Hope for the harassed. A word for our times.
Matthew 9:35-10:8
Three things from this passage
1. It is about the Kingdom of God
Matthew 9.35: Jesus went about proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom.
Matthew 10.7: Jesus gives instructions to his disciples: ‘Proclaim the good news, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven has come near’.
The Kingdom of God is a central theme, possibly the central theme, in the teaching of Jesus. It was his big message.
"The Kingdom of God is near".
In the Old Testament we are told about the Kingdom of God, the rule of God.
When God’s kingdom comes, creation is reordered: evil is cast out, the unclean are restored, the sick are healed, the dead are raised, and the scattered are gathered. Isaiah gives us pictures of abundance, freedom and peace — wolves lying down with lambs, children safe even where danger once lived. It is a vision of a world healed, a world of beauty and well-being and life under the rule of God.
And at the heart of this kingdom there will be a king, God’s special ruler, also described as Messiah – or, in Greek, Christ.
And Jesus comes and declares that the Kingdom of God, the rule of God, as promised in the Old Testament, longed for by the people of God – through years of enslavement, exile and occupation – was very close.
The Kingdom of God has come near
It was near in time. It was coming soon in all its fullness.
But it was also near in space: they could reach out and touch the Kingdom of God.
Why? Because Jesus himself is the King of this Kingdom. He is the Messiah, the Christ. He is the presence of the Kingdom. And he is there – with them.
And so here we see him proclaiming the Kingdom, and living the Kingdom. He is the presence of the Kingdom so he cures ‘every disease and every sickness’ (9.35). He is the presence of the Kingdom so he brings life to the dead.
2. It is about the compassion of the King.
‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (9.36)
I asked my walking dictionary, Alison, what it means to be harassed. She said, it is like when you don’t know your head from your tail, when you feel stressed about things and you don’t know why you are stressed; when you don’t know which direction to go in.
That seems to me to be a pretty good description of where many of us are much of the time
Jesus sees our weakness, confusion, fear, defencelessness. He sees how we turn to whatever little god, whatever idol, promises to rescue us: shopping or AI or self-improvement, moving to another place, cosmetic surgery or a drug or alcohol. Perhaps the fact that we are looking at the possibility of a 7th Prime Minister in 10 years says a little about how lost politically we are.
And when we follow those things, Jesus does not despise us or look down on us. He does not say, ‘they have rejected God and made such a mess of their lives – and they deserve it’.
Instead he has deep compassion for us: he wants to gather us, like a shepherd gathers their sheep. He wants to call us together, protect us, guide us, provide for us and lead us into freedom and life.
And this King is a king of love.
That is the way that he brings in his Kingdom - not by coercion but by the authority of his self-giving love.
His words flow from his love. His acts flow from his love.
Twice Jesus speaks about the people being like sheep: ‘sheep without a shepherd’, ‘the lost sheep of the children of Israel’
In our world sheep give their lives for their shepherd. They are bred to be killed so that the shepherd and others can live.
But Jesus is the true good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. He came to show mercy and not demand sacrifice. He was the blotting paper who took into himself, as Matthew 8 tells us, ‘our infirmities’ and he ‘bore our diseases’. He takes into himself our sin, our rebellion against God and our death.
As Paul writes in Romans 5: ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us’.
3. This passage is about living as citizens of the Kingdom
The King offers to us the gift of citizenship in his Kingdom.
It is gift. It is all gift.
In Matthew 10, Jesus says to his followers, ‘You received without payment’.
And we become citizens of the Kingdom by hearing his call and receiving the gift of his love.
It is a remarkable gift.
When Jesus gives the 12 the charge to preach the Kingdom, and when he gives them authority over unclean spirits and to cure every disease and sickness, he is giving that command and that authority to his whole people together, from all times and places – not to each of us as individuals, but to all of us together.
That is why he gives us different gifts. We can’t do it all on our own; we need each other.
At this stage, in Matthew 9, he gives the twelve the charge to only go to the Jewish people.
But after his resurrection, in Matthew 28, the mission goes global. It is about everyone.
So as citizens of the Kingdom we proclaim that there is a coming Kingdom – which is very close.
