Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)
35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for 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 laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." 1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near.' 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16 "See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Back several years ago, when I first started hanging around in church, there was a young woman who came to speak. Now, I was going to a very conservative, rural, Southern Baptist church at the time, so this young woman didn’t “preach” and she wasn’t really allowed in the pulpit, so we met in the fellowship hall where she was going to “share her testimony” with us. I can remember sitting in a brown, metal folding chair at a grey plastic table listening to this woman (who couldn’t have been twenty-five years old) tell us about her time spent among the women in some remote village in Africa. I remember she was wearing a long skirt, a faded t-shirt, and her hair was wrapped in some sort of colorful cloth. She had slides, pictures of her experience with the women of this village. The pictures showed her and several of these women plowing small plots of land with very basic implements—no tractors, no animals…no men. There were pictures of them planting seeds, watering their plots, and even pictures of the various plants as they began to grow and mature into vegetables and fruit ripe for picking. I remember her talking about the importance of teaching these women in these villages how to grow their own food, how she was doing the Lord’s work by walking alongside these women in such a journey, and then, as she closed her presentation, she recited the words from Jesus we have read together this morning—words, I’m sure, many of you have heard several times before, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” It was powerful, an invitation to join her in the kingdom work she was doing in Africa (I think we may have applauded and took up a “love offering” and thanked her for sharing).
That’s how I’ve most often heard these words from Jesus, after some missionary has clicked through all of her slides, after some prison chaplain has shared his stories about the need for more folks to share Jesus in the prisons, after some evangelists has blown through a sermon and wants to invite folks to surrender their lives to “full-time, Christian service.” That’s how I’ve heard it, as a recruitment call, a plea to join the work because there was too much work to go around, too few folks out there doing it. I have a feeling if you’ve heard it before, that’s how you’ve heard it too, but let me ask you: have you ever heard anyone say "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” and then go on to read the rest of the story? I don’t think I ever have. I have a hunch it’s because if you read the rest of the story, the rest of Jesus’ words here, the line of folks signing up with shrink to nothing!
I mean, look at what Jesus is saying here. He isn’t just posting a job in the Galilean classifieds; it’s something altogether different, something that requires more than a nine-to-five commitment (and surely more than a single hour on Sunday morning…). Jesus gives them authority to do all the things he’s been doing, which is nice, I suppose. But then again, he’s Jesus, right? A five star chef can give me the authority to run her kitchen, but that doesn’t mean her guests are getting anything more than peanut butter sandwiches for dinner! Oh sure, Jesus modeled the way for them; Matthew says so in verse 35 and, really, all throughout the gospels, but just because someone has modeled it for you, shown you how to do, doesn’t mean you can just pick it right up without any real struggle. You can show someone how to do something and give them the certification and authority to do it, and they can still screw it up.
Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve seen it in your own line of work. New hire, fresh out of school, comes in with all the certificates, all the degrees, the best references, yet on the first day of the job you find them in the breakroom sobbing into their cup of coffee because they really weren’t prepared for all of this.
Jesus models the work for his disciples, gives them the authority to do it, and before anyone can ask questions for clarification, he gives them the job description: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…” Now, I want to stop right here for just a moment. Some will say that Jesus tells his followers to go to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” because salvation had to come to the Jews first, or because Jesus had some preference for his own people. Maybe, but I think it’s something else, something more difficult. You see, it’s a whole lot easier to say to those on the outside, “you’re in,” than it is to say to those on the inside, “they’re included too.” It’s a lot easier for the poor to hear that God will provide than it is for the rich to hear that God has called them to provide. It’s a lot easier to hear God’s words of liberation and justice when you’ve been knocked down and kept down, and it’s a whole lot harder to listen when you’re in a place of privilege and power. Maybe Jesus told them to go first to the “lost house of Israel” because they’d need the most convincing, because many of them already thought they were in and had it all figured out…I don’t know.
