Sermon  - June 13, 2026

The other day I was sitting waiting for a bus on Spring Garden. A nicely dressed young man approached me and invited me to come to his church on Sunday.  

My reply was, “So nice of you to ask, but I shall be preaching in my own church on Sunday, and you are welcome to come.” A look of horror on his face, he disappeared in a hurry. 

Then there are those nice couples giving away leaflets and Watch Towers on Spring Garden and at the terminal on Barrington. They look so pleasant and inviting. Do you think they ever get fed up? 

And then there are the man and woman who come to my door and want to come in so we could have a bible study. Ha! I could invite them in, and then we would really have a bible study. 

I have never been so cruel. I just wish them God Speed. 

However, they are all following the scriptural directive. 

I am willing to admit that in the gospel writer’s enthusiasm there is some exaggeration in this passage. So, what can be done with it? 

These people enthusiastic folks whom I just mentioned read scripture selectively and literally. It doesn’t work that way. 

So, I am just going to look at the beginning, because there is so much in here, and you don’t have all day. 

Jesus hit the road and began teaching in the synagogues, which were also the meeting halls, of every town and village to which he came.  

He broadcast his message about the great news about the new path, a fresh way of being with God.  

And he had a ministry of compassion. He reached out and healed people of every kind of disease and sickness.  

He was meeting crowds of people everywhere he went, and their predicament always left him feeling very despondent.  

They were under so much stress and were so powerless to do anything about it.  

He said something like this to his followers: “The world is an orchard, groaning under a bumper crop, ripe and ready for picking; but there are hardly any workers ready to bring it in.  

So, get in touch with the celestial employment bureau, and put in an urgent request for more workers to be sent out to do the picking.” 

The first time I retired, I used to get called in to pick blueberries. I learnt a lot in the blueberry fields. First names only, and we were paid cash.  

I was tucking it away for a trip to Greece. Many were stretching out their welfare allowance. Some were children. 

Still there were not enough pickers. 

Gayle read: Then 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. 

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

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." 

Let’s just look at this compassionate Christ. 

What does Jesus see? Matthew gives us a sweeping, almost panoramic view of Jesus’ ministry: “He moves through all the cities and villages… teaching… proclaiming… curing every disease and every sickness.” 

It is a sweeping summary, but the hinge of the passage — the moment everything turns — is not what Jesus does, but what Jesus sees. It is the one detail that matters more than all the rest. 

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.” 

He saw human beings – harassed, helpless, sheep without a shepherd. The word, compassion, in Greek means — compassion that comes from the gut, the deepest place of feeling.  

This is not pity. This is not detached sympathy. It is the place where love aches. It is the heartbeat of God. 

Jesus sees: people who are harassed and being pushed around by forces they cannot control, and people who are helpless and unable to lift themselves out of their condition. They cannot imagine a better future 

These folks are like sheep without a shepherd. They are vulnerable, directionless, and unprotected. 

This is not a judgement. It is a diagnosis. And it is filled with tenderness. 

This is essential to Jesus’ very being. Compassion is not a reaction. Compassion is his nature. 

Jesus does not heal to impress. He doesn’t teach to build a following, and he doesn’t proclaim the kingdom as a strategy.  

Every miracle, every teaching, every act of healing flows from this core identity. 

Jesus does not heal to prove a point. He heals because he cannot look at human suffering and remain unmoved. 

This is the God we meet in Christ. This is a God who feels, who is moved and who acts. 

The Compassionate Christ is not sentimental. His compassion is active, muscular, costly. 

But then it takes a surprising turn. After seeing the crowds, Jesus turns to his disciples and says something unexpected: 

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” 

We might expect him to say: “The needs are overwhelming — stand back, I’ll handle it, I’ll take care of it.” Instead, he says: “The needs are overwhelming — pray for more people to join me.” 

This is the astonishing generosity of Christ: Christ shares his mission and invites participation. He calls ordinary people into extraordinary work. 

The compassion of Christ becomes the commission, the calling, of the Church.  

We are called to feel as Jesus feels, and to act as Jesus acts. Compassion must move into participation. Jesus does not say, ‘Pray for the crowds.” He says, “Pray for workers.” 

It is right after this that he sends out the disciples to the mission field. 

Jesus does not hoard his mission. He shares it. He invites ordinary people, people like us, to step into the work of healing, teaching, comforting, guiding. 

We live in a world where people are still harassed and helpless - not by the Roman occupation, but by anxiety, loneliness, economic pressures, fractured relationships and a culture that leaves people to fend for themselves. 

And then folks see or listen to the news, the state of our world, and are falling apart. They feel so helpless. Then there are those right in the news stories being bombed, killed, maimed and suffering beyond measure. 

The compassionate Christ still looks upon the crowds, He still aches. He still calls. 

The question is not whether Christ has compassion. The question is whether we shall let His compassion move through us. 

To follow Him is to learn to see as He sees; not just the surface of people’s lives but the deeper truth.  

We look beneath the surface of people’s lives and notice the exhaustion behind the smile. We recognize the fear behind the anger, and the loneliness behind the bravado 

And so, we respond not with judgement, but with tenderness. 

People are on edge with the rapid growth of fascism, the needless wars, the growth of apartheid in the mid east.  

We cannot harden ourselves, grow numb nor retreat into cynicism. The world does not need more efficiency. It needs more compassion. We are called to feel as Jesus feels. 

To follow Him is to let compassion move us to go into prayer, action, service, into being actively present and into the quiet, steady work of love. 

This is the prayer that Jesus gave us: “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers.” It is a prayer that begins in compassion and ends on participation. Because right after this Jesus sends out the disciples. 

Before Jesus sends us, He sees us. Before he calls us, He loves us. Before he asks us to carry His compassion into the world, He pours that compassion into us. 

The Compassionate Christ is not only our example – He is our source. 

Christ sees us fully, loves us deeply and sends us boldly. That is the heart of the Matthew 9:35-38. That is the heart of the church’s mission. That is the heart of God.