Romans 5:6–15 | Matthew 9:35–10:20
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for our meditation this morning is the Epistle reading from Romans chapter 5 and the Gospel reading from Matthew chapters 9 and 10.
Do you remember the story of the prophet Jonah? He is called to go preach repentance to the people of Nineveh, and he doesn't want to go because the people of Nineveh are so sinful. They are so wicked that he does not want to be in their midst.
I think that is very reflective of the way we as sinful humans often want to deal with sin.
Usually, we do not want to deal with our sin at all. One way we try to handle it is simply to ignore it. Maybe if I do not acknowledge it, if I just shove it to the side, then God will forget about it too.
Or maybe we think we can solve the problem ourselves. "God, I'll get rid of that sin, and then You can come and dwell in my midst. Deal?" It is kind of like when you frantically clean your house before company arrives.
Or perhaps we try to cover up the problem, masking our sin with seemingly good works or a good attitude without facing the truth that deep down the sin is still there. Like when you are cleaning the house before company and run out of time, so you just shove everything into the closet. But that does not actually get rid of anything.
This is also the way we often think about the sins of others.
I see someone else's sin—a sin that separates them from God—and I am just going to ignore it. Hopefully God will ignore it too. Or maybe I tell myself that it is because of my love and compassion that I am ignoring their sin.
Sometimes we even think another person needs to reach a certain level of goodness before they are worthy of hearing the Gospel. "Once that person cleans up their act a little bit, then I'll tell them about Jesus—but not before that."
But the way Jonah thought about the people of Nineveh, and the way we think about our own sins or the sins of others, is not the way Jesus deals with sin.
Jesus comes to us, dwells in our midst, and then deals with our sin. He actually solves the problem. As St. Paul says in Romans 5, He does this while we were still sinners.
This is what Jesus observes at the beginning of our Gospel reading.
He sees the chaos and affliction of sinful human life in this world. He sees disease, which He heals. He sees all kinds of affliction. He sees the crowds harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
And He looks upon them with compassion.
He sees all of this and says, “The harvest is plentiful.”
He wants to be in our midst. He wants to be among us so that He can deal with our sin through His forgiveness.
This is what St. Paul says in Romans 5:8:
“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
That is the message of Romans chapter 5 and Matthew chapters 9 and 10: God sends His Word into the midst of sin, and He deals with it.
He does not ignore sin. He does not say, “You have to solve the problem first, and then I'll come dwell in your midst.”
God dwells with us while we are still sinners, and He forgives our sins through the blood of Christ.
Listen again to what Jesus was doing:
“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 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 pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”
Notice once again that Jesus does not avoid the afflictions of mankind. He comes right into their midst and solves the problem, healing every disease and every affliction.
When He sees the crowd harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, He has compassion on them. He has great love, mercy, and compassion toward them.
It is that compassion that compelled Him to take on human flesh in the first place. It is that compassion that drove Him to the cross. It is that compassion that caused Him to lay down His life for us and take our sins upon Himself.
This is how Jesus sees all of us: harassed by sin and helpless to save ourselves.
As St. Paul writes:
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
We cannot hide our sin. We cannot, by ourselves, get rid of what we have done or change what we have done in the past. What is our state when it comes to our sinful human nature and what we have actually done? St. Paul describes it as weak, ungodly, unrighteous, and sinful.
Jesus does not ignore your sin. He does not simply overlook it and say, “It's no big deal. Don't worry about it.” Jesus atones for your sin. He sheds His precious blood to wash your sin away. And Jesus does not wait for you to be good enough before He saves you, because you never could be. But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That is the message of the kingdom of heaven. Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and when He sends His disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven, this is what He is talking about. God has come to earth in human flesh. Jesus Christ our Lord has gone to the cross to forgive our sins, to give us life, and to give us His righteousness. That is what it means when Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus sent out His apostles to proclaim that message to all the towns and villages. “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”’”
The forgiveness of sins in Jesus is coming to you.
Jesus sends out His disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in this instance. You can almost see this as a precursor to the time when He will send them into the entire world. Before He ascends into heaven, He gives them this command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He sends them into all the world to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, to proclaim all that He has done and taught, and to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. All who hear and believe receive the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting in Jesus.
Notice that Jesus does not give His disciples an easy route.
He says: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.”
The disciples do not get to pick and choose who they go to. When Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” He is sending them as sheep in the midst of wolves. Perhaps the disciples would prefer that they could go only to the people they think might receive the Gospel well. They might prefer to go only to the nice people and avoid those who would reject them. But Jesus does not give them that option.
At the end of the Great Commission, He says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” You have to preach the Gospel to every creature, whether you want to or not, because that is a person for whom Christ died, and they must hear the Gospel. That is the command of Christ. Even though it may cause physical harm to the disciples, they must go and they must preach.
And this message of the apostles and prophets is what our church is built upon—the apostles proclaiming the Word of God to you through the Scriptures, so that you receive the forgiveness of sins in Jesus.
This is what our church is all about:
That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And we have this Word so that we might proclaim it among ourselves and throughout the world.
Just as Jesus came into this sinful world and died for us while we were still sinners, and just as He sent His disciples into all the world—even into the midst of wolves—Jesus sends His church into the midst of this sinful world.
We do not get to leave this world. You do not automatically go to heaven the moment you become a Christian, even though that might sound nice.
You become a Christian, you live in the church, and the church continues to dwell in the midst of this sinful world.
We are in the world, but not of the world. We are citizens of heaven, yet we live in the midst of this sinful world.
So this is our mission. We have the Word of Christ. We have the gifts of Christ. We proclaim those forgiving gifts among ourselves, and we proclaim them to all people whom we encounter.
Just as Jesus did not ignore the crowds but had compassion on them, the church looks at all people, sees them to be harassed and helpless apart from Christ, and desires to bring the Word of Christ to them as well.
The Christian church is called to proclaim the Word in the midst of a sinful world.
It is not up to us to determine who hears the Gospel and who does not.
Notice what Jesus does. He looks at the crowd and sees that they are harassed and helpless. What is His response? “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
If we see a chaotic crowd, a group of people who seem harassed and helpless, is that usually our reaction?
Usually we think the harvest is plentiful when we see people whom WE consider ideal candidates for our church—people who are already a lot like us, people who seem to have their lives together, people who just need a small nudge to become part of our congregation.
But Jesus looks at a crowd that is harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, and He has compassion on them. He loves them. He wants to give them His Word and His forgiveness.
In the same way, we are not authorized to look at anyone and say, “That person would never believe.”
We are not authorized to look at someone and say, “That person is too far gone. He will never believe the Gospel so I won't bring it to him.”
We are called to bring the Gospel to every creature, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins in Jesus for all who repent and believe in Him. We are called to bring that message to all people.
Jesus does not ignore your sin. Jesus does not wait for you to figure everything out before He deals with your sin.
Rather, He comes into your midst, even in the midst of your sin. He has compassion on you. He dies for your sin to atone for it and to win your forgiveness. And this Gospel message is desperately needed by each and every one of us every day. It is needed by all who are harassed and helpless, stuck in their sins. For Christ comes to you with His life and His forgiveness. And that forgiveness is for all who believe in Him.
Amen.
And now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Christopher Warneke at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Arkansas City, KS.
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