Matthew 9:37-38 “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send workers into his harvest field.’”

My church spends almost 20 percent of its annual budget on “evangelism” each year. We will send postcards and brochures, rent space at various events, perhaps take out some ads online or in local publications, give away school supplies and Easter baskets, host a sports camp, and do other things to meet our community. All of it will include giving away information about our faith and our worship times. We will do this even though we know that a very small percentage of the people who receive our information will ever come and visit us, much less choose to make this their church home.

According to surveys done by Lifeway Research, eighty percent of unchurched people would accept an invitation from their churched friends to attend church. More than ninety percent of people who do visit a church for the first time come because someone personally invited them. Obviously a human touch is very important. Direct contact with another person, an invitation to “come and see,” is far more effective at getting people to visit than anything else.

It should not surprise us, then, that Jesus does not say, “the harvest is plentiful but the money are few,” or “the harvest is plentiful but the advertising are few,” or even “the harvest is plentiful but the buildings are few.” These things are all useful, even necessary, but they are not the main thing for getting the work done.

No, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” What Christian mission and ministry needs is people, people who are willing to share the gospel, or at least an invitation to hear it, with someone else. This means pastors and missionaries, of course. But it also includes laymen and women who will get involved, and talk to the people they know, even if all they do is say to a friend, “Why don’t you come to church with me this week?

So if we understand what Christian ministry is, and how it works, we pray, “Send workers, Lord.” Better yet, we pray like Isaiah once did, “Here I am. Send me! Send me!”

Matthew 9:36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

The crowds of people that came to Jesus were a mess. They were harassed. Sickness and disease hounded them. They didn’t have decent medical care. They couldn’t even take an Advil or a Tylenol if they were in pain. Many of them were disabled, all of them were overtaxed, and there were no food stamps or social security checks to try to make ends meet.

Instead of bringing them a little comfort, instead of offering them a little relief in God’s grace and promises, their religious leaders just piled on. On top of God’s commandments, which are already more than anyone can keep, they added hundreds of their own rules for holy living. In another place in the gospels Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for tying up heavy burdens and putting them on men’s shoulders, but then they won’t lift a finger to help them carry them.

So here are the crowds before Jesus: dealing with physical pain, struggling to survive, convinced that they are spiritual failures and that their lives are grave disappointments to God. Should it surprise us that some of them may have become skeptical of the old Bible promises, or that many of them just gave up on trying to live a decent, godly life? Should it shock us if some of them jumped at the opportunity for a few moments of pleasure, even sinful ones, or fudged on some of the things God’s law demands? Understand, their situation did not make their sinful choices acceptable, just not a huge surprise.

The priests and Pharisees looked at these crowds with nothing but criticism. In John chapter 7 they complain, “This mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them” (vs 49). Jesus saw them differently. “He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He was not okay with their weak faith, their spiritual faults, their selfish choices, their sinful behavior. But he was not so filled with righteous anger that he was ready to deal out death and judgment. He was moved to compassion. He was filled with mercy. He genuinely felt sorry for the people in front of him. On this day it led him to preach and teach, to heal and to pray. On a day not far in the future it would lead him to die in their place on a shameful cross to take away their sins.

People like this are still “the field” in which we work. This is still what Christian ministry looks like. How do the “culture wars” make you feel? We live in the middle of a crowd that now embraces every kind of perversion of God’s good gift of sex. We are more a part of that crowd than we may be able to recognize or care to admit. People no longer know which rest room they should use. Mothers will kill their own offspring before they are born, and children will kill their own parents when they have become old and weak. We hear otherwise intelligent people arguing that all of this is okay, even a matter of basic human rights. All of this can get conservative, Bible-believing Christians stirred up. Sometimes it gets them so stirred up that in personal conversations or comments online they can sound a lot like the priests and Pharisees, “This mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them.”

If Jesus shows us what Christian ministry looks like (and he does), then the proper reaction to the field in which we have been placed is compassion, “because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” That is what the people in our mission field are, sheep without a shepherd. We cannot be okay with their weak or lacking faith, their spiritual faults, their selfish choices, or their sinful behavior any more than we can be okay with our own.

But have compassion. See their spiritual pain and sickness, even if they don’t fully realize it themselves yet. Bring them the medicine of God’s grace, the good news that God loves them and will forgive them–the woman who terminated her pregnancy to keep it a secret, the young people who practice little or no self-control over their bodies, the mass of people who don’t seem to understand why God created two genders. They need Jesus just like we do.

Acts 5:31 “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior, so that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”

Political candidates campaign on promises they make to the voters. Once elected, many of them seem to lose interest in keeping their promises to the people who voted them in. Jesus is installed at God’s right hand in heaven as rightful ruler of the universe. Does our Prince and Savior have anything to offer us today?

Peter’s words answer that question. Today Jesus is at God’s right hand so that he can give us his gifts. The first of those gifts is “repentance.” Jesus doesn’t spread the Christian faith by adhering to the old marketing principle, “The customer is always right.” I have been a part of paid market research focus groups in the past. Companies interviewed me and others to learn our opinions. Then they tried to tailor their products to our tastes. They assumed the customer must be right, and they changed to suit us.