Jesus carries on with the job description: “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Now, Jesus, I don’t like to talk to folks, especially strangers, most especially about religion. Now, maybe if this proclamation came with some judgement, you know, if I can point out their shortcomings, their sins, the things they do that I don’t do, then maybe I can get behind it, but I don’t really feel comfortable doing any “proclaiming.” “Cure the sick…” N-now hang on Jesus; we’ve got hospitals and doctors for that sort of thing. If folks are sick, let them go to the doctor, and if they can’t afford it, well, I’m sure there are free clinics or payment plans, but I can’t cure them. What can I do, really? I can’t cure them; I can’t pay for their doctors and medication or change the way things are…I suppose I’ll just have to pray for them.
“Raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” Now, that’s just “Bible times talk” right there. I know good and well I can’t raise anybody from the dead, to walk out into that cemetery and call up my old friends out of the grave—I can’t do that. Could it be, though, that I have the power to give someone a reason to live, to bring them back from the dangerous precipice of self-loathing and hopelessness? Could it be, that Christ has given me the power and authority to welcome lepers back into the community, to welcome back those who’ve been ostracized, to cast out the demons in others—demons of my own creation—that have kept them from full inclusion in the family of God? Could it be that we have the power to raise the dead in just a kind word and an act of love to a stranger?
“You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.” Take nothing with you?! How in the world can a laborer be prepared for work if he doesn’t have some “walking around money?” How in the world can I feel comfortable in this long-term work if I don’t even pack a pair of clean underwear?! Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. So, not only is this work going to be hard and demanding (seemingly impossible), but I’m also going to have to do it with no provisions and my wages will be determined by those I serve? Hang on though…it doesn’t get better. Jesus goes on to describe the working conditions.
"See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves [that’s comforting!]; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say [because you will be worried…]; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death [maybe not the best passage for Father’s Day…]; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Sounds lovely. Who wants to sign up?
Is it any wonder the laborers are few? I think, if it had been me in Jesus’ place, I’d have gone about it differently. After all, if you want folks to show up, if you want folks to work, you can’t make the job sound so miserable, so thankless, so self-sacrificing. No, if you want laborers to show up, you got make the pay high and the work easy. I remember when I was in high school, our school system had a summer job program that was offered to students sixteen or older. It was easy work: you’d spend a few weeks during the summer washing, waxing, and cleaning school buses. The hardest thing about the job was being there by 6:30 in the morning, but they’d provide breakfast most mornings. You’d spend the rest of the morning, washing one, maybe two, buses under the shade of the wash bay. Then, in the afternoon, with big industrial fans blowing, a radio playing, and plenty of cold water and Gatorade, you’d spend the afternoon sweeping out a bus, wiping down the seats, waxing the hood. It was easy work, and it paid pretty well for a summer job. The work was easy, and the pay was high, so of course they’d have a line of kids a mile long wanting to sign up. That’s how it’s done; make the pay high and the work low, and they’ll show up.
You know, it makes me think of all those times, when I was younger, in rooms a lot like this one, when I’d hear some preacher shouting and hollering about hellfire and damnation, about the awful state of humanity, about how despicable and disgusting we all are and how God can’t wait to burn us all up in the black fires of hell! Oh, he’d really get to going, and then, when his face was a red as a tomato and he had sweat through his shirt, he’d say something like, “But all you need to do, friends, bow your head and close your eyes and say this little prayer with me…” That’s it! Why, I can recall those services when folks I knew to be more saint-like than the pope would come squalling and red-faced down to the steps, to the “altar.” I can remember seeing folks who had come for their annual dose of religion making their way down just to be sure they still had their ticket to ride. That’s how you get folks to sign up! The pay is high and the work is easy—“All you have to do…”
Just don’t tell them they’ll have to change, especially the ones who think they’ve been doing right for years. Just don’t tell them they’ll have to give something—everything—up. Don’t tell them that folks won’t like them. Don’t tell them that they’ll have to get involved. Don’t tell them that they have a responsibility for their neighbors, for strangers, for their enemies. Don’t tell them the God is on the side of the oppressed, marginalized, and outcast. Don’t tell them that the love of God is for everybody. Don’t tell them that they’ll actually have to live the words they claim to believe and put action to their faith. Don’t make it hard! Because if you want folks to sign up, if you want laborers for the harvest, you’ve got to make the pay high and the work easy, or they’ll never sign up…unless—unless—the Spirit of God lives in them. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Amen.
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