“When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.” Jesus had compassion. The biblical Greek is more graphic: the original language basically says that Jesus’ guts went out to them. In other words, Jesus’ compassion was gut wrenching. And this was in response to the crowd’s helplessness, that they were harassed, that they did not have a care-taking leader, a shepherd, to keep them safe.
Feeling harassed captures much of the mood of our day and age, isn’t that true? ICE agents harass immigrants and those coming to their aid. Trans people are being harassed. We are harassed by sales calls and scammers. We feel harassed by health insurance companies and medical bureaucracies. Sometimes those near and dear to us harass us, abuse us. Then there are the harassing voices inside of ourselves that tell us that we’re not good enough. You can fill in your own blanks about how you and others you care for might feel harassed today.
And like the crowds in Jesus’ day, we can also feel helpless. We feel helpless in the face of forces beyond our control – government regulations and bureaucracies, multinational corporations, impersonal technologies, algorithms that shape what we pay attention to. Health and family circumstances over which we have little or no control. Again, you can create your own list of how you and those dear to you feel helpless these days.
And then we in our nation today can feel that we are without shepherds, without leaders, to keep us safe. Where are the adults in the room who will lead with integrity in promoting the well-being and common good of all?
In the face of this in his own day and in the face of our circumstances today, Jesus had compassion and still has compassion. But Jesus didn’t stop with his gut-wrenching, merciful feelings. No. His compassion moved him to action, moved him to lead as the Good Shepherd and to cure every disease and every sickness. And all of this while also teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God where God’s reign is closely tied to healing and well-being. When what is preached is in fact practiced, God’s kingdom indeed comes near.
And Jesus didn’t stop with himself. Observing that “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” Jesus then “summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and sickness.”
And by extension through the centuries, Jesus summons us as well in a manner akin to how the Lord summoned the people of Israel as we heard in today’s first reading: “You shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples… You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” And God chooses people not for privilege but for sacrifice and service. God’s holy ones are called to make a difference in the world.
And just as Jesus’ disciples had names – Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, Thaddeus, Judas – so, too, does Jesus call us by name to do what he and his first disciples did: to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of heaven, to heal the sick, to restore life, to cleanse, to cast out demons.
Furthermore, just as Jesus gave his disciples the authority to do all of this, Jesus gives us that same authority. This authority is rooted in God’s grace as we heard in today’s second reading: “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God… For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…. God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (cf. Romans 5:1-8) And it’s all gift, again, as Jesus said, “You received without payment; give without payment.” (Matthew 10:8b)
Jesus gives us graced, divine authority through his word: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus said at the end of Matthew’s gospel. “Go therefore and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And likewise this when he appeared to the disciples after his resurrection: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed on them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (cf. John 20:21-23)
We are given authority when called by name at baptism not just to save us from sin and death, but to commission each of us to share in God’s healing work with our hands. When we are confirmed, we’re called by name again to this work. So, too, when some of us are ordained as pastors and deacons – God calls us by name. Likewise, when you’re installed to various ministries in the church, God calls you by name and commissions you.
Sacramentally, we are given the authority of the very presence of Christ made known to us in the breaking of bread. At this table, we incorporate Christ’s authority in our very bodies thus conveying his own authority via our own words and deeds. We are what we eat! And what we are as church is Christ’s authoritative body to take the lead to cleanse and to heal and to make whole. It’s an authority that gets things done.
To be sure, this is not easy work for which Christ sends us. Jesus warned his followers: “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves…. They will hand you over to councils… and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me.” (cf. Matthew 10:16-18)
Indeed, this came to pass among the 12 disciples Jesus named in today’s gospel reading. Every one of them was martyred for Jesus’ sake except Judas who betrayed Jesus and committed suicide and John, the brother of James, who reportedly died of natural causes. And in my daily prayers, when the saints are commemorated, so many of them over the centuries knew significant suffering in Jesus’ name; so many died as martyrs.
Given the fundamentalist, Christian nationalist climate we’re in, some of us may be closer to suffering for Jesus’ sake than we care to believe as we are increasingly estranged from the religiously tolerant, live-and-let-live society in which most of us grew up. There’s even talk among some religious extremists of seizing churches known to be committed to the inclusive and welcoming causes of Pride which we celebrate this month….
But we are given what we need in faith to do the work to which Christ has called us. Jesus promised: “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20) By God’s grace, in dire circumstances, those called and commissioned by our Lord tend to rise to the occasion by the authority of the Spirit in and among us.
And our suffering in Jesus’ name is not in vain as the apostle Paul suggests and when we heard his words today: “We also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
Thus it is that we, like Jesus, go to all the cities and all the villages – notice the expansive inclusivity there, all the cities and all the villages. And Christ sends us teaching, proclaiming, healing, giving life, aiding the harassed and helpless and leaderless crowds with the same gut-wrenching compassion that Jesus had.
Christian witness has been central to many of the civil rights movements in the 250-year history of our nation: civil rights for African-American descendants of slaves; civil and voting rights for women; civil and marriage rites for the LGBTQIA+ communities; protection of immigrants and advocacy for fair immigration reform.
Of course, now we’re seeing pushback on all of these fronts, a full-forced effort to undo gains made over the decades. And yet, Jesus continues to call us by name and give us his authority in the power of the Spirit to be moved with the same compassion that moved him to proclaim in word and deed the nearness of God’s reign for all, a reign of healing and mercy and peace and justice. God help us to do this holy work with our willing hands. Amen.