That there is more to this world than what we can see or sense
That there is a God of love behind the universe
That there is a king – a compassionate king, but a king before whom we will all bow
And we invite others to receive the gift of God’s love and to become members of his Kingdom, to begin to live for that world and the things of that world. Because that is where we can find peace and our purpose and destiny.
And as citizens of the Kingdom we discover that there is a new way to living.
We live in the light of the future.
It is as if we are walking backwards into the future. We can only see the past, and each step that we make into the future, each decision we take, is a step of faith, based on what has happened in the past. I know that pews have held me up in the past, so I can sit down with confidence.
But the privilege of the people of God is to walk backwards into the future with a rear-view mirror. We are not just basing the decisions we make on what has happened in the past (which we can see), but on what is there in the future. We can see what the future is. We can see the future of the Kingdom of God, of this world transformed, of peace, shalom, wholeness and wellbeing, where there is no sin and no death.
And as citizens of the Kingdom we are given a new authority
Not our authority, but the authority of Jesus, to do the work of Jesus
Our work is, in his strength, to proclaim his Kingdom and to reflect the compassion of the King: to cast out evil in the name of Jesus – to challenge unforgiveness and lies and injustice.
Not by standing over people, telling them that they are wrong and I am right, but to do this work on our knees: before God in prayer and before others.
And our work is, in the name of Jesus, to cure the sick – through prayer, and through hard work and study and using the gifts God has given us. Some of you have been, maybe are, medics. It can be a costly profession – but it is a profession that is close to the heart of God.
And later in Matthew Jesus says that the people of his kingdom will be the people who care for the sick, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the stranger, and visit the prisoner
So yes, the Kingdom of God is near.
It is close in time. We are talking God’s time here and not our time, and that means that we may still have a few thousand years to go, but it could be tomorrow or today. We should be living in expectation.
And it is very close in space, because Jesus, the King is very close. All we need to do to become part of the Kingdom is to receive Jesus – to reach out and to touch him, as the woman did in our reading last week. To receive this king of love – as we will do with open hands at communion – and to ask him to become part of you.
And so, with the people of God for the last 2000 years, we pray a prayer that is both personal and cosmic: ‘Your Kingdom come. Come Lord Jesus’.
Three things from this passage
1. It is about the Kingdom of God
Matthew 9.35: Jesus went about proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom.
Matthew 10.7: Jesus gives instructions to his disciples: ‘Proclaim the good news, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven has come near’.
The Kingdom of God is a central theme, possibly the central theme, in the teaching of Jesus. It was his big message.
"The Kingdom of God is near".
In the Old Testament we are told about the Kingdom of God, the rule of God.
When God’s kingdom comes, creation is reordered: evil is cast out, the unclean are restored, the sick are healed, the dead are raised, and the scattered are gathered. Isaiah gives us pictures of abundance, freedom and peace — wolves lying down with lambs, children safe even where danger once lived. It is a vision of a world healed, a world of beauty and well-being and life under the rule of God.
And at the heart of this kingdom there will be a king, God’s special ruler, also described as Messiah – or, in Greek, Christ.
And Jesus comes and declares that the Kingdom of God, the rule of God, as promised in the Old Testament, longed for by the people of God – through years of enslavement, exile and occupation – was very close.
The Kingdom of God has come near
It was near in time. It was coming soon in all its fullness.
But it was also near in space: they could reach out and touch the Kingdom of God.
Why? Because Jesus himself is the King of this Kingdom. He is the Messiah, the Christ. He is the presence of the Kingdom. And he is there – with them.
And so here we see him proclaiming the Kingdom, and living the Kingdom. He is the presence of the Kingdom so he cures ‘every disease and every sickness’ (9.35). He is the presence of the Kingdom so he brings life to the dead.
2. It is about the compassion of the King.
‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (9.36)
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| Christ healing the sick brought to him in the villages | , | James Tissot | 1890 |
I asked my walking dictionary, Alison, what it means to be harassed. She said, it is like when you don’t know your head from your tail, when you feel stressed about things and you don’t know why you are stressed; when you don’t know which direction to go in.
That seems to me to be a pretty good description of where many of us are much of the time
Jesus sees our weakness, confusion, fear, defencelessness. He sees how we turn to whatever little god, whatever idol, promises to rescue us: shopping or AI or self-improvement, moving to another place, cosmetic surgery or a drug or alcohol. Perhaps the fact that we are looking at the possibility of a 7th Prime Minister in 10 years says a little about how lost politically we are.
