Matthew 9:35-10:8
Presented June 12th, 2005, by Jeanne Davies
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sometimes it all gets to be a bit too much for me. I think about the illness and suffering of friends and loved ones. I hear about the American abuse of prisoners on the radio. I read about a woman and her four-year-old daughter shot by an ex-boyfriend while eating at an outdoor café in Wilmette. I see a homeless woman on Halsted Street in Chicago, dirty and unkempt, clutching her few possessions tied up in a scarf, muttering incessantly to herself. She joins the many street people sitting on the corner in the hot sun. I pray, “Lord, oh Lord. What can I do?” I feel overwhelmed by a wave of compassion and despair.
Now Jesus saw things more clearly than I do. He also knew his mission, power and authority more clearly than I do. But he, also, looked at the crowds, after performing many miracles and healings. And he saw they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Now these are not your white fluffy sheep, your cuddly lambs. You know, like paintings of the sweet little lamb in the arms of Jesus, the good shepherd. The word for harassed comes from the word for “flayed,” and the word for helpless has its origins in the word for “skinned.” Matthew’s language is dramatic. These sheep are flayed and skinned, collapsed on the ground. Jesus sees this crowd, this forlorn and leaderless flock, and he is moved with compassion.
But even Jesus himself, sees that more help is needed. He can’t do it all. He tells the disciples, “Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest.” And, presumably, they do. Because the next thing you know, they are being commissioned as the workers. What do you know, they are the answer to their own prayer…
They are the ones being sent out into the harvest. The word used for “send” is the same word used a few verses later for “casting out” demons. God is going to cast out his workers into the harvest. There’s a sense of movement here. They are just disciples or students anymore. They are apostles, ones that are sent out to do the work of Jesus.