Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
SCRIPTURE | MATTHEW 9:35-38 (NIV)
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming 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. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”
We’ve come to the last Sunday of our sermon series: Won’t You Be A Neighbor? So far, we’ve looked at: 1) Planting Seeds – that it takes time and work to plant seeds of faith, but that we need to be willing to do it because it’s through this hard work that the Kingdom is grown and the Gospel is shared. 2) Nurturing Seeds – to help seeds of faith grow in others, we need to nurture them with love – the kind of love who accepts you as you are and works with you to become who God is calling you to be. 3) Being Bold – we are called to unknown fields and unknown places, yet we should go boldly knowing that God goes before us and beside us. And now 4) we finish by taking a look at Jesus’ call to be workers in the fields of harvest. about being workers in the fields.
But first, a question: have you ever moved before? What is the worst part of moving? For me, it’s trying to get everything packed away into boxes. This last week, I went home to help my parents move out of our family home. We’ve lived in this home for 21 years and you know what that means: There is A LOT – and I mean A LOT – of stuff.
By no means are my parents hoarders or even messy – in reality they are the complete opposite. But when you’ve lived in one our house for 21 years, I swear that stuff comes out of the floor boards when it’s time to move. And when it comes to packing, it seems like it never ends! Every time you finish a box and seal it off, you find five more items that needed to go in it. So, you start a new box which ends up being miscellaneous and eventually, you have more miscellaneous boxes than labelled boxes!
We were fortunate in this move because my parents were moved by professional movers. That means that it didn’t matter how many boxes we had, so long as everything was in a box. Then, we got to sit back as the movers gathered the endless sea of boxes into the back of the moving truck. But I have been part of plenty of moves which did not have the fortune of being with professional movers. In other words, I’ve been part of plenty of moves when I was a mover. In fact, for a couple summers, part of my job was moving people in and out of apartments. And I hated it because the boxes and stuff never seemed to end, and there were never enough people to help out.
One of the greatest challenges to hard work is not having enough people. How does the old phrase go? Many hands make light work.
This is the reality of our work, as Christians. In fact, Jesus Himself points this out in our scripture passage for today. The passage reads, “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’”
Two important things stand out here: One, Jesus sees the crowds and has compassion. Why? Because they are like sheep without a shepherd. Two, Jesus looks to His disciples – not the crowd but the disciples – and says “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His field.”
Isn’t it interesting that we get a good look at what Jesus is thinking here? In reading this, we get to ask ourselves, “Why would Jesus see the crowd, have compassion, and then turn to His disciples and say that?” Jesus looks around at these strangers. These are people that no clue Who He is, yet He is filled with compassion for them. Why? Because He sees the situation for what it is.
It’s the same compassion which parents have for their children when they see them struggling with something; the same compassion a teach has when a student is clueless; the same compassion a nurse has when a car crash survivor comes into the ER. It’s a compassion of knowing that someone is lost, in need of guidance, in need of saving and that there is no one there to save them. No one, but you.
It’s very clear through the story of the Bible that there are many wonderful people throughout history who have done amazing things in the Name and by the Power of God. Yet, it is abundantly clear that there are even more people who know the Bible well, who practice all of the rites and rituals a follower of God is supposed to do and still don’t effect change in the world. During this time in Israel, where Jesus is preaching, there were entire orders devoted to teaching the word of God. The Sadducees, Essenes, and the Pharisees were all people who knew the Bible intimately and were large groups of people. Still, look. The people living in the very nation of God, where people of faith permeated the countryside, were lost and without a shepherd. Clearly, what they were doing was not working.
So, Jesus turns to His disciples and says that the harvest is plentiful. In other words, look at all these people all around you who are searching and yearning for this life that I have to give. Yet the workers are few. There is no question – even the world outside of the church knows it – that there is a shortage of good people willing to do the hard work of changing the world. There are constant calls for people to do the right thing and churches around the world remind their people that the harvest is ready but there are few workers. Still very few ever respond.
You know why? Because it’s easier not to. It’s easier to let someone else be the one whom Jesus sends forth. It’s easier for others to be called to this grueling task. But we have a choice here and now. We can choose to be bystanders, like Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, who know the Bible and come to church but never effect the change God is calling us to or we can step up. We can get off the sidelines and do the work Jesus has called us to.
If we are Christian, what choice do we really have? Jesus has turned to US. He has told US that the workers are few but the harvest is ready and abundant. What does He ask of us? That we roll up our sleeves and get ready to work. Many hands make light work.
Carrying an endless amount of boxes to a moving van by yourself is terrible. No one likes to do it. But when there are others, the work gets done and it gets done quickly. Mr. Rogers reminded the children who watched his show and their parents that it doesn’t take fancy training or special knowledge to be a friend or a neighbor. What it does take is being willing to step up and do it.
My friends look around us. Our building and our people are surrounded by a crowd who are like sheep without a shepherd. There are aimless people all around us, searching for true life. Jesus has called us, has commissioned us, and now has asked us, will you be a worker in My field?
I pray that your answer would be yes. That you would stand up – get off the sidelines. If you care about this world, its people, and the mission of Christ – that you would stand up and say YES! Send me! Here I am, use ME. Church, imagine what a congregation filled of people who have said yes could do. Imagine what we could change and how God would use us. All of this is possible – when we say yes. I pray it may be so. Amen? Amen.