Matthew 9:36–38

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

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."

Elections are coming up in our country when we will once again have the opportunity to choose leaders who will guide our nation through the challenges of the next few years. We, as a society are asking who can best lead us. Today more than ever before we feel like there is really no one we can look to for leadership. With so much uncertainty in the economy, uncertainty about defense and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, housing foreclosures, worries about global warming, rising fuel costs, nuclear holocaust, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and the like many people feel as if everything is falling apart and there is no one to look to for help. It doesn't seem like Washington is able to lead us out of the quagmire the country is in. The Congress surely isn't doing it. Business and economic leaders seem to be more interested in profits than our needs. Our society is falling apart at the seams, and today's philosophers are even more confused than we are becoming fountains of foolishness instead of giving us the wisdom and guidance we need.

This does not just apply to society in general, but to our personal lives as well. Often our lives are in disarray. We stumble through life without direction. Our relationships are in shambles; our children are making all the wrong decisions in life as they wander off on their own into the darkness. We feel like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall and there isn't anyone to put us back together again.

Well, there's nothing new under the sun. The people in Jesus' day were in just as big a mess as we are today. Their spiritual leaders sure weren't leading them. The Pharisees had just accused Jesus of casting out demons by the prince of demons. They had no clue about the Son of God or who the Messiah was and were leading the people in the complete opposite direction away from God. The Pharisees are who Jesus had in mind when he saw the crowds and said, "They are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Their very shepherds, their spiritual leaders, were harassing them and abusing them. The Greek words used here in the original text literally mean to "trouble, annoy, mangle, toss around, throw down and hurl about." That's pretty descriptive language Jesus was using to describe their spiritual leadership.

But Jesus was also talking about something else. The people were like sheep without a shepherd because of their own sinful human nature. Sinful humans do not even want a shepherd, or at least they don't want God to be their shepherd. We want to live life our own way, and we are superb at messing things up. True Shepherds lead their flock to green pastures and still waters for them to eat and drink. But stubborn, sinful man wants to choose his own pastures and waters. Instead of dining on the verdant pastures of God's word, we want a fast-food diet of affluence, self-indulgence, and material possessions. Instead of drinking from the still waters of the Gospel, we want to drink from the turbulent waters of lust, passion, pleasure and entertainment. We look for shepherds who will promise us material blessings and success in this life. We look for shepherds who motivate us, build our self esteem, and entertain us. We want shepherds who tell us what we want to hear and tell us that it's OK to lead our self-indulgent lives even though such lives end in tragedy, disappointment, and failure. Failed lives result from choosing shepherds who in reality "trouble, annoy, mangle, toss around, throw down and hurl us about."

In our stubborn, sinful flesh we refuse to follow a shepherd who would lead us to spiritual food and drink and nourish our souls. When that shepherd calls we close our ears. When that shepherd gives us grass we look for weeds. When he leads us to streams of clear water we run to get drunk on polluted rivers. When he offers to teach us the Word of God we close their ears and run away. When he offers us love and forgiveness from God we squalor in hatred and blame. The Lord is our Shepherd who gives us green pastures and still waters. These pastures and waters are his Word, but instead of immersing our lives in his Word, often, when we have the opportunity to hear and learn his word we close our ears or go the other way.

We are stubborn, wandering sheep. "All we like sheep have gone astray," says the prophet Isaiah. But there is a big surprise in our text this morning: It says that, "when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them." Compassion! God has compassion on us? Wandering sheep who don't even want him to be our shepherd? Stubborn sheep who prefer a greasy hamburger and fries and soda to the extravagant banquet and sweet wine he offers us? We are rebellious sheep who spurn his love and goodness. What kind of a God is he? Why doesn't he annihilate us? Why doesn't he trouble and annoy us, mangle us and toss us around? Why doesn't he throw us down and hurl us about? After all that's what we really deserve. But instead he is a God of compassion and love. He is a God who loves us so much that he became a human being just like us and entered into our world in order to lead us out of the messed up, twisted, mangled lives that we have made for ourselves. He is a God who forgives us for spurning him, rejecting his love, and hating him. He loves us so much that when he made himself a man and we persecuted him, scorned him, and murdered him on a cross he forgave us for it.

