Compassion Powered Harvesters

Pastor Joe Fuiten, August 26, 2001

Scripture Reading: Matt 9:35-38; Page 688

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (NIV)

“Do you do cowboy and redneck weddings?” At first, the question took me by surprise. The young man before me was intense and very serious. The round bulge of the Copenhagen can in the back pants pocket of his tuxedo let me know the question was genuine, not a put on. I assured him that I do cowboy and redneck weddings when called upon and would be more than happy to help him in that department. I think Jesus would have participated in such a wedding. He might have even enjoyed it.

In today’s text, Jesus is going through all the towns and villages. There are three things that he did. He is teaching, preaching, and healing. When we read that Jesus taught in the synagogues, it tilts our mind toward our experience. In the modern era, we mostly do Christianity inside the Church so we are inclined to think that Jesus mostly did his work in the synagogues. I would suggest Jesus did not mostly work in the synagogue. He mostly worked in the community.

Even though he taught in the synagogue, virtually all his miracles occur in homes, streets, on mountainsides, and in fields. I think he taught in the synagogue, and preached outside, along with his miracles. In this passage, he is going through all the towns and villages of Galilee. Jesus is going to the people. He is not waiting for them to come to him. Jesus was outreach oriented.

Verse 36 lets us see the heart of Jesus. What makes him tick? What motivates his actions? “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Compassion for people made him do what he did. Traveling from town to town on foot through hot Galilee wasn’t “fun.” He wasn’t motivated by fun. It was compassion for the people. That’s what made him travel to where they lived.

Besides going to where they were, he was doing things to meet their tangible needs. We understand the teaching in Church part. Even going out to the hillsides to preach seems understandable to us. With respect to the miracles, we tend to emphasize the miraculous nature of what he did and that is good because it shows that Jesus was more than a mere man. He was doing things that only God could do.

However, in the emphasis upon the miraculous, I wonder if we aren’t missing the point to some degree. We are missing the very helpful nature of what he did. Healing the sick 2,000 years ago is not equivalent to healing the sick today. Back then it was necessary. Even though they had sophisticated medicine and procedures, there was much they didn’t have. There was a lot of sickness and disease they couldn’t cure. They had no cure for blindness or deafness. We cure blindness and deafness all the time by way of medicine and machines. There are some of you who, without glasses, would be walking with a white cane. Others of you would be almost helpless without your hearing aids. Hardly anybody asks for prayer for hearing loss any more. They just go to the doctor who takes care of it. It’s all God’s healing, and however it comes, we are grateful.

Jesus healed these people because they had no other options. He was their last and best hope. He did for the people what others could not do. He helped them in ways that they actually needed help. He saw them as “harassed and helpless.” That is what made him do what he did. They were as vulnerable as sheep without a shepherd. We don’t do much sheep raising around here. A few people have a small flock. In those cases the sheep are behind secure fences and are well protected. In that fenceless society, sheep roamed over wide areas of land. The shepherd was their fence. He traveled with them to see that no wolf or large cat of any kind could attack his sheep.

When it came to sick people, it is interesting that Jesus referred to them as harassed and helpless. Like the woman who had suffered many things of many doctors, people were victimized by “snake-oil” type healers. They were not only helpless, they were harassed. In some ways, we could say that sick people today are in that same boat. In other ways, however, people here in America are not helpless and harassed when it comes to medicine. I know that people complain about insurance and lack of care from doctor’s offices, but the fact remains, you can get great help today. We have outstanding medicine and medical professionals. We are, of all people in the world, very fortunate.

When it comes to sickness today, I don’t feel harassed and helpless. I feel secure. I’ll tell you where I feel helpless. It is when I walk in the mechanics shop. Now that is helpless! What I know about car engines, I learned in a High School Physics class, if that tells you anything. I can’t tell you what a catalytic converter does. I always suspected that catalytics needed to be converted, but I didn’t think they were worse than the Methodists. Catalytics, Presbyterians—They are all the same to me. I just want to know if they are sincere.

There are two fields where Americans often feel vulnerable to being ripped off. One is the mechanics shop and the other is the funeral home. It occurred to me the other day that we have those two ministries because two people felt led by the Holy Spirit to start them. I am not criticizing all mechanics or all funeral homes because there are many good people, maybe mostly good people, in those areas. I’m just reporting what you frequently read in the paper. Those two areas are frequent problem areas where people are harassed and sometimes feel helpless. Jesus blessed the helpless and harassed and I think we are doing the same.

We come to an interesting transition in verse 37. Matthew has been telling us of the work of Jesus to help people in physical ways who were helpless and harassed. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’" The fact that verse 37 begins with a connective word “Then” indicates that the call for workers in the harvest is related to what Jesus has been doing.

Jesus found that the most fruitful area of ministry was among those who were hurting in physical ways. His opening mission statement has a lot of that. (Luke 4:18-19) "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (NIV) People who are hurting know they have a need. They are more open to help and to other people. Proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor is related to our work in outreach ministries. One of the dynamic edges to ministry here at Cedar Park is the use of outreach ministries. We have several such ministries and more are in the works.

I told you about the redneck cowboy who wants to get married. I will need to walk a mile in his cowboy boots before I ever get the chance to share genuine faith with him. I’ll do what I can.

I did a wedding yesterday that is more in line with what I have been thinking about lately. I married Frank and Stacy Kukkonen. Sharp couple. Very fine people. We discovered them because they wanted to get married. Being a little more traditional, when they thought of getting married, they thought of a church. They found the Chapel of the Resurrection. They came to a service to kind of check out the place. They found you all to be very accepting and friendly. They liked the services. Since we require counseling before getting married, they got into pre-marriage counseling with Pastor Dane. They have liked the contacts we have made so far and want to make Cedar Park their church. I’m sure the young married class will reach out to them and welcome them into the fellowship of the church.

Weddings can meet a need. People need to get married. They need someone to perform the ceremony and a place to have it. If we don’t meet the need somebody will. We have more than the simple need in mind. We have the whole person in mind. We are willing to do the one thing, but we hope for the opportunity to do more.

Jesus had compassion so he did something. He met a need they couldn’t get met anywhere else. He did something. In the end, the heart of compassion is expressed in work. The Sunday School teacher or the children’s worker are expressing their compassion for people by their work. They get the lessons and programs ready through a lot of effort and prayer. Then they make it happen with the same heart as Jesus had. He saw the unmet need of the people and did something about it.

In verse 37 and 38 there is something of a rebuke. 37 “Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

There are so few who actually want to be a worker in the harvest. Many would like to see a harvest. They believe in harvest. They once heard about a church that had a harvest, but they themselves are not workers in the harvest. Jesus asked us to pray that it will change. Pray that the Lord will send workers out into the field of broken hearts and lives. Pray that people will think about working instead of watching. Pray that their hearts will be touched by the true hurts of other people and they will want to do something about it.