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When Compassion Leads to Action

When Compassion Leads to Action

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 3:06 pm by Herb Montgomery

When Compassion Leads to Action 2026-06-13T15:06:51-04:00 Herb Montgomery

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This passage also teaches that justice requires action, not mere sympathy. Jesus doesn’t simply feel sorry for the crowds around him. He heals their diseases, restores marginalized people to community life, and commissions disciples to continue the work. The vision of justice in Matthew’s Gospel is therefore participatory: followers of Jesus are called to become “laborers” in the harvest. That means confronting suffering wherever it appears, whether through poverty, racism, gender privilege, LGBTQ phobias, economic inequality, violence, or exclusion. Compassion without action is incomplete.

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This is Part 2 of the series The Harvest Is Great, the Laborers Few

(Read this series from its beginning here.)

Importantly, the “harvest” language challenges believers to see marginalized people not as burdens, but as human beings filled with sacred worth and possibility. Too often societies treat vulnerable communities as disposable or invisible. Jesus instead sees abundance. The harvest is “plentiful.” There is is so much hope, suppressed dignity, and transformative potential among the people society overlooks. The problem is not the people; the problem is the shortage of laborers willing to participate in the work of moving toward a more just society.

Our reading this week also critiques religious communities that become disconnected from human suffering. Jesus’ ministry combines teaching, proclamation, and healing. Faith is not presented as abstract doctrine alone. It must touch bodies, communities, and material conditions. A church, movement, or spirituality unconcerned with the wounded crowds has drifted away from the heart of Jesus’ gospel.

Ultimately, the beginning of our reading calls listeners to cultivate compassionate solidarity. Jesus does not stand above suffering humanity but moves toward it. The lesson here is that discipleship means entering the pain and injustice of our world with courage, mercy, and active commitment to collective healing, transformation, liberation, and change.

Next in our reading, Jesus gathers twelve people and commissions them to participate in his work of healing, liberation, and social transformation. At first glance, this passage may appear to be little more than a list of names, but beneath the surface it contains profound justice implications. This window into Jesus’ formation of this group reveals how his “kingdom of God” would confront systems of exclusion, hierarchy, violence, and division.

The first justice lesson in this passage is that Jesus intentionally empowers ordinary and marginalized people. The disciples are not religious elites, wealthy aristocrats, or political rulers. They are fishermen, laborers, and common people from occupied Galilee. In the ancient world, power and authority were concentrated among the wealthy, the priestly class, and the Roman Empire. Yet Jesus gives authority not to the powerful, but to those on the margins. Matthew says Jesus “gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.” This is significant because healing in the gospels is never merely private or spiritual. Illness often carried social consequences: exclusion from community, economic hardship, and religious stigma. By empowering his disciples to heal, Jesus commissions them to restore people to dignity and community life.

The list of disciples itself also carries important political meaning. We’ll pick up with that meaning in Part 3.

Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.

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Politics and Religion

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About Herb Montgomery

Herb Montgomery, director of Renewed Heart Ministries, is an author and adult religious educator helping Christians explore the intersection of their faith with love, compassion, action, and societal justice. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

June 9, 2026

Sheep without a Shepherd and the Politics of Compassion

Next Post

June 11, 2026 Justice Work is Communal

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