A friend of mine wrote this perspective on "The Great Commission": This is just a small part of his book, but I find it intriguing.
THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on 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 workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” -MATTHEW 9: 35-38
Unless you’ve never darkened the door of a church in your life, the above scripture is one you’ve heard expounded upon a million and one times. It is often used to stir up missionary zeal and encourage people to get out and “win the lost”, for, as the verse states, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. We picture Jesus looking upon the throngs of humanity that are cascading into a fiery chasm of eternal punishment, and then turning to His disciples and urging them to go forth and reap a harvest for the Lord! The only problem is that nowhere is hell or judgment mentioned in this passage. Jesus is not commanding His disciples to pray for the raising up of Gospel laborers so that they can warn men of hell, but because “he saw the crowds… had compassion on them… because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”. When Jesus looked upon the crowds He saw their pain, misery, and confusion, and longed to see them impacted by the Good News of the Kingdom. This Good News included healing the sick, and telling men of the love and Grace of His Father.
What is my point? My point is that Christ’s primary concern was not for us to go into the world and warn them of a burning hell, but for us to take Good News, coupled with hope and healing, to a harassed and helpless humanity. The backbone of our message is not fear and terror, but freedom, hope, and healing. To miss this is to miss the Gospel. Jesus did not run about the countryside in a sandwich board, screaming “turn or burn” at every passerby. He went about “doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil” (Acts 10: 38). It was these very things that He saw the world as being in need of, and it can be assumed, therefore, that these are the works He desires for His “laborers” to carry out. The world does not need a red faced, angry preacher scolding them for their secret sins. They need a compassionate shepherd who will help to lead them out of the fog of confusion and pain that they live in constantly. Jesus saw this, and the compassion that propelled His ministry arose from His knowledge of humanity’s pain. His message was Good News, and it brought hope, healing, comfort and clarity to those who believed it.
Such a message is universal and never expires! Humanity has spoken the language of love from day one, and will never cease to understand it. Messages of fear, judgment, and a retributive god, however, are things that the world has outgrown and humanity is no longer moved by their mention. The world has wised up, and they see the flawed nature of the message we’ve peddled. We must change or become irrelevant relics of the past. It is not that we must tailor ourselves to our culture and compromise the Gospel. No, we must return to the real Gospel - to the Gospel that Jesus and the apostles preached. It may look quite different from Mr. Edwards’ terrifying tour through God’s “little shop of horrors”, but it may also actually work and set people free to live as God intended.
It’s time to recapture the true essence and heart of the Gospel, which is much more about spiritual health than it is separation and hell. The world is ready for such a message, but they, along with Jesus, have very little time for the message of an angry God who callously dangles those who would dare to defy Him over a molten pool of eternal damnation. As the old movie The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat no longer moves crowds to panic, so Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God no longer moves the world to conversion. If our message has an expiration date, it simply can’t be perfect, and if it isn’t perfect it can’t be the Gospel.
