Third Sunday after Pentecost

Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6A)

June 18, 2023

Text: Matt. 9:35-10:20

            Your Lord Jesus sees that you are harassed by Satan, by the world, and by your own sinful nature.  He knows that you are helpless in your sins and in the face of death.  Like sheep without a shepherd.  He hears your cries, and He is deeply moved.  The Lord Jesus has compassion for you.  Literally, He feels it in His guts.  And so, He must act.  He must step in.  He Himself will be the Good Shepherd you need.  He Himself will tend you, guide you, feed you, and protect you.  In fact, He will lay down His life for you, for His sheep.  And He will give under-shepherds to do these things for His flock.  He will give to His Church the Office of the Holy Ministry.

            As the Lord travels through all the cities and villages in our text, preaching and healing every disease and affliction, He sees that His beloved people Israel are like sheep without a shepherd.  And He feels it in His guts.  He has compassion.  So, He immediately does two things.  First, He bids His disciples pray earnestly… literally, bind God in obligation… to send out workers into His harvest, a prayer which should forever be on the Church’s lips, “Compassionate Father, send us pastors!”  (This is also why it is imperative that the Church support seminarians, like Pastor-elect Jonah Laws.)  And then He answers the prayer He has commanded us to pray.  He calls the Twelve to be His sent-ones, His Apostles. 

            He gives them authority… His authority to cast out unclean spirits and heal every disease and every affliction.  He gives them authority to speak for Him, so that their Word is His Word.  The Apostolic Word is the Word of Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God.  They are to preach.  They are to proclaim as they go, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 9:7; ESV).  And this is not a mere announcement of some future event, this preaching.  It is the bringing about of the reality.  Because it brings about the presence of the King, the Lord Jesus.  And there can be no doubt.  Wherever the Apostles go, they will heal the sick, as Jesus healed the sick.  They will raise the dead, as Jesus raised the dead.  They will cleanse lepers and cast out demons and let their peace rest upon every place where people receive their Word.  As Jesus did.  As Jesus continues to do through their ministry. 

            And they will suffer, as Jesus did.  They will bear the cross as they preach the Word of the cross.  But, even and especially in the midst of the suffering, they are to rely totally on God.  And they are to depend upon the generosity of those who hear and receive their preaching.  Jesus says, “You received without paying; give without pay” (v. 8).  That is not permission for congregations not to pay their pastor.  It is actually the opposite.  Preachers are to preach the Gospel freely, unhindered by want, or necessity, or greed for gain, depending on the fact that God’s people will respond by providing the laborer his food.  You should think this way: You do not pay me for services rendered.  You pay me so that I may render service. 

            But that doesn’t always happen.  The Apostles must be ready to be rejected.  When a town or house receives the Word, the Apostle is to stay put and let his peace settle on the place until he departs, until he is called away to another place.  But when a town or a house does not receive the Word, the Apostle is to shake the dust of that town or house from his feet.  Because many places will not receive the Word Jesus sends His Apostles out to preach.  Just like the prophets of old.  Many will not hear.  Jesus promises it. 

            And it will be worse than that.  The Apostles must expect to be delivered over to the courts, as Jesus was delivered to the Sanhedrin.  They must expect to be flogged, as Jesus was flogged.  They must expect to be dragged before governors and kings, as Jesus was dragged before Pilate and Herod.  But they must also believe that the suffering will be for God’s purposes.  In so suffering, the Apostles will “bear witness,” εἰς μαρτύριον in Greek, literally, in martyrdom, which simply means to give testimony, but as you well know, that word comes to mean exactly what most of the Apostles eventually suffer: a sacrificial death for the sake of Jesus.

            But again, they are to rely totally on God.  They are not to worry how they are to speak or what they are to say.  The Holy Spirit will give them the words in that hour.  In fact, it will not be the Apostles speaking, but the Spirit of our Father.  The Apostolic Word that preaches the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinners is the Word of our Triune God.

            Now, the Apostles have all died, John reportedly in ripe old age, the rest in martyrdom.  But the Lord Jesus is no less compassionate for you, here and now.  He is still your Good Shepherd.  And He still hears and answers your prayer to send out workers into His harvest.  He sends pastors. 

