One of my favorite tales from Aesop’s fables is “The North Wind and the Sun.” The story goes: “The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak. ‘Let us agree,’ said the Sun, ‘that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak.’ ‘Very well,’ growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.” The wind, however, fails. His cold blasts of air only cause the man to hug his coat even more. The sun, on the other hand, with his gentle, warm beams encourages the traveler to relax, to take off his coat and lie down. This story has always stayed with me. It’s an incredible reminder of the power of gentleness and warmth in our treatment of people, and I believe this is at the heart of Jesus’ call to missions in the Bible as well.
In Matthew 9:35-38, Jesus offers a training manual to his disciples as they embark on the beginning of their life on mission. He is about to send them into the surrounding towns and territories to proclaim that “the kingdom of heaven is near,” to heal the sick and raise the dead (10:6-8). To equip and prepare the disciples, Jesus gives three simple, yet profound lessons on the fundamentals to a life on mission: compassion, prayer and renewal.
Compassion
The setting of our passage is the region of Galilee. As we have seen in the Gospel of John, even so in the other gospels, Jesus travels from city to city, village to village, preaching the kingdom of God and embodying the kingdom of God. In one instance, Jesus sees a crowd and “he has compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (v. 36). Jesus knew that these people have been abandoned by religious and political leaders of the day. The religious leaders are not concerned about their spiritual health, only their own status and reputation. They’ve abandoned their religious duty, leaving the crowds lost, like sheep without a shepherd.
The sad reality is that not much has changed since then. People are still harassed and helpless today, especially the poor, the needy and the sick. They are certainly abandoned by our political leaders, and often by our religious leaders as well. Certainly, there are pastors and churches doing faithful kingdom work, but there are also a lot of churches that preach an incomplete gospel, and at worst a false gospel. From Jehovah’s witnesses to churches who preach a ruthless, prosperity gospel, people are in danger of being led astray. Not to mention those who are held captive by the god of pleasure and consumerism or those who are oppressed by racism and injustice.
Jesus surely looks upon our communities today with great compassion. He sees our neighbors here as sheep without a shepherd. They are lost and are unable to rescue themselves. If we want to go out in gospel proclamation, like Christ, we must first look upon our communities with great compassion as he did. Our posture should not be one of condemnation and pride, but rather compassion fueled by love.
Prayer
Not only are the lost helpless and harassed, but there is a sheer vastness to their numbers. In verse 37, Jesus tells his disciples that there are many people in Galilee ready to respond to God’s gospel, but there are very few people going to them. He says, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” This is an incredible, yet daunting reality. The great disparity between the workers and the harvest can be overwhelming for many of us. Where do we even start? How do we reach so many people? What if we fail? These are questions that I’ve heard people voice time and time again. They are real concerns, and Jesus has an assuring response for us.
Jesus urges His disciples to pray. Before we even begin the work of missions, we must pray to the Father that the Father raise and send laborers to gather this harvest. In other words, the disciples are to ask God the Father to send out people who will proclaim the gospel to the people and disciple them. But it begins with prayer. With this great need at hand, the disciples must pray.
Brothers and sisters, you don’t need me to say that the harvest is plentiful in your city, town or suburb. We know it! The harvest is so plentiful here. But the problem is that there are few laborers. In fact, there are few laborers around the entire city. Either, most Christians do not see themselves as harvesters or they don’t want to do the hard work of harvesting. This is also a sad reality.
But the harvest is plentiful. That comes from the mouth of Jesus and, in light of this, let us pray that God gets Christians off their sofas and into the field to harvest. Let us plead with God to send laborers throughout our neighborhood, our workplace, our city, and our nation. As a church, we should pray that God would raise more laborers for our church. We should pray that God sends likeminded folks who will join our efforts.
Renewal
Finally, the goal of missions is not simply to tally names on a growing checklist of conversions. Living a life on mission is far more than just preaching the gospel. I’ve seen many instances of the good news being preached and people becoming saved, only to feel abandoned and with no community to get plugged into; in instances like this, these new believers usually fall to the wayside and their faith grows dim. Jesus recognizes that danger. This is why he paints the big picture of missions as this: we are here to harvest and bring people into God’s kingdom.
In Matthew 10:1-4, Jesus reconstitutes the people of God. Verse 1 states: “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” The act of gathering the 12 together and sending them out is a clear picture of missions and its purpose of renewal. Jesus is starting afresh. This becomes apparent when we see the analogy to the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus intentionally selects twelve apostles who would serve as the representative heads of the church. Just as there were twelve tribes who represented God’s people under the old covenant, these twelve apostles represent God’s people under the new covenant.
I bring this up to highlight a major difference between the new community of God versus the old. Under the new covenant, God’s people are commanded to go out and harvest, whereas under the old covenant, Israel stayed put. Since we are under the new covenant, by our very nature, we are defined by our sent-ness. The church is defined as a people sent out. That is what we are! But let our life of missions be defined by three things: compassion, prayer and renewal.
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