The Harvest Is Plentiful: Evangelism with the Compassion of Christ
After describing the faith of the people in the Matthew 9 narrative, Rev. Sang Ho Bae spoke about Jesus’ compassion for the lost. Here, he emphasized the urgency of the gospel harvest and the call for believers to become kingdom workers without prejudging who may respond.
Jesus clearly revealed one purpose from the beginning to the end of His public ministry. “Let us go on to the nearby towns, so that I may preach there also; for this is why I have come” (Mark 1:38). Jesus declared that the reason He came to this earth was evangelism, and in fact He went throughout every city and village, proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom. His ministry was not limited to a particular region or a particular class. Cities and rural areas, men and women, the rich and the poor, the sick and the healthy—all were under His footsteps. This teaches us that the gospel must be proclaimed to all peoples.
The reason Jesus went to every place was because of His deep compassion. “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36). The expression “He had compassion” in Scripture does not mean mere sympathy, but a strong stirring or pain that comes from deep compassion. Jesus, seeing souls wandering in sin and suffering, felt pain from the depths of His heart. His evangelism flowed not from duty but from love. Sheep without a shepherd cannot survive on their own. In the dry land of Judea, sheep with a dull sense of direction cannot find pasture or water by themselves, and having neither strong teeth nor horns, they have no strength to protect themselves. Jesus saw souls who were in exactly such a condition.
Under political oppression and poverty, religious confusion, and spiritual ignorance, the people were wandering, and the religious leaders of that time were false shepherds who, far from caring for the people, rather made them tools for their own gain. Jesus, seeing them, felt a heart-tearing pain, and that compassion became the driving force that led Him to proclaim the gospel.
Today, we need kingdom harvesters who proclaim the gospel with the compassion of Jesus. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matt 9:37), declaring that now is truly the time of harvest. The harvest season has a fixed time, and if that time passes, the grain will rot; therefore, we cannot afford to miss it. So Jesus commanded His disciples, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt 9:38). The time of harvest is urgent, and everyone must be mobilized. The apostle Paul bore incarnational sacrifice to fulfill this mission. Just as Jesus became a man to save people, Paul became like a Jew to win the Jews, and though he was not a Gentile, he conducted himself like a Gentile to win the Gentiles. For the sake of the gospel, he willingly chose discomfort and sacrifice.
In this regard, we can recall an important scene from the life of St. Francis. Though he was born into a wealthy family, he sold his possessions and entered into the condition of the poor in order to preach the gospel to the marginalized. He begged as he preached because only by returning to the condition of the poor could he understand them and break down the walls between them. The way of salvation is only Jesus, and the soul that does not know His name cannot but perish; therefore, we must preach the gospel without choosing whom to approach. The attitude of approaching only those who seem likely to believe and excluding from the start those who seem unlikely to believe does not match the spirit of the gospel.
Scripture shows in many places that people who, by human judgment, seemed utterly unlikely to believe, accepted the gospel. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a leader of Jewish society, yet he came to Jesus. Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod, grew up in the palace with the notorious Herod, yet became a leader of the church in Antioch. Even during the time when the Roman Empire persecuted Christianity, some members of the emperor’s household accepted the gospel. Therefore, there is no reason to judge in advance, “That person will not believe even if I preach the gospel,” and give up. God has placed His chosen people in various places, and He has set us beside them to call them. The people we meet—those we encounter in the same workplace and in the same neighborhood—are not people we have come to know by chance; they may be the very harvest God has entrusted to us.