That is the kind of God we have. A God who is pure love. A God who sees a lost, sinful mankind and who absorbs our sin and guilt into his own being and gives us his perfect holiness in exchange. A God who poured out his blood and sacrificed himself to save our lives. He is the God who when he saw the crowds and masses of ruined lives, lost hopes, and dreams that will never come true had compassion on us. But he didn't just have compassion like some friend or counselor who "feels our pain." He did something about it. He gave us the solution. He solved our problem and that solution was his own death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. By his death on the cross he forgave our rebellion and by his resurrection to life he gives us a new life, eternal life, hope, and promise that our suffering and sorrow will come to an end and we will live on forever in glory, peace and joy.

In baptism he makes us his sheep and he becomes our shepherd. He forgives our sin and leads us to green pastures and quiet waters. In fact he himself is the pasture and the quiet water. He is the bread of life. He is the living water. He is the bread we eat and the water we drink. He nourishes not our body, but our souls and gives us eternal life and peace. In his Supper we eat his body and drink his blood which are true food and drink because they not only give us life, they give us eternal life.

Jesus dwells with us that we may feed on him as he leads us to life. He is present with us in his Word and by his word he gathers us like a harvest into his barn—his eternal kingdom. However, apart from his word he is not to be found and there is no eternal life. But by his word he seeks us, lost sinners, and by his word he washes us of our sins and gathers us into his kingdom. The huddled masses of lost, wandering, sinful humanity are like a great field of wheat that is ready for the harvest, ready to be reaped, picked from the field of this world and brought into the kingdom of God.

But as Jesus looks on this great field ripe for harvest, he has compassion on us and asks us to pray that the Lord of the harvest send workers into the fields to bring in the crop. The disciples who heard him say this did pray to have workers sent into the harvest, and so God did send them. Immediately after this text, and in our Gospel reading this morning, we hear that Jesus appointed his twelve apostles and sent them on a missionary journey. That was him answering the very prayer he had told them to pray.

By sending workers into the fields to harvest the crop, Jesus is extending himself through them into the harvest. Jesus himself, through those he sends, is bringing in the sheaves of the harvest, gathering the masses of lost, sinful humanity into his kingdom of peace and life forever.

Jesus himself goes into and is present in the world through us, the church, because he has entrusted us with his Gospel message; his word and sacraments. He sends us, you and me, into the harvest to evangelize and make disciples by baptizing and teaching his word to people of all nations. For as we, the workers he sends, proclaim his word he himself is present. He himself gathers the lost sheep into his flock and becomes their shepherd. As we look out the windows into the world, what we see is a lost humanity. We see masses of lost people, confused and wandering around looking for someone to guide them out of the quagmire they have created for themselves and the mess they have made of their lives. We, the church, are the workers that Jesus has sends into the fields. We offer them the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, through his word and sacrament, who gave his life for them. We have the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who leads them to green pastures and still waters, and who is himself food and drink for their souls. He is the Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep and bandages up their wounds and carries them back to his fold.

And all this he does through us, his church, as we support the work of the church with our gifts and offerings; as we ordain pastors, send missionaries, commission teachers and evangelists and as each one of us speaks the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our neighborhood and community it is Jesus who is present through our words. Through us Jesus leads them out of the dessert they have created of their lives and into the green pastures. Through our speaking the Gospel of Christ, Jesus himself is coming to them to fix up their lives and offer the solution that leads to true life. We are the workers he sends into the harvest. It is Jesus working through us who gathers the harvest into the barns of eternal life and glory in his kingdom forever.

Amen.