Wednesday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 2, 2022 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
Everything that Jesus did was to lead people to faith in Him so that their sins would be forgiven. Even his travels through the cities and villages of the area were motivated by His desire that the sins of the world would be atoned for and forgiven through faith in Him.
The compassion of Jesus is the subject of our text today. Jesus’ compassion comes from the gut. The Greek word for compassion defines compassion as coming from the belly; it is a feeling coming from the gut. Jesus’ compassion was motivated by the multitudes. They were “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” These sheep were in bad shape with no one to give them relief. Now, there were way more sheep than there were shepherds. (There were way more unbelievers than there were believers.) The weary, scattered sheep needed shepherds to take care of them.
So, what did the Word Made Flesh suggest as a remedy? “Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
And we are told in the following Scriptures that Jesus called some of his disciples and sent them as apostles. Jesus’ command to pray that the Lord of the harvest send laborers into his harvest were heard by the Lord of the Harvest. He empowered and then sent these apostles as shepherds to His people.
Prayer: 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.
