Watch this whole worship service online here.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near.' 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. -Matthew 9:35-10:8
Moved by compassion for the crowds, Jesus sent out his disciples--to heal, to cast out demons, and to proclaim that the Reign of God had come near.
In the gospels, when this word, for the “crowds” (ὄχλος)
(also sometimes translated as “the masses”
or as “the multitudes” in other translations of the gospels)...
When this word is mentioned, it often refers not just to a big group of people--but (also) it often refers to a particular demographic,
a particular slice of the population to which Jesus ministered in his earthly context.
In this case, the crowds also means “the poor people” or more accurately, “the poorest people.”
That is, the crowds here in the gospels (as a term) refers to the 90% of the people under Roman occupation who collectively held only 10% of the empire’s wealth.
Said differently, the crowds weren’t just poor, but they were the impoverished ones--
people made poor by the structures of the empire--marginalized and excluded from the economy (on purpose),
while folks like Caesar and Pilate and Herod--
these names we know from the Bible and the Creeds--
“feasted sumptuously every day,”
wearing expensive garments, and passing by the crowds, as the crowds, lacerated, begged outside their gates on the streets (see Luke 16:19).
These crowds, to whom Jesus ministered, therefore, were hungry people.
They were sick and more than other groups,
they were susceptible to disease.
They were people pushed down by the weight of the empire and oppressed by those demons that the empire continually produced--
demons which kept them from fully living and from being fully alive, demons which made it hard enough (from day to day) just to survive,
demons which kept them from speaking up, from having a voice, and from ever having any kind of real or lasting power.
And these demons, produced by empire, says scripture, were “legion.”
They were many and overwhelming.
And so, in the midst of it all, there seemed (really) to be no hope for the crowds. Just pain and then more pain and then even more.
+++
As you know,
Jesus was no stranger to pain or to poverty.
He himself was born in an animal stable behind a hotel, and (when the king threatened his life and took the lives of many of his neighbors) he and his family had to migrate to Egypt as refugees…
That is:
long before he goes to the cross
and long before Jesus begins his public ministry
and gathers these first disciples,
Jesus, too, has felt the weight of the empire.
Jesus, too, had procured many scars. And he carried them with him each day--
long before he was ever marched to the cross.
[PAUSE]
+++
“Hurt people hurt people!” This is a somewhat common saying here in the US. “Hurt people hurt people.” Scarred people make scars. Pained people (us--we) often return an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth when we feel pained or wronged.
Or worse, sometimes the pain builds up so much (and it seems so senseless) that it causes us to blow up in a senseless direction, hurting our neighbors, our colleagues, and even the ones we love the most--and often hurting those who might have actually become our com-panions (ones with whom we share bread) on a journey toward a better world.
+++
It would have been easy for Jesus to have turned out this way--to become one who hurts others because of the abuse he suffered.
Or (in another scenario) perhaps simply to have kept his head down--to have stayed out of the public spotlight, nose to the grindstone, in order not to be persecuted so badly again--in order to get by, and survive.
It also would have been easy for Jesus to dwell on his own story, his own particularities, his own pains,
and never to take the time to see
that the structures and powers that produced his particular scars
are the same structures that create unique,
different,
and quite personalized scars in others.
(Indeed, when we are scarred by the world, it is oftentimes difficult to see past our own stories, our own particularities, and our own pain).
And Yet, against all the odds and likelihoods,
Jesus somehow overcame all of those possible reactions.
Somehow, in the midst of it all, Jesus knew and taught and even figured out how to live another Way.
Outside of the vicious cycles of violence and death.
+++
In today’s reading,
when Jesus saw the crowds, helpless and harassed, he took the scene in.
When he heard their cries rising up,
he didn’t clap back: “Well, whatever! I have pain, too.” What about me???
On the contrary, he was moved with compassion (a word that, at its roots, means “to suffer with”).
And he realized that the pains of these people,
and the pains that he had experienced as a poor person and as a refugee,
as unique and individualized as they all were,
were (nonetheless) produced by the same Empire.
That is, their pain, their particularities,
were not uniqueness that should divide (or conquer)--or pit Jesus and his disciples against the crowds.
On the contrary, their unique pains, the scars on their bodies and the scars embedded deep in their spirits, were caused by the same world, and, indeed, the same empire.
And these scars became for Jesus and the crowds a starting point.
Their pain, unique and yet shared, became a launchpad,
a springboard, a space of convergence from which Jesus and the crowds might begin (through their hopeless situations) to dream and to speak God’s dreams:
The last shall be first. Those pressed down will be lifted up. The hungry shall eat. Blessed are those who mourn now. The powerful shall be removed from their thrones!
Indeed, these are the dreams that Jesus sent out his disciples to proclaim. This was the heart of their message, and what they meant when they spoke about the Kingdom of God drawing near.
+++
It sounds radical, doesn’t it?
Well... it is.
As you well know, Jesus’ message eventually got him arrested and killed.
But as the message spread, even after Jesus was gone,
it continued to plant in the crowds and in the disciples, hope--a hope that was quite often hard to come by.
There, growing in their scarred spirits,
sprouting up from their shared pain, were dreams.
There they would see a vision of God’s Reign
that still stands in contrast to the Right-Now and Right Here today.
Visions and dreams that would gather people from the ends of the earth,
whatever the shape or depth of their scars,
a dream, indeed, that we still gather around as disciples this morning.
+++
The disciples are sent out: healing, exorcising, and proclaiming that God’s Reign has come near--it’s so close you can touch it--
and as it comes close,
As it comes so near,
it appears that something else, something just, something beautiful and something other-than-this, might
just
be possible.
Moved by compassion for the crowds, Jesus sent out his disciples--to heal, to cast out demons, and to proclaim that the Reign of God had come near.
God, unite us in our pains and help us to dream from our scars of your Reign-Coming-Near, that the lowly might be lifted, and the hungry might have their fill.
Forever and ever.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment