Worship

Yr A – Pentecost 3                     June 14, 2026
Matthew 9:35-10:8                     Pastor Wolfe

Jesus moves us to ministry

The task before Jesus was daunting. After years of living in relative obscurity as the son of Mary and Joseph, now he was going public. Jesus had called his disciples away from their fishing boats and tax collecting booths. He had been baptized. By this time he had changed water into wine, preached his Sermon on the Mount, and calmed the storm. But he wasn’t resting on his accomplishments. The first verse of our text tells us “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” And for this moment in time, the people loved him. Whole crowds of people were drawn to him to see the spectacle and hear his words. Some came just for the show. Others out of curiosity. Some for their own personal gain. But some came because they knew what God had promised, and what the rumors of a Messiah arrived would mean.

Jesus looks out over these crowds of people and he sees them. Like sheep without a shepherd to guide and protect them, the people were lost, for a thousand different reasons in a thousand different hurts. In verse 36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them.” We’ve talked about that Greek word before: splangnidzw – That deeply felt, moving love that reacts to someone in need with an almost physical felling in your stomach. Jesus’ heart broke for them, and again and again in the Gospels we see him setting aside his needs to take care of the hurt and the lost around him.

That compassion for the lost would take Jesus to the furthest degree. It wasn’t enough just to heal their diseases and proclaim the good news of the kingdom. As Jesus looked out at the crowds he didn’t just see people who were hurting and sick – he saw people who were lost and didn’t even know it. People who were alive, but already dead. John 3:16 might be Jesus’ most famous words, “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But do you the words Jesus said just after that in verse 18? “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.”

Jesus already knew what he would do for each of those lost sinners. He would carry their sins to the cross. He would take their punishment for them. Stricken, smitten, afflicted not for his own benefit, but for theirs. For ours. Jesus knew their sins would be paid for, but he also knew that only those who believe and trust in that truth would receive the benefit of his work. His ministry of compassion wouldn’t fail, but it would be up to others to bring that compassion to them.

In one of his greatest teaching moments, Jesus teaches his disciples how God often answers prayers. First, he states the obvious. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” True enough. As we look out at the crowd of unbelieving billions that share the world with us, I hope we are moved the same way Jesus was. Apart from the One who is the only Way to the Father, they are lost. Not just hurting, not just lonely. “Condemned already,” Jesus said. Your neighbor, that nice young man who shovels your driveway – he’s condemned already if he doesn’t know Jesus. The coworker who shares all your inside jokes – they have no hope for heaven if they don’t know that Jesus is the One who prepares a place for them. No, we look around and we see that the lost who are loved by God are plentiful. And there aren’t nearly enough pastors and teachers to get to them all.

So what are we to do as we look at the crowds of the lost? Jesus told his disciples to pray. “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” This is perhaps the step we always forget. I love being a Lutheran. We teach God’s law and gospel, we hold Jesus up in front of people in a purer way that any other church I’ve ever known or studied. But you know what we don’t do well? We don’t pray quickly enough. Or often enough. How many times have you told someone, “I’ll pray for you” when you could have said “can we pray right now”? Why do we wait and forget to use this direct access to the God of the universe?

So as we think of the lost, let’s pray for workers. Perhaps you know about the shortage we have of pastors and teachers. Maybe you know what an unusual time it is in our church body, when we have funding and opportunities to send missionaries out to start new churches, but we just don’t have the people. Did you know our little WELS church body has just under 350,000 members, but that our missions worldwide serve over 300,000 people with the Gospel? The fields are ripe. The harvest is plentiful. And we need to pray for more workers. Pray that God leads our young people into full-time public ministry. Pray that God would open our eyes to the countless souls around us and move us to support that ministry with our gifts and prayers. Just like Jesus taught the Twelve to do here.

But there’s something interesting about this teaching moment from Jesus. You see, he taught his disciples to see the need for ministry and outreach. He taught them to pray for more workers. And then what did he do? He sent them!

There’s a reason the Spirit inspired Matthew to record the list of the disciples’ names right after their prayer. Jesus was teaching them, teaching us, that we are a part of the answer to our own prayer! We are the workers we pray for. First Jesus moves us to ministry by opening our eyes to the reality of the lost around us. And now he moves us by reminding us of the purpose and power we have in him.

Brothers and sisters in faith, you must realize your part in God’s plan. We don’t work to save ourselves – that’s already done by Jesus and there’s nothing left to do – we have a home in heaven by grace alone. But we work, and work hard, for others. Out of the billions of people in this world, you have been given faith and light. But not to hide it under a bushel, as the old song goes. We are ambassadors of Christ. We, (you!) are the answer to Jesus’ prayer for more workers. We are the ones today who proclaim the good news, comfort the lonely, share with the poor, help the sick. As the last verse ends, “Freely you have received; freely give.” That’s the heart of our own hope for heaven –saved by the undeserved love and sacrifice of Jesus.

I wonder if perhaps you thought when you first saw the theme of this sermon that I would be talking about the need for pastors and teachers for ministry. And it’s true, we need them. I love what I do (most of the time) and I pray God leads more people to do it too. But ministry isn’t what pastors do. It’s what Christians do. That word just means “serve.” And my prayer is that you realize how Jesus is moving you into serving him. There’s an urgency to this. You know I grew up on a farm. When the harvest is ready everything else falls to second place. Doesn’t matter if the tractor needs an oil change or the barn roof sprang a leak. The harvest is what matters.

Fellow ministers of Jesus, God’s harvest of souls is ready, and we don’t have time to wait. Every day, someone we know, maybe someone we care about deeply, runs out of time. So hear Jesus today and get up. You don’t have to know everything about the Bible. You don’t have to know much at all. Just give them the reason for the hope you have. Just invite them to church. To VBS. To bible study. To your home. Part of every ministry is watching for the lost, and speaking with compassion when God puts them in our path. My best outreach conversations in the past two months happened outside Office Depot and in the liquor store. (It was for communion people.) You can do that too, I promise. And people will be not only blessed, but saved for eternity through the work we do.

Members of Salem, believers in Jesus, it’s time to get to work. It’s time to invite. It’s time to speak. It’s time to serve. It’s time to love the way Christ loved us. To go to others the way he came to us. The day is here to work right now, but the night is coming when we can’t work anymore.

So let me offer you an encouragement this week. There are approximately 6 billion lost souls out there that Jesus died for. You have the message that can save them. Pick one. Any one. First, simply show them love. Invite them to dinner. Strike up a conversation. Give a word of encouragement. And then, show them Jesus. Share your hope for heaven and let them know that He’s their hope too. Jesus moves us to this ministry. I can’t wait to see where he’s taking us. To God be the glory. Amen.