            Now, pastors, of course, are not Apostles.  The Apostles occupied a special Office as those who were eyewitnesses of the Lord’s ministry, beginning with His Baptism in the Jordan, and culminating in His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.  But pastors do occupy the Office of the Apostolic Ministry.  That is, they proclaim the Apostolic Word, which is the Word of Jesus Christ.  They preach what the Apostles and Evangelists, as well as the Prophets, wrote down by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scriptures.  By means of their Office, the Lord Jesus Himself continues to tend His sheep. 

            He gives His pastors, His under-shepherds (the word pastor means shepherd), authority… His authority as His called and ordained servants of the Word.  To do what?  To cast out unclean spirits by preaching and personally applying the Gospel and biblical prayer.  Now, you may say, “But obviously not to heal every disease and affliction.  Not that it couldn’t happen, but I’ve never been miraculously healed when the pastor came to see me at the hospital, and we pray for the same bunch of people suffering the same old things week after week in the Service.”  I get why you’d say that.  But you would be wrong.  Well, okay, it doesn’t happen all that often these days that the pastor visits a cancer patient in the hospital one morning, and by afternoon the patient walks out of the hospital cancer-free.  It could happen, but it’s true, we’re not often given such spectacular (as in spectacle) miracles these days (could that be, in part, because we think we’re smarter than those ignorant ancients who expected such things because they didn’t know science?).  But you know what does happen?  Every time the preacher shows up with the Apostolic Word, and that Word is received?  Every disease and every affliction is ultimately overruled.  Death is forbidden to make a claim on the one who is in Christ Jesus.  In fact, the dead are actually raised.  Which is to say, those hearing the Gospel are coming to faith, and therefore to life, in the risen Jesus.  And the demons flee. 

            This is all hidden to the eyes.  But it isn’t any less true.  Because in the preaching of the Gospel, all sins are forgiven.  For Jesus’ sake.  And death, and death’s symptoms in disease and affliction, can only make a claim on sinners.  But when a sinner is in Christ, the sin is gone.  Take that, death!  And see, the miracle that takes place when the pastor visits, and especially right here and now in the Divine Service of the Church… though hidden at the moment… will be revealed in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day.  Resurrection Day is simply the revealing of the healing, cleansing, and restoration the risen Jesus has been doing all along in the ministrations of His under-shepherds.  So the pastor preaches, baptizes, absolves, feeds, cares for, protects, and defends his congregation.  Because that is what Jesus has authorized him to do.  He has authorized him to do it for you. 

            Now, like the Apostles, the pastor is to rely totally on God in all things.  The minute the pastor begins to rely on himself, his own resources, talents, and abilities, disaster is immanent.  The pastor himself does not possess the power for healing and release.  Jesus does.  Jesus is the Shepherd.  The pastor serves under Him, and at His will.  He is to proclaim Jesus’ Word, and follow in Jesus’ Way.  And that is how you are to receive his ministry.  “This is how one should regard us,” Paul says, “as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1). 

            But that necessarily entails rejection and suffering.  Maybe even martyrdom. 

            By the way, that is not only true for pastors.  That is true for all Christians who walk in the way of Jesus.  The same suffering attends all who bear His testimony. 

            But so also, the same promises attend all who bear His testimony.  God will provide.  God will speak.  And God will save out of disaster.  Maybe not temporally.  But then, temporal salvation is only temporary salvation.  The sick who are healed will get sick again and die.  The real and eternal salvation that death cannot touch, is the resurrection of the body.  And that is what we have in the risen Christ. 

            Beloved, your Lord Jesus knows what you suffer.  He sees that you are harassed by Satan, by the world, and by your own sinful nature.  He knows that you are helpless in your sins and in the face of death.  And He feels it in His guts for you.  He has compassion.  So He comes to be your Shepherd, to deliver you from all that afflicts you.  That is why He has given you a pastor, in the very midst of the harassment and helplessness.  To preach the Apostolic Word, which is the Word of Jesus Himself, into all your afflictions.  To forgive your sins.  And to put you in touch with the bodily presence of the risen, healing, and life-giving Lord.  Jesus will not leave you as sheep without a shepherd.  Behold, He comes.  In fact, He has arrived.  This is what He has authorized me to preach to you: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.