No, Jesus does something that seems counter-intuitive if you want to develop a following. He starts by telling you your ideas are all wrong. You and I have developed tastes and preferences that need to change. Our behavior and treatment of others is inappropriate. Our ideas about right, and wrong, and often God himself are backwards. He calls us to repent. He calls me to recognize that I am selfish, prideful, bossy, manipulative, dishonest, two-faced, ungrateful, lazy, lustful, greedy, impatient, and discontented. He calls me to stop defending it and rationalizing it, to feel genuine sorrow and regret for it.

But he does more than call us to repent. He gives repentance as a gift from God’s right hand in heaven. He exposes our sinfully wrong-minded notions in his word. He accompanies his word with his Spirit to convict us. He directs the events of our lives so that we are forced to come face to face with our true nature, to know ourselves in ways we never, ever wanted to know ourselves. He gives repentance to his people as a gift.

“Some gift,” we might think. But it is a gift, a gift of inestimable value. We will pay a doctor a great deal of money to uncover the physical deficiencies that are causing us pain and threatening our lives. Only then can we get the medicine right that puts us on the path to health again. How much more valuable is the diagnosis that uncovers the spiritual deficiencies that have condemned our souls!

Then we are ready to receive the other gift he gives from God’s right hand, “the forgiveness of sins.” However we have offended God, however we have hurt each other, however we have twisted God’s good gifts like sex or money and made them sick and grotesque, he does not hold against us. He does not say that it was okay. It wasn’t. But he does not hold them against us. He does not let our past determine how he will treat us in the future. Every day, every moment, we start off with a clean slate–as though we were as pure and as holy as an angel in heaven.

This, too, is more than an offer. It is a gift he gives–the gift he thought so valuable that he suffered death by crucifixion to make it happen. It’s more than a neat idea, a happy concept. Jesus’ sacrifice forms the real historical basis for God to forgive our sins.

Now from his Father’s right hand he distributes it to us. He sends it around the world as he spreads his word through preachers and laymen alike. He washes us in it at our baptisms. He feeds it to us in his supper. His Spirit fans the flames of this good news so that it grows in our hearts and catches on in the hearts of more and more people. All this he does with the power and authority he enjoys from God’s right hand in heaven. Truly it is a gift to us that Jesus occupies such a place!

Matthew 9:10-13“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and ‘sinners’ came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’? “On hearing this Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

            Matthew doesn’t give us the details on the people at his party, just that they were publicly known as “sinners.” Maybe there were prostitutes, or at least home-wreckers, at the table. Thieves, dishonest merchants, people who drank too much–all kinds of people could possibly have attended. Missing were the people you saw at the synagogue every Saturday, anyone who valued their reputation.

The Pharisees can’t figure out why Jesus would spend time with people like this, and his answer teaches us a couple of lessons about those he invites to follow him.

Sometimes people have said to me, “Pastor, I have a friend who is a great guy. He’s a great family man. He works hard. He does some great volunteer work. I should try to get him to come to church with me.” Or “Pastor, I work with a woman who is one of the most caring and faithful people I have ever met. She is always doing something for other people. I’m going to invite her some Sunday.” By all means, invite your well-behaved friend. But don’t introduce them to Jesus as though Jesus were running a club for people with better-than average morals.

Invite them because underneath the pious and upright exterior they suffer from spiritual terminal illness, and Jesus is the only one who can heal their sin-sick souls. Invite them to find forgiveness for their sins and life that never ends. While you are at it, don’t forget the people you know whose behavior is a questionable, whose morals are a suspect, the obnoxious ones who rub you the wrong way and are frankly hard to like. They need Doctor Jesus, too. He wants to show them mercy. He came to call them to follow him.

Then let’s not miss the lesson Jesus is teaching us about ourselves. If we have been invited to follow him (and we have), then we are the sinners, the sick, the unrighteous Jesus has come to save and heal. Do you suppose that Peter, John, or one of the other disciples at Matthew’s house that day might have heard Jesus say these words and thought to himself, “Hey! Wait a minute! Jesus called me. What’s he saying…that I’m not righteous?”

Exactly! Not in and of ourselves! Near the beginning of our church’s Sunday services the whole congregation says together, “I confess that I am by nature sinful, and that I have disobeyed you in my thoughts, words, and actions. I have done what is evil and failed to do what is good.” What does a first-time visitor think at that point? “What kind of people are these? What have I gotten myself into?” These aren’t theoretical sins we confess that need a theoretical Savior. They are real sins that need a real Savior. That is exactly what we have: a real Savior who takes our sins away. That is exactly the reason Jesus has given us the invitation: Follow me.

So here we go, with Jesus just ahead. Have a nice trip.

Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”

We can learn many things following Jesus. His teachings can make your family a happy place–if your spouse, and your parents, and your children, and your in-laws are on board with the program as well. Jesus teaches things that could move your career forward–if your boss, your employees, your coworkers, and your customers are willing to live by more-or-less the same principles. But none of their reactions are guaranteed.

