Defining Terms
In American English, the meaning of the word “ministry” isn’t well-known. Most people associate this word with some sort of religious activity. But if you ask them what ministry is, or what it means to do ministry, you may receive some blank stares. Yet this word, ministry, in its basic sense refers to service. If you minister to your neighbor, that simply means that you’re helping them. You’re humbling yourself by setting aside your own agenda and recreational pursuits, and you’re committing yourself to the well-being of someone else.
The greatest picture of what real ministry looks like is seen in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who on multiple occasions indicated that he is essentially one with God the Father – he humbled himself by descending to our broken world and taking on human flesh. Though he was morally unstained, he willingly bore our guilt to the cross. He died to pay our penalty. He made himself low in order to raise us out of darkness into favor and friendship with God. And Jesus’s posture of ministry is evident throughout the gospel accounts that testify to Jesus’s life.
We catch a picture of this in Matthew 9:35-38:
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. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
From this text, I want to point out three important attributes of Jesus’ ministry.
The Content of Jesus’s Ministry
First, in verse 35, we see the content of Jesus’s ministry. Specifically, Jesus’s service consists of two things. For one thing, he’s serving people through what he’s saying. Jesus has an actual, important message that the people needed to hear and believe. Without Jesus’s ministry of speaking, the crowds would have been ignorant about who God was and what he was seeking to accomplish in human history. Second, you’ll see that he’s serving people through what he’s doing. It’s worth noting that Jesus’s prophetic role and miraculous power were unique. The potency and goodness of his message were confirmed in uniquely supernatural acts of mercy and healing. And though our ministry of doing won’t consist of the same unique signs and wonders, there’s still a real sense in which our visible attitudes and actions will confirm the goodness and potency of the message we proclaim. Similarly to Jesus’s ministry, then, our ministry should contend for the truth of God’s Word, and should be confirmed and commended by tangible evidence that God’s Word is trustworthy and transformative.
The Compassion of Jesus’s Ministry
Notice, next, in verse 36, the compassion of Jesus’s ministry. As Jesus looked out over the crowds of people who gathered around them, he could have had any number of responses. He could have been exasperated by the ignorance of the Jews, who should have known the Scriptures. As the sinless Savior, he could have been outraged by their scandalous disobedience against God. Jesus could have been annoyed by their demands, or anxious about their perception of him, or puffed up in pride that they all were treating him like a celebrity. But never once does Jesus become pompously self-absorbed or vindictive. Instead, as Jesus looks out on the crowds, we read that “he had compassion for them.”
Jesus recognized that these people didn’t have a Shepherd who could lead them into truth. These people were being harassed by their personal passions, by the pressures of society, and by the manipulative temptations of demonic activity. These people were spiritually helpless like sheep before wolves. And though it isn’t plainly stated here, this passage implies that Jesus has arrived to be the Good Shepherd for these people (cf. John 10:11-15). He ministers to these people’s needs with a deep love and concern for their souls. And in this, he helps us to realize that without compassion, ministering to people isn’t possible. For as long as our ministry is motivated by self-focused ambition or is tainted by disdain for the people around us, we won’t be serving anyone. Instead, we should remember the compassion Jesus has had on us, in our lostness, and we should be eager to let that same compassion permeate the way we look at others.
The Commission of Jesus’s Ministry
Finally, in verse 37, we see the commission of Jesus’s ministry. Jesus laments to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” And by this comment, Jesus means that there are many people who are spiritually hungry and searching, but the number of people who are engaged in ministry to these people is comparatively few. So Jesus urges his disciples to pray in verse 38: “therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” We’re urged to pray like this because our ministry isn’t possible without God’s ministry. Our prayer is that God would minister to His people by ministering through His people – by raising up new laborers to provide spiritual service.
But where will these new laborers in the harvest field come from? Who will these workers be? As it turns out, these very disciples who are praying for more workers end up being sent out by Jesus into his harvest field. As Jesus draws attention to the spiritual neediness of the world, and as he urges his disciples to pray for more ministry workers, he’s shaping the hearts and priorities of his disciples. He’s preparing them to be the earnest, compassionate laborers who will toil in the field for the welfare of human souls. As we pray for more workers to minister to the lost, we should recognize that God may be answering our prayers, not by sending other people, but by equipping us for service to the people around us.
So let’s seek ways to serve the people around us. Let’s be sure that we know the gospel clearly enough to articulate it, and that we believe the gospel enough to have our lives shaped by it. Let’s view the harassed and helpless people around us with compassion and point them to the Good Shepherd. And let’s be earnest in our prayers and priorities to multiply disciples of Christ as he has commissioned us.
