Harassed and Helpless...

Since beginning my new job as a mobilizer at Crossover Global a year ago I have adopted a new passage of Scripture to go along with my new vocational calling. That passage is familiar to many.

Matthew 9:35-38 says, "35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

If you are like me, we tend to focus on the later part of this passage where Jesus challenges us to pray earnestly to the Lord to send laborers into His harvest. This describes what my job at Crossover Global is all about. As a mobilizer, I am called to challenge and to help people as they consider how God might use their lives to increase the harvest!

As I re-read the passage this morning I was struck, however by something different. I was reminded of the neediness of the people Jesus was ministering to. The passage says they were 'harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd'. These two words, harassed, and helpless are pitiful words. The picture that comes to my mind is of someone who is broken, poor, downtrodden, pitiful. Have you known people in your life who fit this description?

I am reminded of a man I knew in graduate school we nicknamed 'Sunshine'. It was an unkind nickname assigned to him without his knowledge and spoken of him behind his back. Indeed, people have a capacity for cruelness even in the church. I'm sure you have known someone like Sunshine in your life. I do not believe I ever saw him smile in three years. Conversations with him were always filled with the most negative and depressing things. He was the most incessantly down in the mouth, negative person I have ever met. Do you know a 'Sunshine'?

What we did not know, and I learned in our last semester together, was his story. A few years prior to attending seminary, he had been at the top of his professional game. He received national recognition for excellence in his chosen field (college athletics). He had actually won national championships as a head coach. He was also married with 3 beautiful daughters whom he loved dearly. He could not have been happier. Then life hit hard! His family was taken from him in a tragic car accident. In an instant his wife and all three of his daughters, gone in a moment. His perfect world came crashing down around him in an instant with one phone call. He became more and more depressed and less and less able to perform in his coaching career. After a rapid decline his teams success, he eventually lost his job as well. "Harassed and helpless" he decided to see if he could find help in seminary. Maybe he could get some new perspective on life to help him deal with his pain.

Who are the 'harassed and helpless' in your life? Who are they in the world? Are we all not harassed and helpless spiritually without Jesus? In the North American church it is easy for us to hide our helplessness. We have every opportunity to work hard and create a life that seems abundant, right? We are not the picture of brokenness and pain that Jesus is speaking of in this passage? We are not even like the story I told of my friend 'Sunshine' from graduate school, right? We have everything we need, right?In reality, we know spiritual needs are everywhere around us! No matter where we turn, we can find them. The harvest is abundant and God is calling us to pray for laborers... He is calling some of us to these fields to labor around us! But there is more to consider when we think about the harassed and helpless Jesus spoke of.

While it is true spiritual needs are everywhere and if we are willing to open our eyes we might see the many 'Sunshine' stories around us, and it is equally true that Jesus calls His followers to meet these needs, let me draw our attention to a more troubling reality. There are billions of people in the world (a massive harvest field) who are completely 'helpless' spiritually because they have no opportunity to know or understand the Gospel. These people live their entire lives and die without ever meeting a Christian, seeing or reading a Bible, or hearing the good news of Jesus. Can you think of anything more helpless than that? They are harassed by an enemy who has kept the gospel from being known where they were born, live, and will die.

I want to challenge each of you reading this to reconsider how you read the passage in Matthew 9. When you think about the 'helpless and harassed', in addition to the 'Sunshines' in your life, consider the 42% of the world who live in places where they do not have access to His good news. They do not know the message of the cross, because no one has ever gone to their people. Did you catch that...? Yes I said 42% of the world. This is staggering!! PRAY... PRAY... PRAY... therefore that that Lord of the Harvest will send out workers into His harvest... These harassed and helpless people are anxious for the hope and healing that only the Gospel of Jesus can bring. We have it, they are in desperate need of it!! We still need workers for the harvest!! Would you be a prayer warrior for the harvest? Could God be calling you to be a worker? Lord help us to reach these helpless and harassed who are living without the life-giving hope of Your Gospel! Send out laborers Lord Jesus we pray!