The Answer to the Prayer

Matthew 9:35-38

June 22, 2025 • Mount Pleasant UMC

I’ve been thinking about the prayers we pray, and I even got to thinking about the prayers we learn as young children. How many of you prayed this one before bed: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” You know, that’s kind of a morbid prayer for kids to pray, don’t you think? Especially before bed? More upbeat, I suppose, is the prayer many of us learned to pray at dinnertime: “God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food.” Or the alternate form of that prayer which I learned at church camp: “Good grub, good meat, good God, let’s eat.”

Prayer is one of those mysteries that we don’t really understand. When we ask for things, sometimes we know when we get an answer and other times we don’t. People will pray, “Bless so and so,” but what does that mean and how do we know when we or they are blessed in answer to the prayer? Some prayers we wait a lifetime to see some kind of answer and other prayers seem answered instantly. And then there’s the question of what things God bothers with. Does God really care if we get a closer spot in the Walmart parking lot? Is God more concerned with overseas war than with my snotty nose? And does God hear the prayers of some people more than others? All mysteries that I don’t really have an answer to (though I do have lots of thoughts that I don’t have time to go into here).

Sometimes, though, I think we overlook an answer that is right in front of us. Because sometimes, maybe most times, the answer to the prayer we are praying is us. You and me. That is, at least, what is happening in the Gospel passage we read this morning. Jesus is asking the disciples to pray, and the answer to his prayer are the people surrounding him, the disciples. He is asking God “to send out workers into his harvest field” (9:38), and standing around him are twelve men who are at least part of the answer to the prayer (cf. McKnight, Matthew, pg. 155).

This morning we’re wrapping up this series called “Go,” in which we’ve been reminding ourselves of who we are as a church and what we are supposed to be about. We’ve answered the what question: make disciples. That’s what we are supposed to do. We’ve answered the how question: by the power of the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost. And we’ve answered the who question: Jesus is who we are supposed to center on and share about. He is our message. This morning, we will tackle the where and when question. Where is everywhere (remember Jesus said we were to go into “all the world” cf. Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15) and when is now.

As Matthew tells it, Jesus has been busy in and around his “own town,” Capernaum (9:1), teaching and calling disciples and healing people. At this point in his ministry, he is still very rooted in the small towns and villages of Galilee, in the northern part of Israel, mainly hanging out in the synagogues and trying to teach his own people what the kingdom of God is all about (9:35; cf. Card, Matthew: The Gospel of Identity, pg. 95). His mission, as Matthew summarizes it, consists of three things: teaching, preaching and healing (9:35; Davis, Come Alive: Matthew, pg. 76). That’s what he spends his time doing, and it causes crowds to gather, crowds for whom Jesus has great compassion. That’s a great word in the original text; I share it mainly because it’s fun to say. The word is splagchnizomai, and you’re not saying it right if you don’t spit on the person in front of you. It gets better; literally it means “to have the bowels yearn.” In the first century world, it was believed that your emotions came from your bowels. In our culture, we think the emotions are rooted in our hearts, but we still talk about splagchnizomai when we say we “feel it in our gut,” or we’ve got “a knot in our gut,” or I feel “kicked in the gut.” Jesus’ gut aches here (that’s what Matthew says) because he feels bad for all the people. He wants something better for them.

What is it about them, then, that causes this gut reaction in Jesus? Matthew says it is because the people “were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (9:36). Sheep without a shepherd will not only wander off, but they are then in danger of some sort of predator attacking and killing them. When Jesus looks at these people, that’s what he sees: sheep in danger of their lives. When Matthew says this, his readers would have understood this to be a common complaint from the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. Way back in the beginnings of their time as a people, Moses had prayed that God would appoint someone to care for them so that they would “not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:17). And yet, over and over, the prophets complained that those God had given authority to shepherd the people had failed, had not lived up to their responsibility. In one place, Ezekiel 34, God directly says he is putting Israel’s shepherds, her leaders, on trial. This is the charge: “Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?…You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost” (Ezekiel 34:2, 4). In other words, the shepherds weren’t doing what shepherds are supposed to do and it was still true in Jesus’ day. The rulers, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and others weren’t caring for the people. Instead, as Jesus himself will say, they “tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:4). The people were “harassed and helpless” and it hurt Jesus deep in his gut.

