We just read what is called the “Missionary Discourse” from Matthew 10. There Jesus sends out his twelve disciples to the towns of Israel to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near, and surprisingly - to perform some miracles. We think it should be a wonderful time for them. Huge crowds have been following Jesus. They heard him give the great Sermon on the Mount. They’ve seen him perform any number of miracles. And as you may remember from where we left of in Matthew’s gospel last week, we read, “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefor ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.’”
We imagine crowds of lost and woebegone people who would be thrilled to hear that the kingdom of God is at hand and that the Messiah has arrived. We think the disciples would be welcomed with open arms everywhere they go. But Jesus’ instructions to them quickly goes from basic instructions about being guests in people’s homes to warnings about persecution, separation, and even death. What is going on?
I suspect the same could be said for today; although in America you wouldn’t be getting the outright physical persecutions and death for being an evangelist. But you will most likely be dismissed, ignored, and scorned.
Let’s take a critical look at what we imagine when we think about the people being harassed and helpless; and like sheep without a shepherd. How accurate are we if we imagine them as third world refugees desperate for hope and stability? If I look at 21st century American mainstream society I’d describe it as people who are harassed and helpless; like sheep without a shepherd.
People all around us don’t know who they are. And I don’t just mean the gender issues that cause splashy headlines. I mean having a basic sense of themselves. They don’t know who they are. They don’t know what their purpose is. And they don’t know where they’re going in life. But perhaps what is worst is that they don’t know that they don’t know all those things!
We live in a consumer culture. There’s not much to debate about that. We hear things about consumer habits, consumer spending, and consumer confidence. Somewhere years ago I heard someone point out that up through the 1980s the American public was referred to as “citizens”. Since then the public is referred to as “consumers”. Is that what we are? Is that our purpose, to consume things? During the invasion of Iraq in the early 1990s World War 2 survivors were asking what they should do to support the war effort. They were told that they best thing they could do was to keep consuming as usual. Consumption kept the economy going; which in turn financed the military invasion.
It’s not just Americans that like to consume things. It seems to be a fundamental part of human nature. The more we have the more we want. Give us the luxury of cold running water in our homes and we next want hot water. Then we want central heat. Then we want electricity, and telephone, and internet, and air conditioning. You can see where this is going.
One thing we are especially good at as human beings is deceiving ourselves. We tell ourselves that if we just had the next level of comfort or convenience and we’ll be happy. But once we have that then the wheels in our minds start turning. We have it and decide that instead of it being a luxury, it is a necessity. We’re quick to call just about everything a basic human right sooner or later. And as soon as we call it a basic human right we have positioned ourselves to justify the next thing we want. And on and on our consumption goes.
Jesus said the people were like sheep without a shepherd. I have heard stories of sheep who truly listened to their shepherds. I believe them. But I have to say from my own experience growing up and working on a neighbor’s sheep farm that sheep do not like following a shepherd. Give sheep a good pasture and all they want to do is get out of the fence for whatever is outside. They don’t listen. They don’t know what’s best for them. And they don’t trust anyone who sets boundaries around them to give them safety and security.
Evangelize in our society today…? You’ve got problems. People are harassed and helpless. They are like sheep without a shepherd, but they will do everything within their power to deny their reality!
Here are two observations I have made over the years. It seems to be human nature to deny the need for God. Oh, as a culture we’re willing to accept the idea that there is a god. But we don’t want to be beholden to that god. We don’t want to admit just how helpless we are and how much we need that god.
And the second observation is that we never ever want to see ourselves as being in the wrong. We create a morality for ourselves that justifies whatever it is we want to do. No one wants to go to bed at night and look back over the day and think, “Wow, what a rotten, gluttonous, selfish, greedy, exploitative, nasty being I am.” Nope, as I said a few minutes ago, we individually and as a society invent a moral structure that justifies everything we want to do.
So, the truth of evangelism in our world is to first convince people of two things they never ever want to hear. One, they need God. And two, they are fundamentally and inescapably sinners in need of God’s grace.
Lutherans rarely like to evangelize. There’s the age-old joke of what do you get when you cross a Lutheran with a Jehovah’s Witness? You get someone who rings the doorbell but then doesn’t know what to say.
Why is it awkward to evangelize? Because doing it requires you to put yourself in an embarrassing position. You are admitting you are a sinner who needs God; and you are trying to convince another person of the very same thing; which they have likely been willing to invest their whole life’s effort into denying.
We’ll come back to that in a minute, but I do want to briefly note a dynamic going on in the lives of the people Matthew originally wrote his gospel for. They were almost certainly Jews who had decided to believe in Jesus. Probably about ten years before Matthew wrote the Jews who had become Christians were being kicked out of the synagogues. Prior to that Jews who believed in Jesus were probably worshipping right alongside those who did not. Families could still be together. Neighbors still worshipped together despite their differences. But any number of crises occurred to Jews in the Roman empire. The Christians had to go. That presented a number of problems.
Jews in the Roman empire in the first century enjoyed a protected status. They were exempted from having to worship the emperor, or participate in any of the imperial religions. As long as the early Christians were also seen to be part of Judaism the Christians enjoyed the same protections. But when the Christians are kicked out the protected status goes away. And so being a Christian might be a very costly decision. It may cost you your job, your family and friends, and even your safety. There wasn’t the widespread persecution of Christians that we often believe, but it was still a risky thing. Perhaps it was like being a non-citizen in America today. You just don’t know what to expect or what will happen.
Being a follower of Christ could be costly. At the very least it opened you to a lot of unknowns. For those hearing these words in Matthew’s day, the idea of spreading the gospel was problematic. The way Matthew quotes Jesus’ advice to his disciples let’s Matthew’s original readers know that Jesus knows that despite the goodness and essentialness of their missionary work, it will be hard. They will run into problems, and many of them. They will probably fail far more often than they succeed. But they should not be overly daunted by their failures.
That takes us back to evangelism today to people who have invested their whole lives denying the reality of their sinfulness and their need for God. They are so lost in life that they don’t even know they are lost.
Believe it or not, we’re well on the way to effective evangelism when we recognize the problems we face. It’s like someone struggling with an addiction. The biggest step is recognizing the problem itself. Once you can recognize it, then you can begin to combat it.
We know the problem we face. Which is what equips us for the next step. There are no one-size-fits-all approaches to spreading the gospel. Having clever church programs or strategies aren’t the answer. Nor are advertising campaigns. Effective evangelism is always about one on one personal knowledge. You have to know the lives that you are connecting to. Being overt is rarely the best approach. It just makes everyone feel awkward. But knowing the story of Jesus and his promises well does equip us as the opportunities arise.
Fortunately for us, that is what Matthew’s gospel is. It equips us with what we need to know and how we need to know it. Evangelism is always hard. But the Holy Spirit through the biblical authors gives us what we need. We do not need to invent it.
As we continue through Matthew’s gospel I invite you to open your ears to hear it from the perspective of evangelism. Consider the triumphs and failures the disciples and Jesus will have. See the conflicts as conflicts to learn from, and apply today. Matthew gives us what we need. The work has already been done for us. We will never have 100% success in evangelism. We’ll probably never even manage to be as successful as a mediocre batting average in baseball. Which, if you not a baseball fan, is still a low percentage. But even with everyone having a low percentage, games are won.
Know the challenges. Learn from scripture. Love the people you are around. Speak to them when you must speak. And always live the grace and the hope that God provides. You may be surprised by how many do realize they are sinners, and that they need God’s grace. And whether you succeed or whether you fail, God’s will is done.