And when we follow those things, Jesus does not despise us or look down on us. He does not say, ‘they have rejected God and made such a mess of their lives – and they deserve it’.
Instead he has deep compassion for us: he wants to gather us, like a shepherd gathers their sheep. He wants to call us together, protect us, guide us, provide for us and lead us into freedom and life.
And this King is a king of love.
That is the way that he brings in his Kingdom - not by coercion but by the authority of his self-giving love.
His words flow from his love. His acts flow from his love.
Twice Jesus speaks about the people being like sheep: ‘sheep without a shepherd’, ‘the lost sheep of the children of Israel’
In our world sheep give their lives for their shepherd. They are bred to be killed so that the shepherd and others can live.
But Jesus is the true good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. He came to show mercy and not demand sacrifice. He was the blotting paper who took into himself, as Matthew 8 tells us, ‘our infirmities’ and he ‘bore our diseases’. He takes into himself our sin, our rebellion against God and our death.
As Paul writes in Romans 5: ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us’.
3. This passage is about living as citizens of the Kingdom
The King offers to us the gift of citizenship in his Kingdom.
It is gift. It is all gift.
In Matthew 10, Jesus says to his followers, ‘You received without payment’.
And we become citizens of the Kingdom by hearing his call and receiving the gift of his love.
It is a remarkable gift.
When Jesus gives the 12 the charge to preach the Kingdom, and when he gives them authority over unclean spirits and to cure every disease and sickness, he is giving that command and that authority to his whole people together, from all times and places – not to each of us as individuals, but to all of us together.
That is why he gives us different gifts. We can’t do it all on our own; we need each other.
At this stage, in Matthew 9, he gives the twelve the charge to only go to the Jewish people.
But after his resurrection, in Matthew 28, the mission goes global. It is about everyone.
So as citizens of the Kingdom we proclaim that there is a coming Kingdom – which is very close.
That there is more to this world than what we can see or sense
That there is a God of love behind the universe
That there is a king – a compassionate king, but a king before whom we will all bow
And we invite others to receive the gift of God’s love and to become members of his Kingdom, to begin to live for that world and the things of that world. Because that is where we can find peace and our purpose and destiny.
And as citizens of the Kingdom we discover that there is a new way to living.
We do not need to put the things of this world at the centre of our lives – because those are the things which lead to us being harassed and helpless
We live in the light of the future.
It is as if we are walking backwards into the future. We can only see the past, and each step that we make into the future, each decision we take, is a step of faith, based on what has happened in the past. I know that pews have held me up in the past, so I can sit down with confidence.
But the privilege of the people of God is to walk backwards into the future with a rear-view mirror. We are not just basing the decisions we make on what has happened in the past (which we can see), but on what is there in the future. We can see what the future is. We can see the future of the Kingdom of God, of this world transformed, of peace, shalom, wholeness and wellbeing, where there is no sin and no death.
And as citizens of the Kingdom we are given a new authority
Not our authority, but the authority of Jesus, to do the work of Jesus
Our work is, in his strength, to proclaim his Kingdom and to reflect the compassion of the King: to cast out evil in the name of Jesus – to challenge unforgiveness and lies and injustice.
Not by standing over people, telling them that they are wrong and I am right, but to do this work on our knees: before God in prayer and before others.
And our work is, in the name of Jesus, to cure the sick – through prayer, and through hard work and study and using the gifts God has given us. Some of you have been, maybe are, medics. It can be a costly profession – but it is a profession that is close to the heart of God.
And later in Matthew Jesus says that the people of his kingdom will be the people who care for the sick, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the stranger, and visit the prisoner
So yes, the Kingdom of God is near.
It is close in time. We are talking God’s time here and not our time, and that means that we may still have a few thousand years to go, but it could be tomorrow or today. We should be living in expectation.
And it is very close in space, because Jesus, the King is very close. All we need to do to become part of the Kingdom is to receive Jesus – to reach out and to touch him, as the woman did in our reading last week. To receive this king of love – as we will do with open hands at communion – and to ask him to become part of you.
And so, with the people of God for the last 2000 years, we pray a prayer that is both personal and cosmic: ‘Your Kingdom come. Come Lord Jesus’.
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