Rev’d Peter Balabanski

Pentecost + 3A –  Mt 9.35 – 10.10

Mt 9.³⁵ … Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.

Who was your favourite teacher at school? The good ones teach by example, don’t they. And then there are the creative ones who teach with stories and through our five senses. But the teachers who make the most profound impact are the ones who are genuinely interested in you. You cherish any teacher with just one of these qualities. But a teacher who combines all three qualities will have every student eating out of their hand; prepared to follow their teacher into any adventure.

Today as we begin to read Matthew’s Mission Discourse, Jesus’ disciples, and we, are under the spell of just such a teacher. The Mission Discourse begins with the Rabbi Jesus going out on mission. His ministry is one of teaching and healing. And once he’s done it himself – shown his disciples what to do – he sends them out on mission. Jesus teaches by example. We also know he teaches through creativity. He is the teller of parables which have set the hearts on fire ever since, giving new life with every reading. He is also the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, whose words, ever since, have launched movements all over the world striving for justice, for mercy and for liberation. This is the world-transforming mission he sends us out on: a mission to the whole person; a mission to the whole world.

What was his motivation for this? He gave his life to this mission. In chapter 9.³⁶, we read that Jesus saw the crowds, [and] had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Compassion strives for justice, for mercy and for liberation. It’s a demanding emotion. Little has changed for the harassed and helpless since. Nor for shepherds. Leaders inspired by Jesus leaders who show real care for oppressed people these days – are often simultaneously nominees for a Nobel Prize, and targets for assassins’ bullets.

Compassion wells up in Jesus; loving-kindness that’s committed to creating new lives in people through protective judgement of their oppressors, and through healing and new birth for the oppressed. Jesus’ life and teaching speak both to the oppressors and to their victim-survivors’ suffering; physical, mental and emotional; to their fear, poverty, powerlessness and alienation. Jesus is beside the oppressed in all of these. His life, the stories he tells, how he pays for his mission with his life – his utter commitment to the harassed and helpless are all utterly authentic. Because he knows the pain himself, Jesus speaks with authority. He tells stories that name the harassment, exposing it to the light of day and challenging perpetrators.

Jesus is utterly committed to people being granted the freedom that is everyone’s birthright. Often his healings are accompanied with words about release from bondage; about restoration of belonging. And there’s another element to this; grace. Remember how he tells his disciples: ⁷ As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. In Jesus’ economy – grace economy – there’s no such thing as user pays. The highest values are not power or wealth, but service; not certainty and control, but hope and trust. Service, hope and trust are the good gifts of our gracious God – and our need for them isn’t subject to a means test. Everyone needs them, and in God’s economy, need is the only qualification required for them to be freely received.

So why doesn’t everyone have them? If we look round the world at the distribution of God’s material provision for us, there isn’t much equity. Some have more than they could ever use, while most remain in need. Imagine if that distorted God’s spiritual provision for us too? What if the Church of God were a selfish spiritual hoarder? There’s a saying in today’s gospel that makes me think this might have even been a problem in Matthew’s community. It’s the sentence we started our worship with today; ³⁷ [Jesus] he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; ³⁸ ask therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” ‘Ask God to send labourers’ – why is that there? Some people find they’ve volunteered for things because everyone else has taken two steps back. Was Jesus already preparing his disciples to face that difficulty – finding willing missionaries? Ask God to send labourers – How do we hear that? As our prayer for someone else to do the job, or as Jesus’ call to us?

Nothing is different today about the human condition. The cleansing, freeing, renewing power of Jesus has never been more needed. Our world is one where the harassment of the vulnerable is shockingly widespread, and the helplessness of the poor, and vulnerability of nature are used for profit and power. Spiritual bondage is born of the worsening isolation and bewilderment this sort of society breeds.

That’s why it’s appropriate that there are words of judgement in what we hear today. Of course there would be from the teacher who categorically rules out user-pays ethics, who treasures the vulnerable and threatens the powerful of every age. Jesus called his disciples to mission with these words: The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; ³⁸ therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. What’s our response? It must be to proclaim God’s grace, and to offer healing that wins people their freedom?  Amen