Readings: Exodus 19:2-8 | Romans 5:6-15 | Matthew 9:35-10:8
Text: Matthew 9:35-10:8
Three Sundays ago, we celebrated Pentecost—the day on which God sent the Holy Spirit upon the Eleven who then preached faith to three thousand souls. The purpose of the Pentecost season of the Church year is to continue in that theme of the God growing His Church. This is why the paraments are green. Also, how fitting that color is for this Sunday, in which the Lord uses two analogies for the Gospel of His Kingdom: Shepherds caring for sheep and laborers in a harvest.
Shepherds for His Sheep
It was important for the Lord Jesus to visit every city and village. He didn’t want anyone passed over, because the good news of His Kingdom was for all to hear—first Israel, then all nations. So, He made a complete sweep, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the Gospel.
Wherever He came upon these crowds, He was moved with compassion because, knowing their inner being, He saw that they were “harassed and helpless”. It was as if they had no one to care for them, like sheep without a shepherd rod to protect and staff to guide them.
His response comes from His compassion: Send them laborers, send them shepherds. He shares with His twelve disciples His authority over devil and death, and they go out not just as Jesus-devotees, but as apostles—those who are sent by the Lord with a special commission to grow and build up the Kingdom of heaven.
The teaching and preaching are not ordinary information to add onto an already full plate. The Word that they went out with had the power to bind up the broken and heal the sick. The disciples in another place confess, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
Even though we may look back on first century Palestine and marvel at how quaint and simple things seemed, but it really hasn’t changed that much from a Kingdom perspective. People today still have spiritual needs. In the modern world, we’re catechized to only think of a person from a physical or psychological point of view, and maybe to roll in spiritual inclinations under psychological or emotional.
God who created us knows that we have spirits which need to be cared for just as much (sometimes more) than our bodies and minds. So, when the Lord looks out over humanity today, His concern is not just for physical well-being—world peace, health, and happiness—it’s also for how people’s souls are doing.
Can you imagine asking that question of another person? “How’s your soul doing?” What the Lord sees is when our spirit has been neglected, wounded, or trampled. And just as easily as we give someone who asks, “How are you?” a brief and thoughtless “Good,” our spiritual self-evaluation might miss or not want to look at a serious problem.
“Harassed and helpless” is what a person becomes when they are alienated from the Kingdom of Heaven, which is manifest in the Church on earth. The Lord sees this best of all, but we can be blind or become numb to our spirit’s cry. Instead of, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1-2) we look for other things to quench our thirst for peace. Like drugs and alcohol for a wounded conscience, these substitutes only mask the symptoms and cannot truly satisfy our need.
In compassion for you and all people, the Lord Jesus continues to send shepherds for His flock: pastors. These spiritual physicians teach and preach to His Church, as they are gathered by Him into congregations (cf. John 3:3-8). The pastor’s work is described well by the German word, Seelsorge, or “soul care.” The Lord gives pastors the authority, exercised by the Church’s call, to teach, comfort, and admonish people in His Name—to tend to them when they are harassed and helpless. And how much we need this every day we live in this world with all of our fears, regrets, shame, and longing.
Soul care: When pastors or the flock lose sight of this, the results can be tragic. With a wounded soul, a person pushes away their spiritual physician and don’t want him to come knocking. Shepherds too can get so focused on growth and keeping people busy, that the Church becomes less of a hospital for sinners and more of a social club or a gym to flex your Christianity.
Yet when this shepherding task is given and received, we see Jesus’ compassionate care for us! Children of God are born again and grow in grace and the knowledge of their Lord and Savior [2 Pet. 3:18], they are bolstered to resist temptation, strong to share their faith, filled with joy at God’s continual care and direction of their lives, and eagerly awaiting the Lord’s return.
Harvest
That brings us to the other analogy Jesus uses for the growth of His Kingdom:
“37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
This is what the green color of Pentecost season reminds us of: The world is pictured as a field, as Jesus says in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matt. 13:24-30, 13:36-43). The good seed of the Word is being planted everywhere in people’s ears.
36The disciples said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matt. 13:36-43)
An abundant harvest is growing as God’s Word goes out and waters people. It’s an enormous task when you consider the scope. And if that’s not enough, the devil is always around, lying and murdering people day and night! How much we need those laborers to not only plant God’s Word, but also tend the young plants, fertilize them, watch for signs of blight, and get them ready for harvest time. But what the Lord actually calls us to in terms of labor is right in front of us.
The analogy of the field is useful for us consider. This planting and growth don’t happen in a single season. It happens over generations, centuries, and even millennia. What we see today as stunted growth or a withering to nothing, the Lord may rebound in the future. That’s how we are taught to see the Kingdom—as God’s long-range, eternal harvest which will most certainly be made ready when the angels gather His sheaves into His barn.
Yet, for now, what the Lord would have us do is pray to Him about this and gladly labor where He has placed us here in Lebanon in 2026. It’s not enough to throw money at the problem of the struggles of the Church or the falling away we see. We need to focus our efforts less on a silver bullet that will supposedly turn everything around, and pray for Jesus to continue in our day what He has done in generations past. How did our parents and grandparents get nurtured in the faith? How will our children be tended and produce fruit? The harvest is plentiful because there are droves of people who need to have God’s Word planted in them, have it watered, and have God produce the growth (1 Cor. 3:6). The Lord of the Harvest Himself commands us to pray to Him, trusting that He will answer the Church’s plea and continue His saving work in the world.
These pictures of shepherding His flock and praying for laborers give us a picture of what the Church is really for. It’s not an optional or antiquated addition to “real life,” but the only place in this dying world where men and women have hope and the proclamation of eternal life.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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