discover what grace is until we give it away. Grace does not transform our lives unless and until we let it flow through us and out of us.
There is a powerful illustration of this truth in the Holy Land.
The Sea of Galilee is a fertile productive body of water that is teeming with fish (with aquatic life). It has an outlet: the Jordan River. The Jordan River in turn flows into the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is called dead for a reason. No water flows out of the Dead Sea. Instead, the Dead Sea’s water slowly evaporates, leaving behind the salt to accumulate. It is a landlocked lake that is virtually lifeless.
Let us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus never be like the Dead Sea, letting the grace from our lives slowly evaporate. Rather, let us be like the Sea of Galilee, letting that grace flow freely through us and out of us, into healthy outlets that help us really discover the grace we have received.
And our giving should never be seen as payment for services rendered. That reduces us to servile obedience to the logic of equivalence. But grace operates according to the logic of excess, the logic of overflow.
It does not ask how one is compensated for services rendered; it asks rather how ten, even a hundred people can benefit from what we have received.
There is joy in receiving. There is even more joy in giving. In the kingdom of heaven, we gain when we give away what we have.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus expands on what he says in our reading: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”
The Apostle Paul prays for Philemon that he may be active in sharing his faith, so that he will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ (Philemon 6, NIV).
In our flesh, we tend to hoard grace; in the kingdom of heaven, it is given away. And it is precisely in giving it away that we discover what we have.
Now if grace is given away, it also returns.
When the twelve apostles go out to preach the kingdom of heaven, heal the sick, and cast out demons, they are told to depend on the support of those who host them. They are to take no gold, nor silver, nor copper for their belts… for “The laborer deserves his food” (10:10).
This agrees with what the Apostle Paul says elsewhere: “Those who work in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar. In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel (1 Cor. 9:13,14). And “anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor” (Gal. 6:6).
But this is not a closed circle. His instructor will not be the only recipient.
Again, consider how the sharing of the gospel can work. If you hear anything that helps, encourages and inspires you, or if you learn anything that fills your heart with the joy of discovery, you cannot keep quiet about it.
For example, when children learn something in school, when they make or accomplish something, what is the first thing they do when they get home? In the joy of their discovery, they tell their mom or dad about it.
This perhaps illuminates another saying of Jesus: “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom” (Matt. 18:3).
The mission field ought to be a place of the multiplied joy of discovery. Here I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’ account of his conversion to Christ. He relates the story of his conversion in his book, titled, appropriately enough, “Surprised by Joy.”
But you will detect a shift in our Gospel lesson. In a discourse intended to thrill the disciples with the adventure of mission, there is now some news that is pretty hard to hear. The remainder of the lesson makes it plain that some people don’t care how much you know, regardless of how much you show them you care.
“Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves (10:16). The image of sheep amid wolves would have evoked a strong reaction in the sheepherding economy of the ancient near east. Wolves prey on sheep. Wolves devour sheep. Sheep in turn are defenseless against wolves.
Does Jesus, the good shepherd, who guides and protects his sheep, send them out among wolves? Yes he does. Jesus sent out and continues to send out missionaries in the midst of wolves.
Nor does Jesus conceal this fact. What he tells the apostles prepares them to expect resistance, rejection and persecution.
There are two important observations to be made here.
The first concerns God’s grace. Jesus sends out the apostles with good news. In Matthew’s gospel “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” is the very content of this good news. And this good news is accompanied by acts of healing and liberation from the power of the demonic and even death itself. These are nothing if not unmistakable signs that serve to confirm that this news is in fact good! Why then do the people reject what is good?
Above all, this points up the patience and kindness of a God who is not content to leave us in a state of hostility against him. Indeed, this is a thread that runs through the entire Bible. When Israel killed the prophets and stoned those whom God sent to them, God did not give up on them. On the contrary, he sent to them his only begotten Son.
In our Epistle lesson today, the Apostle Paul reminds us that it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). The cross of Christ at once reveals to us our resistance to God as well as his determination to overcome our resistance through the forgiveness of our sins.
We can never lose sight of this truth. God extends his grace to those who have no prior claim on it. Indeed, he extends his grace to those who are determined to fight against him. For this reason, we have always to go out into the world as defenseless as sheep and as innocent as doves armed with no more than an appeal.
The content of our appeal is as follows: “We come to you in peace. We have been sent by one who is the source of our peace, because he has reconciled us to God and to one another. His name is Jesus. He invites you into this peace. His will is to enfold you in this new order that he calls the kingdom of heaven.”
This brings us to our second observation. What if they refuse to listen to us? To reject this peace, to remain hostile to the one who calls you to live at peace with God is a fearful thing. Those who reject the offer of good news of the kingdom can expect only judgment. “How shall we escape this judgment if we ignore so great a salvation?” the author of the Letter to the Hebrews cries (Heb. 2:3).
And Jesus’ words here are even more severe: “Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for [them]” (10:15).
Is there reason to fear? Yes, some fear is probably unavoidable. We are, after all, sheep in the midst of wolves. But Jesus did not demand that the apostles stay where they were not wanted. “And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town” (10:14). Jesus does not call us to abuse.
Nevertheless, our fear for ourselves should be tempered by an even greater fear for those who stubbornly refuse this peace, prefer to live in hostility against God, to remain unreconciled with others, and therefore can expect only judgment.
Well, we have seen in our Gospel lesson valuable principles that can inform and guide our own lives as disciples of Jesus, called to the mission of the church, which continues to this day, and into the future, until Christ’s return.
Let us bear in mind that the fields are still ripe for the harvest. Let us continue to pray to God to send out laborers for the harvest, willing to let our own hearts be moved to action by the needs we see around us. And then let us give what we have received, always in a spirit of generosity, regardless of the indifference and even hostility we will face. Amen.