Ep. 228. Matthew 9-10 | The Harvest is Plentiful

EPISODE 228

THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL: MATTHEW 9-10

I know I pointed this out in the video, but I think it is so crucial for us to see the text as the text. Many of us who grew up in and around the church have so many filters on how to interpret the Bible, and we aren't even aware of them. My entire life, I have heard people implore an audience of young people at youth or college-level retreats, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. God needs more laborers. Maybe it's you." Now, I'm not saying that there is no need for mission work in the world today. I know for a fact there are people worldwide that need Jesus. But I also know for a fact that the west Texas community I live in, of about 100,000 people, is only about 15 percent churched. People have used Jesus' statement to encourage people to "go." "Will you be the one that goes into the harvest for our Lord?" Again, it is a wonderful thing when people go and proclaim Jesus. But it is also wonderful when the local 3rd-grade teacher loves Jesus, the dentist, the grocery store bag girl, the barber, the gas station attendant, or the commercial airline pilot.

As many times as I have heard these last two verses of Matthew 9 taught as an appeal for people to "go," I have never once heard someone say that Jesus responded to that need by sending the twelve in the very next verse. It is as though we take the words of Jesus and use them as an appeal to the twenty-first-century listener while completely missing the fact that this is a statement he made to the 12, and then he commissioned the 12 to fulfill it.

Should people still proclaim the gospel of Jesus to the world? Absolutely. I still believe God is drawing the hearts of men and women around the world to that exact task, but I think it's dishonest to use these verses as leverage to motivate people to missions.

The entirety of chapter ten is Jesus preparing the 12 for the work ahead of them. He instructs them to go to no one except the Jews. He specifically forbids them from going to the Gentiles and Samaritans, but I will help us make more sense of that in a few days. Jesus lets the disciples know that beatings, imprisonment, and even death wait for them. But, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Despite teaching to the contrary in our world today, Jesus did not come to bring peace on the earth between the residents here. Instead, he brings a sword. "A person's enemies will be those of his own household," Jesus says to show how divisive the gospel would become. I sometimes wonder why we don't see the gospel as that divisive anymore, and I surmise it might be that we don't often elevate the gospel to its proper place.

ADDITIONAL READING: Matthew 6:26; Micah 7:5-6