The Wednesday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 5, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 9:35-38 (NKJV)
9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Devotion
The people were “like sheep having no shepherd” because those who occupied God’s offices labored not for the sheep, but for themselves. The sheep were scattered by their harassment, rebuking them with the commands of men while depriving them of the relief known only in the mercy of the Good Shepherd, who had instituted all things for their preservation from harm. Instead of feeding, grooming, and guarding such as sheep need, they were slaughtered by these wolves who could not even feed on them, other than on the self-assurance of their own superiority. Every perversion of God’s Word that would lead others to despair and damnation is as futile and ridiculous as every attack from demons against those created in God’s image.
Yet, that’s what Jesus saw in all the cities and villages: damage being done to the people by would-be shepherds who were leading the sheep into lives of fear, despair, and self-destruction. Instead of the sheep growing fat and having lush coats, the shepherds gorged themselves. We know from the example of David’s shepherding and Jesus’ self-description in St. John 10 that a true shepherd, instead, puts himself at risk by doing both for and to the sheep those things that glorify the Lord and Owner of the flock. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the Harvest provide and sustain those who will be faithful to use His means and look only to His glory!
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord, to Thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve Thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
