The Fields are White to Harvest

Matthew 9:35-38 The Workers Are Few

35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

In this short passage from Matthews’s gospel we see how Jesus worked, what Jesus saw as he looked upon the crowds he ministered to and what motivated him.
1. how Jesus worked
2. what Jesus saw
3. what motivated him
My main interest this morning is the last of these; Jesus motivation that is, his compassion, but the three aspects are linked so we will deal briefly with each of them.
Matthew in his gospel summarises Jesus ministry three times to reinforce that Jesus had a threefold methodology. The main aspects were, teaching, preaching and healing. These tools of the trade were the way that Jesus showed the compassion of God.
Preaching or proclaiming the kingdom of God was the activity that involved declaring in a straightforward way the central tenets of the faith, while teaching involved explaining how those tenets worked out in everyday life. The ministry of healing was the practical outworking of the kingdom.
In other words Jesus would say here is the truth (proclamation) let me explain it to you (teaching) and let me show you what it looks like (Healing) Mind you it wasn’t always done in that order and Jesus actually spends more time on healing and comforting the sorrowing - that is in living out his faith - than he does in proclaiming and teaching. It is often the healing that comes first and leads onto teaching and proclamation.
Jesus methodology was holistic in that it appealed to the head the heart and the body. Proclamation appeals mainly to our emotions our values and our commitments. Proclamation is about presenting a vision. It is to our heart that proclamation appeals. Jesus vision of the kingdom of God is proclaimed with passion and Jesus audience feels a stirring within. Visionary leaders have the ability to make us believe that their vision is achievable and that it is worth committing to, that it represents a set of values that we can aspire to. Proclamation calls on us to give of our best for a higher cause. And no cause could be more worthy or higher than the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims.
Teaching appeals mainly to our head. Through teaching the vision is consolidated and it nuances explored and explained. Teaching set outs the pathway to follow so that the vision may be attained.
And the practical ministry of healing if we see healing as much more than the curing of physical ailments but mending of all that is broken and twisted in our world, healing is the pathway; healing is the steps that we take to reach the vision to see the kingdom of God established.
It has been said many times throughout history that we stand at a cross roads, and that certainly applies today. The decisions that we as individuals and communities and nations will make over the next few years will have enormous consequences for decades and centuries to come.
We stand at a cross road, yet there is no sign at the cross road. Or perhaps there are so many signs at the cross road that we don’t know which one to follow. Or maybe there is an ancient sign at the cross roads engraved in stoned covered in lichen and hid behind billboards and neon. The old sign reads Kingdom of God this way. And the path it points to is a difficult and narrow way, where each paving stone is an act of love, a deed of mercy, an undertaking of compassion.
The ancient sign that so few look upon today points clearly to a new city coming down from heaven, a new way of being, a new way of living together and serving one another. The sign is there for those who care to look. The road is there for those with courage to travel and the destination is sure for those who stick to the narrow way. I hope that your experience of church is one in which you see past the clever billboards and the flashy neons to look at the ancient sign sealed with blood of many saints and martyrs and of the son of God himself who first placed it there.
Let’s look now at little more closely at Jesus who is the sign, wh declares the truth, who, shows the way and demonstrates the life of compassion. I want us to look at what he saw on the day these remarks refer to.
1. He saw the crowds
2. He saw they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd
3. He saw a harvest
The crowds were drawn to Jesus because of the clear way he demonstrated the way the truth and the life. The religion leaders around about the crowd were squabbling over the best way to repress and oppress the people, placing impossible burdens on them. The various sects offered their own variety of religious burden so there was choice in the market place but it was Murphy’s choice for none were offering life, nor hope. The people were desperate, helpless and longing for a voice that would show a better way. They found that in Jesus, they saw that in Jesus they hung out with Jesus to learn more.
At the same time as seeing the crowd as lost and helpless Jesus also saw them as having enormous value and potential. Jesus saw a plentiful harvest. A plentiful harvest was a cause for much joy, and hope and promise. For it meant that famine could be avoided for a few more years. A plentiful harvest promised full bellies, healthy children, grain to sell and plant again. The harvest hadn’t been devastated by draught, or overtaken by weeds or plundered by raiders – things were looking good. This is what Jesus sees as he looks upon the human harvest before him – people of great potential, people with promise and possibility. Jesus didn’t see weeds that needed to pulled, he didn’t see chaff that needed to be burned he saw a harvest. He saw people who with some encouragement could be as it were harvested and thereby begin to realise their potential.
And how do people realise their potential, they need to be directed to the ancient sign behind the neons, beyond the billboard that points to the Kingdom of God and the way of compassion.
And so we come to Jesus motivation. Several times in the gospel a word is used which literally means to be deeply moved in the bowels. That is to feel something with great intensity. Jesus feels compassion for his lost sheep with a great intensity – for here are all of these people who are helpless and harassed again two words in the Greek which are very strong and evocative. The people are like drunkards falling prostrate on the ground, they are like the victims of a violent crime lying ravaged and bewildered.

Life can be like that at times for us as well as for others. When there is no clear proclamation, and no sound teaching, when the gospel is not being demonstrated with acts of compassion it is hard to see the way. When the billboards and neons promise much but deliver little we feel let down and wonder really what life is all about.
Seeing people harassed and helpless like that moves Jesus deeply – he is filled with compassion for all that he made and longs that all people come to experience life in all its fullness. As Jesus looks around he see so much potential so many people with so much promise; but they are hurting, they are disadvantaged, they’re blind to their own need, they’re so caught up in running the rat race or keeping their head above water that they can’t stop to see the ancient sign pointing to the way of life.
The harvest is plentiful. Each human being has enormous potential for good. Everyone can make a difference in their own sphere. Each and everyone one of us, each and every person we meet, each and every person that draws breath not only has a great need to be shown compassion but have an enormous ability to act with compassion once they have been set free to do so.
The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.
There are a few people doing fantastic work in helping others to come to believe, believe in God, believe in themselves, and believe in the way of compassion.
Jesus is so concerned about this that he asks us to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out workers of compassion. And this we must do if we have any compassion within us. Yet this prayer can only be prayed to the extent that we offer ourselves as labourers in the harvest. And so I finish with a prayer and invite you to still your hearts and pray with me.
By your grace O Lord we have stumbled upon the ancient sign and seen the road of life where each footstep is a deed of compassion. We see the need around us people harassed and helpless doing their best yet making no headway. We see people striving after the neons and billboards and finding nought but illusion and disappointment.
We confess O God that our eyes are dim our feet are tired and our hearts fail. We are weary and we wonder what difference we can make. Move us deeply that we may feel your compassion, your longing and your hope. May we feel it for ourselves and for those around us. And as we see the need before us help us also to see on the road ahead the promise of a kingdom, where you reign and all things shall be well.
Give us confidence in you, in the life we have discovered in you, in the way you lead us and the truth you reveal to us. May we answer your compassions claim, learn to see you in the least of all, and find you within and without as we walk in humility with mercy and grace.