|
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers in His harvest.” And He called to Him His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. These twelve Jesus sent out … (Matthew 9:35-10:5a)
If you’re like me, you ask people to pray for you all the time. If someone’s sick, if they’re dying, if you’re in danger of losing a job or your house, if you’re just feeling poorly—you ask people to pray. And that’s sensible, isn’t it?
But in today’s story, we get the only prayer request Jesus ever made of His disciples, as far as I can remember. He looked at the crowds of human beings He was preaching the Gospel to, and He had compassion on them. And He said to His disciples—to us!—“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
This is still true, isn’t it? Most of us can simply look out a window and see some of the people Jesus came to save. Even if we are out in the desert, a glance at our cellphones shows us a world dying without Christ—a world of people who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” And the longer we have been with Jesus, the closer we come to His heart—the more our hearts will break for these people. For we were once among them—without life and without hope in the world.
But Jesus reached out to us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, He brought us to Himself in faith. His suffering and death set us free from our sin, guilt, and shame; and now that He has risen from the dead, He gives us His own real, eternal life that has started already in our hearts, and that will go on forever. We know what it means to be at peace with God—more than that, to be His beloved children, people whom God delights in. That is what Jesus wants for every human being.
And so now He sends us out, both to pray and to speak the Good News to the people around us, so they can trust in Jesus, too.
WE PRAY: Dear Lord, I’m nervous, but I love You. Use me to bring others to faith in You—and please remember my weakness, and show me what You can do through me in spite of it. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions:
- Why is this the one thing Jesus ever asked of His disciples, do you think?
- Why does He send them out to tell the Good News right after asking them to pray?
- If He could use Judas (and He did), can He use you? How do you know?
|
