September 13, 2009
Matthew 9:35-38
Pastor Curt Dwyer, St. John’s Lutheran Church, Lafe AR

Grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear Friends,

  I took the kids to the fair yesterday. We rode the rides, walked through the displays in the commercial building, looked at every animal in the barn, even listened to a country band play cover one of my favorite blues songs. All in under 4 hours.

  It was armband day, which meant that it was very crowded. From the time we got there until just before we left, there were lines for every ride and people crowded around everywhere trying to get through to the next ride. Kids were screaming at parents about wanting to go here or there. Groups of older kids and teenagers were moving around talking, daring each other to go on this ride or that ride. As I looked around, there were people of every socio-economic level there. There were the relatively well-to-do. And there were people who were probably spending money they didn’t really have to spend. People in nice, clean clothes, and people in clothes that didn’t look like they had been washed in the past year. It was quite a sight.

  It reminded me of the lesson today. Jesus traveled around, and everywhere he went, crowds came up to see him. I imagine the crowds would have looked something like the crowd I saw at the fair yesterday; a little of everything. With money, without money; well adjusted and dysfunctional; employed and unemployed; educated and uneducated; young, old and everything else. But for all their differences, they all had one thing in common; Jesus had compassion for them all.

  The word “compassion” is an interesting word. In English, it means to ‘feel with’ someone. The greek root is even more interesting. The root word has to do with ‘guts.’ The Greek word for compassion gives us the vision of someone’s guts being wrenched because of their emotional reaction to something. Have you ever had that happen to you? You feel so overwhelmed with emotion that it feels like your innards are getting all twisted up? That’s what compassion means in Greek.

  Now, as I looked at that crowd yesterday, I have to admit, I didn’t feel much compassion. I confess that I have a nasty, prejudicial side. Too many tattoos, too many scraggly looking beards, too many people who badly needed a fresh shirt and a little deodorant. But, even the so-called ‘respectable’ people didn’t get much respect from me, either. The nice-looking couple with the kid throwing a fit obviously needed a parenting lesson. Another lady was simply too self-absorbed to talk to me, even though our kids go to school together. There were others…

  But aren’t we all this way, to an extent? There are always people for whom we have no compassion. It’s our broken nature to be this way. It’s ugly, but we all do it. Lucky for us, that isn’t the way Christ looks as the world. He sees the same crowds we do, and his guts are wrenched out of concern for them. And remember, when he looks at those same crowds that we look at, he sees us in that crowd. We are some of the ones on which he has compassion. We really aren’t very different from the rest of the crowd.

  I also spent a little time reading to Ian’s class last Friday. The teacher picked out a book for me to read that talked about how, even though people around the world are a lot different, we all have lots of things in common. We may speak different languages, eat different food, live in different styles of houses and all that, but we all love our families the same, we all bleed when we fall and skin our knees, we all need food and rest and friends to thrive.

  And to bring the point of that book back to our lesson today, for all of the differences we have, we have some things in common. We are all harassed and helpless, shepherd-less sheep. And Jesus has compassion on us all. During his ministry, Jesus spent nearly all of his time teaching and preaching and healing and caring for people. The compassion he felt compelled him to reach out to those harassed and helpless people. When He saw someone in need, he was compelled to address that need; he healed the sick, he gave respect to the outcast, he spoke forgiveness to the sinners. And that compassion he felt also compelled him to do two more things. First and foremost, it compelled him to give up his life on the cross. He surrendered himself to the punishment due to each one of those people in each one of those crowds, including the crowd here today. Though he was innocent, he became guilty, taking our place and setting us free. Sin unites humanity, and separates us from God. Jesus removed that sin from us and carried it to the cross, allowing us again to be united with God. That is the first thing he did.

  And the second thing he did was to send out “laborers into the harvest.” First, Christ’s compassion compelled him to fix our basic and fundamental flaw. And, second, it also compelled him to make sure that His compassion would be spread from that lonely hill in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

  In our lesson today, Jesus simply asks for the disciples to pray for workers. Nothing else. Just prayer. Of course, if you continue reading in Matthew’s gospel you discover that in the next chapter, Jesus calls the 12 to him and sends them out for a little on-the-job training in having compassion on the harassed and helpless, shepherd-less sheep. They were sent to carry the message of Christ’s compassion to a larger audience. A few months later, after His death and resurrection, that initial commission was expanded from the 12 to all followers of Christ. He gave the command to the whole church to make disciples, by baptizing and teaching.

  Christ looks at the crowds in this world, and his guts are wrenched when he sees the despair, the confusion, the sin and the heartache that fills so many people, including this congregation. He wants this world to know that His love will conquer and has conquered all this sin. He wants us to know his love, and he wants that crowd at the fair to know about his love. All he needs now are workers willing to show a little compassion to others, just as they have been shown compassion.

  The knowledge of our common sin removes any excuse for prejudice or judgment on our part as we look at the crowd. Instead, the understanding we have of sin and the love of Christ for all people renews our hearts to feel compassion for all people, no matter how different they might be from us.

  And that compassion moves us to do two things. First, we pray, just as Jesus asked those disciples that day. We pray for compassionate workers willing to share the love of Christ. And second, we take a good, hard look around at the crowds. Who knows?

You might just be the laborer we are praying for.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.