Introduction: From Watching Jesus to Joining Him
Throughout the first weeks of Ordinary Time, we settle into a different rhythm than the great festival seasons of the church year. The stories become less about the defining moments of Jesus’ life (his birth, death, and resurrection) and more about the shape of his ministry. We find ourselves walking alongside Jesus through villages and towns, listening to his teaching, witnessing his healings, and observing the ways he encounters those on the margins.
Yet this week’s Gospel marks an important turning point. Up to this point in Matthew’s narrative, the disciples have mostly been observers. They have watched Jesus preach the Sermon on the Mount. They have witnessed miracles. They have seen him call tax collectors, touch lepers, calm storms, and restore the lives of those whom society had written off.
Now the ministry that belonged to Jesus alone begins to become the work of the disciples as well.
The transition is subtle but significant. Jesus looks out upon the crowds and sees people who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” His response is not simply to continue the work himself. Instead, he gathers others into it. The compassion of Jesus becomes the calling of the disciples.
For congregations entering the long green season of growth and discipleship, Matthew presents a question that remains just as pressing today as it was in Galilee: What happens when those who have been following Jesus are asked to become participants in his mission?
Narrative Context
Matthew 9:35 functions as a summary statement and a transition point within the Gospel (“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”). The verse intentionally echoes Matthew 4:23 almost word for word and the repetition acts like a literary bookend, bringing together everything that has occurred since the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus has been traveling through the cities and villages of Galilee, teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. Everything that has happened between those two verses (from the Sermon on the Mount to the healings, exorcisms, and callings of disciples) has demonstrated what the kingdom of heaven looks like when it breaks into the world.
But Matthew is doing more than summarizing Jesus’ ministry. He is preparing readers for a shift. Up to this point, the disciples have largely been spectators. Beginning in chapter 10, they become participants.
The catalyst for this transition is Jesus’ response to the crowds. Matthew tells us that Jesus sees people who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” This image has deep roots in Israel’s Scriptures. Throughout the Old Testament, kings, priests, and religious leaders are often described as shepherds entrusted with the care of God’s people. When leaders of the people falter in their responsibilities, the people become scattered sheep (Numbers 27:17; Ezekiel 34:1-10).
For those gathered around Jesus, the metaphor would have resonated with life under Roman occupation and the complicated leadership structures of first-century Judea and Galilee. For Matthew’s audience, likely writing in the decades following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the image may have carried additional significance. The Temple had been destroyed, traditional sources of authority were being questioned, and Jewish communities were wrestling with questions of identity and leadership. The image of sheep searching for a shepherd would have felt particularly relevant.
Jesus’ response to this these harassed and helpless people is not merely sympathy. Matthew uses a verb “ἐσπλαγχνίσθη”, often translated as “compassion,” but the Greek word describes something much deeper. It’s a visceral, gut-level response. Jesus is moved by what he sees in these scattered people.
And so, the commissioning of the disciples emerges from that compassion. Now our modern hearing often stumbles over Jesus’ instruction to avoid Gentile and Samaritan communities. Why on to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”?
But it’s important to remember that Matthew’s Gospel presents a mission that unfolds in stages. Jesus’ earthly ministry is directed primarily toward Israel, but the Gospel itself repeatedly hints at a wider vision. Gentiles appear throughout Matthew’s narrative (the magi at Jesus’ birth, the centurion whose faith exceeds that found in Israel, and eventually the Great Commission that sends disciples to “all nations” (28:19)). Chapter 10 should not be read as the final scope of God’s mission but as its starting point.
The Mission Begins with Compassion
Many sermons on this text focus on the harvest imagery. The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. Therefore, the church needs more workers.
While that reading is not wrong, it can easily miss what motivates the mission in the first place.
Before Jesus ever speaks about the harvest, he sees the crowds.
Before he sends the disciples, he is moved deeply.
Before there is a commission, there is compassion.
That starting point is critical.
Churches often think about mission in terms of programs, outreach strategies, volunteer recruitment, or institutional survival. Jesus begins somewhere much simpler. He notices people. He sees suffering that others have overlooked or accepted as normal. He sees those who have been neglected, forgotten, or abandoned by systems and leaders.
Only then does he gather others into the work.
The disciples are not sent because Jesus needs assistants. They are sent because the needs of the people are too great to ignore.
That shapes the nature of the mission itself. Notice what Jesus tells the disciples to do: proclaim the nearness of God’s kingdom, cure the sick, cleanse those with skin diseases, cast out demons, and raise the dead. The mission is both proclamation and restoration. The disciples are not simply delivering information about God. They are participating in God’s healing work.
Perhaps that is why Matthew places this commissioning immediately after a series of healing stories. The disciples are not sent to do something Jesus has not already demonstrated. They are invited to continue what they have witnessed.
The compassion of Jesus becomes the vocation of the disciples.
Preaching Possibility
Learning to See
Many congregations hear a text about mission and immediately think about action. What should we do? Where should we go? What new program should we start?
Jesus begins with a different question. “Can you see what I see?”
The turning point in this Gospel is not that Jesus notices a lack of workers. The turning point is that Jesus notices people. The crowds are not statistics, projects, or opportunities for growth. They are human beings who are struggling.
The challenge for our congregations may not be finding something to do. It may be learning how to pay attention.
Who in our communities feels harassed and helpless today?
Who has been pushed to the margins?
Who feels abandoned by institutions?
Who carries burdens that remain invisible to most of us?
Who have we written off as someone else’s responsibility?
There is a temptation for churches to care only about suffering that exists at a comfortable distance. Distant needs can be important, but they don’t always require us to confront our own assumptions. Jesus first sends the disciples into their own communities, among their own people, to encounter the struggles that are already present around them.
That may be where this text becomes most challenging. When we ask who is “harassed and helpless” in our communities, we may discover people we did not expect. The answer may not fit neatly into our political frameworks or social assumptions. It may be the immigrant family trying to navigate an unfamiliar system. It may be the elderly neighbor living in isolation. It may be the struggling single parent. It may be the laid-off factory worker, the rural poor, or the white working-class family that feels forgotten by every institution that once supported them.
Jesus does not begin with categories. He begins with compassion. The disciples are not sent to find the “right” kind of people to care about. They are sent to see the people who are already suffering and respond to them with the mercy of God.
The same invitation remains before the church today. The harvest is plentiful, not because there is a shortage of programs or committees, but because there are people all around us who need to know they are seen, valued, and loved by God.
The question is not whether suffering exists. Jesus has already seen it. The question is whether we are willing to see what he sees, and whether that compassion will move us to join him in responding to it.
Micah Krey 
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