More than anything, following Jesus can teach us about God’s grace. Matthew saw him tell prostitutes the parable of the lost sheep and the lost son, stories of God’s great joy and forgiveness when a sinner comes home to him. He heard Jesus defending the woman caught in adultery from stoning, and promising grace to the sinful woman who washed his feet with her tears. “Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much.”

All of this culminates at his cross. Matthew actually took a pass on watching that, but this was the crowning moment of Jesus’ love. We see it through what the gospels record. Have you ever watched the movie The Passion of the Christ? It is hard to watch because of the graphic way in which we see Jesus brutalized by his enemies. It is one of only two movies I have ever seen in the theaters after which no one in the audience said a word when the end credits rolled. On the way to the parking lot the only sound was the sound of some people softly weeping. It is hard to watch what he suffered, but this is how much he wanted your forgiveness.

The love we see is not just love in a story, or watching love between two other people, like you might read in a book or see in a movie. This is how much he loves you and me. If all the world of people had remained perfect, and you were the only sinner there ever was, Jesus would still have died just so that you could be saved, and just so that you could be forgiven.

This is the key that fits the human heart like nothing else in the world does. One thousand six hundred years ago St. Augustine prayed, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are never at rest until they rest in you.” Money and sex and drugs and power and prestige and things and mindless entertainment, and even other people, will never fully satisfy. But Jesus will. And those other things will never last. But a billion years after this world has passed away we will still be feasting with Jesus at his heavenly table, worshiping him before his throne, and exploring our new and glorious home. It will all be as fresh and fulfilling as the day we first arrived. Jesus’ invitation has some serious implications to consider. But today he is still calling to you and me, “Follow me for my grace.”

Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”

Take a few minutes and put yourself in Matthew’s place. You are sitting at your desk, attending to customers, or working on some project. A man approaches. You recognize him because you have heard him speak before. You liked what he had to say, but you know that he is a controversial figure. The “establishment” is generally critical of him. He comes up to you and pauses. He looks you straight in the eye and says two words: “Follow me.” He means right now. He doesn’t ask you to put in your two-week notice. Put down your pen, or your tools. Leave the computer behind. Right here, right now, get up and follow Jesus.

Sound hard? This is the invitation Matthew faced. Here, in the middle of the business day, Jesus tells him to leave it all and follow him. So Matthew goes.

Jesus still invites us: “Follow me.” It doesn’t necessarily mean leaving your work behind. He looks us in the heart, not in the eye, when he calls. But the invitation is still right here, right now, in this moment, every moment, of our lives.

There are big implications to Jesus’ invitation. One is a call for trust. Look at what Matthew was leaving. He had carved out a lucrative career and luxurious lifestyle for himself. There were negative things about being a tax collector. Not only did they take your money, but they also cooperated with a foreign enemy who was trespassing on your land. Matthew was collecting taxes for Rome, not Jerusalem. His neighbors probably thought of him as a traitor.

People like Matthew traded popularity and acceptance for wealth. He had money. Now Jesus was calling him to leave the big money behind. And there was no promise of public popularity and acceptance to show for it. The respectable people like the Pharisees didn’t like Matthew even a little bit more for following Jesus. Matthew had to trust that there were good reasons to follow Jesus that didn’t have to do with a higher standard of living or more enjoyable life in the short run.

It’s still that way. The invitation to follow Jesus is always a call to repent. He wants us to leave certain things about our former lifestyle behind. It could involve money, if there was something less than godly about the way we were getting it before. If we have it, following Jesus will mean a willingness to give more of it away and spend less of it on ourselves. It could involve the kinds of words we use and the way we talk to and about people we don’t particularly like. “Love your enemies” is a big part of where Jesus leads.

This all calls for trust, because there is no promise our lives will be filled with fantastic new wholesome versions of the things we enjoy in place of our old vices in the short term. Keep in mind Jesus’ warning, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18). The invitation “Follow Me” implies a heaping helping of repentance and trust when we consider that we are leaving behind some things that we really liked.

So what do we get instead? Why is the trade worth it? Jesus is offering front row seats to the greatest love there has ever been. I once heard a pastor at a mission festival tell a congregation that there is a little two-or-three-feet-square patch of ground that is the most blessed little patch of earth in the world. It is the little patch of ground right behind Jesus when you are following him. From that patch Matthew stood and watched him give blind people their sight back, deaf people their hearing back, lame people the ability to walk again, dead people the ability to live and breathe again. He saw Jesus reach out to social outcasts. He heard him telling prostitutes the parable of the lost sheep and the lost son. When Jesus got up in the morning, his life was all love. When he went to bed at night his life was all love.            

Not only does Jesus loves others that way. He loved Matthew like that. He loves us like that. He makes his love a substitute for our own, providing the love God demands of us but we have always lacked. That is because we, too, are the objects of his love. It is the love in which we live when we follow him.