So what is his solution? It’s to take immediate action. “The harvest is plentiful,” he says, “but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (9:38). “When” is “now.” When the harvest is ready, you don’t sit around and wait and wonder if you should go bring in the crop. When the harvest is ready, it’s time to get to work. And Jesus, looking at the people, knows the harvest is ready. A harassed and helpless people need some good news. Their hearts are prepared and open. So Jesus tells the disciples first of all to pray for workers, and then in the very next chapter, he sends these same disciples out as workers. They are the answer to their own prayers (cf. McKnight 155). And he basically sends them out to do the same things he has been doing up to this point. He gives them lots of instructions in chapter 10, but basically their mission is what his has been: teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease (9:35). Teaching, preaching and healing. Pastor Talbot Davis says that “sounds like a recipe for a local church, doesn’t it?” (Davis 76). Indeed it does. This is not just the calling of these twelve men in first-century Galilee. This is still the calling of Christ’s disciples everywhere and in every time, in every “now.” This is what the church is supposed to be about. This is how we accomplish our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We are the answer to the prayer: “Ask the Lord of the harvest…to send out workers into his harvest field” (9:38).

So to wrap up this series, let’s compare ourselves to these three pieces of Jesus’ ministry. If we are the answer to the prayer, how are we doing? The first thing Jesus did was to go about teaching in the synagogues of Galilee. He went to the places people gathered and taught them what it meant to follow him. Synagogues, of course, were the places of worship in the first century villages, little outposts of the Temple in Jerusalem, but synagogues were also the center of life in those villages. Churches used to be like that for towns, especially in rural areas, but sadly that is no longer the case. So I think it’s worth asking where people gather today. What is the center of social life today? I’m not sure I have an answer, especially in the wake of Covid. So much changed about the way we interact during those years and I’m not sure anymore where our “centers” are today. Yet I am convinced it’s in those places where Jesus would meet people, gather with them, and teach them about following him. As I said a few weeks ago, the days when you could expect people to show up in church just because you have a building are in the past. We need to be asking where people gather and how we can be “teaching” in those places.

As for what we are teaching, we said a few weeks ago that Jesus gives us the command to teach people “to obey everything [he has] commanded you” (Matthew 28:29). And here’s a pop quiz: what did he command us to do? Over and above everything else, what is Jesus’ “new command”? “Love one another…By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,” he said, “if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Friends, it’s that simple and that hard. Which means that teaching isn’t so much having an outline and a syllabus. It’s living out love, demonstrating to the world the love of Christ.

Now, there are those who are called to teach with outlines and syllabi. Teaching is one of the named gifts of the Holy Spirit in Romans 12. In the midst of talking about ways to serve in the church, Paul says that, while we should “not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (12:3), we also ought not be shy about using the gifts God has given us. “If it is teaching, then teach” (12:7). The church needs teachers who understand and can communicate right doctrine, who can “correctly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Many of Paul’s letters are trying to correct what false teachers have come in and said to the church. We need teachers, people who are gifted, using their talents unashamedly to keep the church strong. Teaching is part of the way we answer Jesus’ prayer.

So is preaching. Matthew describes this as “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom” (10:35). and later, when Jesus is giving directions to the disciples, he tells them this is their message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near” (10:7). That’s the same message Jesus has been proclaiming from the start. Now, by “preaching,” I don’t mean some crazy guy on a street corner with a sign that says, “The End is Near.” And I don’t even mean preaching in a pulpit like Pastor Rick and I do. Not everyone is called to that kind of preaching, but we all are called to proclaim the kingdom. “Kingdom” is, of course, kind of an outdated word, especially in our culture. We don’t live in a kingdom and a lot of people don’t have any idea what it would be like. There are still kingdoms in the world, but because we’re so focused on our own world, we don’t have a good idea of what a kingdom is. Some scholars prefer the translation “reign of God” instead of kingdom. In other words, what Jesus proclaims is that a time is coming when God will be in charge. And that time is near. In fact, it can be a reality in your life right now. As we talked about in the Bible Breakdown class, this was always the plan. From the beginning of Scripture, the story is that God is supposed to be king over the world and king over our lives. He is the creator; he is in charge. He is a good God who loves you and wants the best for you, if you will let him be in charge of your life.

We have a tendency to allow other things to be in charge instead. The Bible calls them “idols,” and often the Scripture writers are talking about little wooden or metal statues that we bow down in front of. Except they’re not really talking about that because those statues represent something else. A spiritual power or a false “god” (Comer, God Has a Name, pgs. 110-111). It’s what we give our worship to, and oddly enough, “we become like what we worship” (Comer 20). Thirty-five years ago, author Richard Foster said the three main idols are money, sex and power, and if that was true then, I think it’s even more true now. Money we understand; it’s something we deal with every day and managing it consumes a lot of our time. How many conversations do you have in your family about money? When someone dies, the thing that always comes up right away is who gets their money. Surveys over the years have asked people how much money they need to survive, and no matter what the income level is, the answer always is, “Just a little bit more.” We want more, we never have enough, we invest a lot of energy trying to protect what we have. With money we can get what we want and we can influence others. No wonder we sacrifice so much of our lives on the altar of money.

