By Rev. Dr. J.S. Bruss

There are some things that just always go together. If you have only players and no coach, you don’t really have a team. If you have soldiers without a general, you don’t have an army. And if you have “members” without a head, you don’t have a body.

Early in His ministry the Lord Jesus Christ went through all the cities and towns of Galilee and noticed that the people were “harassed and helpless.” He saw sheep, but He saw no shepherds (Matthew 9:35-36).

Now, while it’s true that to have a flock you need both sheep and shepherd, Jesus did not mean any old shepherd. In fact, Matthew indicates by the fact that Jesus taught in the synagogues that the people did have shepherds (Matthew 9:35) — of a sort. They had their rabbis and scribes and lawyers — their teachers of the law. You could say that the people had shepherds aplenty, just not the kind they needed.

But it was just that that made them “harassed and helpless.” They didn’t need to be taught, for their salvation, to try harder, do more, get their house in order. They didn’t need to be presented, for their salvation, with encouragement, harangues, and admonitions to achieve the perfection and righteousness and sanctity of God’s Law. Gathered in their synagogues around such preaching and teaching they were more like an anti-flock, a sort of dystopian version of the flock that Jesus came to gather and sustain. What they needed instead was to be a real flock with a real shepherd — the flock of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for the sheep.

There you have it. Right at the center of shepherding and flock-making is the Gospel. That’s what our Confessions say: “The church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered” (Augsburg Confession 7.1).

Let’s pull that apart a little bit. The “church” is the flock into which the Lord Jesus wishes to gather the sheep. The “saints” are the sheep declared righteous by God for the sake of the holy, innocent life and the bitter sufferings and death of the Good Shepherd for the sin of the sheep who have received Christ’s death through faith alone. The “Gospel” is that all-availing death of Jesus.

And that Gospel needs “teachers and administrators.”

After Jesus lamented the “harassed and helpless” sheep, He saw all around Himself. He turned to His disciples and said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37b-38).

The laborers are the teachers/preachers of the Gospel and the administrators of the Sacraments. Like Paul, they are — they must be — “determined to know nothing (in the flock) except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Apart from that pure Gospel and the Sacraments rightly administered there is no harvest, and the sheep are left harassed and helpless — under the power of sin, death, and devil.

But rescued from that dread power by the Gospel on the lips of true shepherds, they are made saints — the flock of Jesus Christ. These things must remain together. There can be no flock of Christ apart from shepherds faithful to the Gospel, and there are no shepherds faithful to the Gospel around whom the Lord does not also draw His flock.

This month’s study text:

The Harvest Is Plentiful, the Laborers Few

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. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Reflection Questions:

Why were people “harassed and helpless” in the time of Jesus? What about today?

How are people gathered into the flock the Lord Jesus wishes to create?

Jesus implored His disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. Why? Is that prayer still important today?

What blessings have come to you by being drawn into the flock of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, I thank You that You have answered the prayer of Your church and sent forth laborers into Your harvest, even to me. From all my sin You have become my Rescue. My death You have made but a sleep. For my hell You have given me Your heaven. Continue to give me and Your whole church faithful shepherds who will nourish Your flock with Your holy Gospel and Your blessed Sacraments and gather in those who are harassed and helpless in their sin. And then keep us all firm and steadfast in Your Word and faith and bring us to everlasting life. This I pray because You have commanded me to and promised to hear me. Amen. Amen. Let it be so!

The Rev. Dr. J.S. Bruss is president of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne (CTSFW).