Several of us in this congregation read lots of mystery novels. Others of us count on Britbox TV, so we can watch those British detectives at work. And some of you are highly skilled with crossword and jigsaw puzzles.
Part of our pleasure – okay, addiction –is that we like to solve puzzles and see how all the pieces fit together. There’s also the satisfaction that the bad guys get caught. Life may not be perfect, but some measure of justice can be achieved. There is at least some level of “righteousness” – of things being made right.
But there’s another reason why we’re drawn to these stories. In every mystery novel and every TV show, no matter how brilliant the central character is, he or she never solves the mystery alone.
At least one other character – and more often several – help the lead detective get to the solution. And we are intrigued and enchanted by the interactions – both playful and poignant – of the team of detectives who solve the mystery.
To be sure, team members almost always make mistakes, get distracted by false leads, fight among themselves, and are often more bumbling than brilliant.
Today and the next two Sundays, our third reading will be from Matthew’s Gospel, from what is known as the Mission Discourse, the second of five long speeches that Jesus makes in Matthew’s Gospel.
The Pentecost Season is how we experience the reality of what the Easter Season promises – that the Risen Christ is present among us, that we have been raised to new life, that our worn-out lungs and frazzled brains are now Spirit-filled.
Listening to Matthew’s Gospel is an ideal way to keep the Easter promise alive because this Gospel invites us to follow Jesus … to be his disciples … to join the Jesus team.
Matthew wasn’t written at the end of the first century to be a story about what happened 30 or 40 years earlier. Rather, it’s a story about what was happening to those Christians, probably in Syria, two generations after Jesus. And it’s our story today.
And that story is good news, good enough to move us – as Reverend Linda suggested last week – from fear to faith. More than that even: from despair to hope, from paralysis to joy, from dark to light.
All that’s possible because we are being invited to join a team, to be part of a circle that helps – if you will – solve the mystery of life, to help make things right.
Matthew’s Gospel highlights the significance of this team by focusing on the 12 disciples. They represented the 12 tribes of Israel. And Matthew calls them “Apostles,” the post-Easter name given to the 12 disciples.
What this team of 12 disciples constituted was nothing less than the restoration of 12 tribes of Israel before civil war and exile decimated all but two of the original tribes. Jesus’ words about a shepherd and the flock and about the harvest are promises that God’s kingdom is coming and all things will be made right. And this team of disciples – this new Israel – will be a light to all nations.
To turn this promise into a reality, Jesus gives the disciples and us today – a mission. And that mission is the same mission as Jesus’ mission.
In the chapters immediately before this reading, Jesus has been doing exactly what he instructs the disciples to do: Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
It wouldn’t have been lost on Matthew’s first readers that what Jesus was doing was – in actuality – going on a mission only to Israel. The “lepers” cleansed suffered not from what we know as leprosy but from a “skin disease” more akin to eczema. These disfigured individuals were excluded and cut off from society, but Jesus says his mission now brings them in.
And, even more startling, in the verses immediately following the cleansing of the leper in chapter 8, a centurion – a Gentile and an enforcer of the brutal Roman occupation – asks Jesus to heal his paralyzed son. Jesus does so and thereby makes it clear that revenge and violence have no place in God’s new kingdom.
In today’s reading – and in the next two weeks – Jesus will offer detailed and forceful instructions to his team. Helen Mirren would be proud! But, boy oh boy, does this team run into trouble.
In subsequent chapters we will see that the disciples failed to understand and to follow Jesus. In Matthew’s own community two generations later, the breakdown of community and the behavior of its leaders left a lot to be desired.
As we read in today from Romans and as is hinted in Matthew’s Gospel, it’s not only internal problems that threaten the Jesus team. There will be rejection, there will be suffering, there will be evil that drives us to fear and despair.
Right now, all our efforts seem so futile. Our prayers, our protests, and our political action have so little impact. Illegal and insane wars go on. Diseases are surging as science and medicine are underfunded and scorned. Millions of people in our own country and around the world are struggling to get enough food to eat.
And, in the midst of all this evil, our mission team – we as Jesus’ disciples sent on a mission – seem so ineffective.
But we really shouldn’t be surprised that our “Jesus team” is so dysfunctional, so likely to make mistakes The One we follow also ended up failing, failing so badly that he was crucified as a common criminal and a political renegade.
Matthew’s Gospel – as we hear in Eucharistic Prayer A – Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross, as a perfect sacrifice for the world. Through his death, we have the forgiveness of sins, the wiping away of our failures, an end to our fear and our arrogance.
But the curious thing is that, after all the instructions they receive in today’s Gospel reading, the disciples don’t actually go out on a mission. They have to follow Jesus to the cross.
We see now that the solution to this mystery – the big mess of our lives and our world today – is that, in swallowing death, Jesus overcame death and the grave and was raised to newness of life. And, in Matthew’s Gospel at the crucifixion, there is an earthquake and all those dead bodies – including us – come out of their graves and start walking around.
That’s why Matthew’s unique ending to his gospel is so powerful. In these final verses, after his death and resurrection, Jesus does actually send out the disciples – and us today – into the world. But unlike the meager supplies we hear about in today’s reading, Jesus sends them – and us – with lavish resources. He tells them he – as the Risen Christ – will be always with them.
And Jesus doesn’t send us out one by one, but two by two, and 12 x 12, and 70 x 70. As we stumble along together on the hard road ahead, the Risen Christ joins us, he walks beside us, he stays in the midst of us.
So, as we gather together this morning and as we go out in the world, our spirits are lifted, our hearts strengthened, and our minds comforted. Thanks to the Spirit’s work, this team – our team – has the mind and the heart of the Risen Christ to heal the sick, welcome the outcast, and proclaim good news.