Others worship at the altar of sex or relationships. So much of our modern identity is tied up in who we love and who loves us. As I talked about a few weeks ago, we live in the midst of an epidemic of loneliness, where technology and our lifestyles that were supposed to connect us actually end up isolating us from other people. Covid made this worse, accelerated our isolation, by demanding that we stay away from other people. Have you noticed that when people stand in lines anywhere, still today we stand a good distance apart? Maybe not six feet, but there is distance. We have been trained. And so much of our entertainment centers on romantic relationships. We want good, solid relationships, but we also trade friendships and partners pretty quickly and easily. We are not content with having God as our king; we want someone else in our lives.

And then there is the god called power. Well, good thing that’s not one I have to deal with. I don’t have any power. Or so we think. Our worship of this idol tends to come out through our fingers—in the things we type online and then it infiltrates our minds and hearts in the way we dismiss or even disregard those who are different or think differently than we do. I’ve known people and you have too who are more concerned about their political views being noticed, known and adopted than they are that we have neighbors who are dying without Jesus. We’re more concerned with what’s happening in Washington than we are with advancing the kingdom of God. And we’re not always subtle or kind about it. The idol of power is sneaky. Money, sex and power—God is the ruler over all these things. And so to all of these (and other) idols, Jesus says, we proclaim the radical, world-changing kingdom of God.

Teaching. Preaching. And healing. Matthew says Jesus healed “every disease and sickness” (9:35) and when he sends the disciples out in chapter 10, he gives them authority over “impure spirits and…every disease and sickness” (10:1). So we’re not just talking about the common cold here. When you add in “impure spirits,” this is serious stuff. First of all, let’s notice that Jesus has “authority” over the disease and brokenness in the world because those things were not supposed to be part of the world. Disease, sickness, brokenness are all a result of sin entering the world by the choice of our ancient ancestors. It was not supposed to be this way. And so Jesus comes healing, to remove the barriers people have to hearing the kingdom message. And he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit when he leaves. And then Paul tells us that the Spirit gives some believers “gifts of healing” (1 Corinthians 12:9). Do you notice that? Did you hear what Paul said? “Gifts” of healing. It seems to be that healing is a gift given when it is needed, not a permanent gift given to particular individuals. That’s why it’s plural: “gifts.”When it is needed, the Spirit gives it. It’s not that “faith healer” on TV who brings healing; it’s the Spirit and it’s a gift. This does not mean that God will always heal, but it does mean that we should always pray for healing and then trust God for the result. I’ve been a recipient of gifts of healing on a couple of occasions, and other times I’ve had people pray for me and I wasn’t healed supernaturally. Sometimes God takes care of it and sometimes he leaves it to doctors and sometimes, like with the apostle Paul, he says, “My grace is sufficient for you” (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). I am content to leave it up to God, to trust him for whatever outcome is best.

We believe in healing. And we’re not just talking about physical healing here. There are all sorts of emotional and spiritual and psychological illnesses and diseases from which people need healing. Addictions to drugs or alcohol or pornography, mental illness that results in harm to others, abuse and violence—watch the news, read the headlines, our world is full of brokenness, sin and disease that were never meant to be. And the church, of all people and places in today’s world, should be offering healing and hope to those in need. It is a broken world, and the answer to the prayer is found in Jesus’ people offering healing until the kingdom of God comes in its fullness.

Jesus sends us out to do what he did. Our mission, as it has been since the first century, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world—to teach, preach and heal in a world that desperately needs all of that. Yet we find so many reasons to not be the church Jesus expects us to be. “I don’t have time.” “I don’t want to offend people.” “I might get rejected.” “Evangelism isn’t my gift.” “That’s what we pay the pastors to do.” “I don’t need to talk about Jesus; I’ll just show my love to others” (Rainer, Pray & Go, pg. 3). Had the disciples Jesus was sending on that day said the same thing, the church would have died in Galilee. If the early believers had said the same, the church would never have left Jerusalem. Church, the time is now, and the place is everywhere. You have been called. You are the answer to the prayer. Go and make disciples of Jesus Christ, and he will be with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20. Amen. Let’s pray.