Meat in the Middle

Seeing how Jesus teaches us visually and verbally

07/08/2025

Matthew 9:32-38 A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.” Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Have you heard of the old expression, “Don’t miss the forest for the trees”? It means don’t become so laser-focused on the minutiae of what’s right in front of you that you lose sight of the larger map showing you where you are headed. On the other hand, we can become so far-sighted that we cannot see what is right in front of our nose.

Who can forget when Yoda criticized young Luke Skywalker in the movie “Empire Strikes Back”, “All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.” So the point is to develop a beautiful balance by keeping one eye on the minutiae and the other eye on the map, one on the future and the other on the present.

In no other gospel writer do we find this delicate balance struck better than in the gospel of Matthew. In 28 chapters Matthew vividly recounts the life, ministry, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That narrative is the ostensible plot of the story.

But Matthew never once takes his eyes off both the minutiae or the map, nor does he forget the present for the future. And managing this rare balance is all thanks to his personal gifts as a writer and apostle, but even more so thanks to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as an evangelist.

First, let me describe how Matthew keeps an eye on the larger map. If you zoo out and survey the entire gospel, a very clear structure emerges. Matthew places two bookends, one at the beginning with Jesus’ birth (dreams of St. Joseph, visit of the Magi, flight into Egypt) and the other at the end in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

But in the middle you find the meat, like in every good sandwich. There are five distinct sections of narrative action each followed by a discourse of explanation of those actions. In other words, Jesus first teaches his apostles by his example, and then he teaches them by his exhortation.

I remember when Fr. Daniel was giving me tennis lessons, he would explain how to move my feet, how to hold the racquet, how to swing and hit the ball. But I always learned faster and better when I could watch how he did it. As they say I am a visual learner more than a verbal learner.

Matthew’s gospel likewise gives both the visual and the verbal in 5 successive lessons from chapters 3 to 25, the meat in the middle. These five great lessons that Jesus teaches are in fact often described as “books” within Matthew’s larger gospel. How so?

Well, just as Moses is credited with writing the first five books of the bible, the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), so Jesus in effect writes (visually and verbally) 5 new books. Why? Because Matthew wants his readers to see Jesus as the new Moses.

Jesus gives his disciples the new law – not only the 10 Commandments but also the 8 Beatitudes – and the new covenant – not animal sacrifices but his own sacrifice on the altar as our Eucharist. Can you see Matthew’s map – and how “all his life he has looked away…to the future, to the horizon”?

But now if we zoom in to today’s gospel, we find ourselves right in the middle of the visual and verbal of the second of the five books. That is, Jesus has just demonstrated visually by his actions of teaching, healing, and driving out demons what the apostles are to do.

And in the following chapter he explains verbally how they are to do it in his Missionary Discourse. Thus Jesus says: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Jesus teaches visually and verbally how to be a missionary disciple.

My friends, our take-home message today is to strike this beautiful balance in our own lives. To keep one eye on the minutiae of the daily grind, but not take the other eye off the map of where we are ultimately going. That is, we should not lose the forest for the trees.

As Stephen Covey once memorably said: “Don’t be so zealous on climbing the ladder of success that when you get to the top you find it is leaning against the wrong wall.” Jesus, the new Moses, is the only One who can teach us how to do both perfectly.

Praised be Jesus Christ!