In the Name, etc..
“Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.” This is an interesting sentence, which will benefit from a close listen; it sounds like ordinary narrative, and in its natural meaning it is, but there are details which we need to notice.
First, “teaching in their synagogues”. “Their” synagogues? This apparently means the synagogues of the towns and villages where Jesus is visiting, not Jesus’s own synagogue, or those of his disciples. In other words, Jesus and his disciples are in territory not native to them, and in spite of this crowds follow them. This makes clear the power of his charisma, as we say, his ability to inspire trust and confidence in his ability to heal, and to attract to his teaching. Just before today’s Gospel, Jesus has cured two blind men and a mute demoniac, and inspired, if that is the word, the suspicion of the Pharisees who think that Jesus is relying on the power of demons to drive out demons. The fact that such a suspicion doesn’t make sense doesn’t stop the Pharisees, and doesn’t stop Jesus either, since of course his authority comes from God, not from demons. The resentment of the Pharisees is in the background, as it were, of today’s Gospel, following Jesus and his disciples all the way to the end. The Pharisees follow Jesus just as the disciples do, among the crowds. The Pharisees are seeking the source of Jesus’s power, perhaps unconsciously seeking a cure as well, from they know not what. Or perhaps, more likely, seeking that power for their own purposes, without regard to all the needs around them. The crowds know very well where Jesus’s power comes from, and what it can do.
“Proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.” The Evangelist puts these things together, kingdom and curing, to make it clear what the kingdom really is: that state, that condition, that reality, where there is no limit to the power of God, where God’s rule is made visible, and to make clear that Jesus not only proclaims that kingdom, but actually is that kingdom, not different from it, made present in the world, and that he includes the world in the kingdom. There is no limit to the power of the kingdom, because, as Matthew says, Jesus is “curing every disease and illness” --- every disease, apparently without exception.
“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” “Troubled and abandoned?” “Sheep without a shepherd?” Troubled by whom? Abandoned by whom?
Troubled and abandoned by the same Pharisees who, rather than respond to the real needs in front of them, in this case every disease and illness, they look for demons; they pursue a healer rather than support him. The crowds are abandoned by the very people who ought to lead them to the kingdom which Jesus proclaims. Jesus is the shepherd that the Pharisees refuse to be; Jesus is the kingdom personified that the Pharisees refuse to see, and so they see him as demonic. Their refusal to see Jesus as he is, blinds them to the reality of God’s presence and power. They reject their own ability to see the uncreated light of God and so experience it as the dark light of the demonic. They refuse to be present in the kingdom, to care for the people among whom God has placed them, to interpret the Scriptures for them and to teach. Because they reject this care, Jesus takes it on himself, and passes it on to his disciples.
“The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” The harvest is the crowd, troubled and abandoned by the leaders God had provided for them. The Pharisees have given up on the task, and allowed themselves to be distracted by a futile search for demons. Jesus instructs his disciples to ask “the master of the harvest,” that is, God, or Jesus himself, to “send out laborers”, to fill the places that the leaders of Israel have abandoned. The response to this instruction is not recorded, but we can infer that the disciples asked Jesus to appoint them to the task, to send out laborers for his harvest. Jesus accepts the request, accepts his role as replacement for the pusillanimous leaders of Israel, and takes responsibility for it.
“Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and illness.” Note that Jesus, or rather Matthew, refers to the “twelve disciples” also called the apostles, so Jesus is making a distinction between the Twelve and the rest of his disciples. The Twelve are his inner circle, with whom he shares his inner teaching, and the sign of their closeness to him is their authority over spirits and disease. The Twelve are named, as few other disciples are; this emphasizes their importance to the whole community, and to Jesus. The first named is Peter, as befits his role as first among the Twelve, although they all receive the same commission at the outset, which Jesus describes in the next few verses.
Jesus begins with an interesting prohibition: “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” We may understand this as the beginning of a step-by-step spread of the gospel, not necessarily a restriction to Israel alone. The Twelve are to begin with Israel, the lost sheep. Pagans and Samaritans will come later. They will still be there after Israel’s sheep are no longer lost. Jesus instructs in more detail what the Twelve are to do: proclaim the kingdom, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. And, by the way, don’t charge for the service, quite unlike health care in our country. “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” This is a teaching we have yet to absorb. The kingdom is associated with physical, mental, and spiritual health. The kingdom and wholeness are not separate.
Who are we in this story? Are we in the crowd, following Jesus out of curiosity, or amazement at his power, or amazement at Jesus’s ability to carry on in spite of the suspicion which some have of him? Or are we disciples, asking Jesus to send us out as laborers into the harvest, to proclaim the kingdom, and to cure?
Or are we among the lost sheep? It seems to me that in the world that we know, we are all, one way or another, lost. We are all in need of healing. The whole society is possessed by demons; we see proof of this in violence, homelessness, addiction, astounding inequality, racism and other abuses, the climate crisis, war, and so on and on. It seems to me that we, collectively and even individually perhaps, need to ask Jesus to drive out our demons, to heal us of our lack of awareness, our lack of compassion, our ignorance, our selfishness and more, and only after he has cured us spiritually, then ask him to send us out to proclaim the kingdom, to do the work he has given us to do, to drive out unclean spirits “and to cure every disease and every illness.”
In the Name, etc.. Amen.
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