Wednesday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 25, 2023 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
Today we meditate upon the text setting up and leading into the commissioning (sending out) of the Twelve on their first formal mission circuit of the Lord’s Gospel to the lost sheep of Israel. This is early in Jesus’ earthly ministry and the first time the apostles are sent out in their vocation as His appointed ministers of the Gospel. Here they begin a ministry that will consume each of their lives and mark the establishment of the Christian Church and Office of the Holy Ministry in which we rejoice to this very day.
With this appointed text we learn that this was not some coincidental or accidental occurrence, because our Lord proclaims that the “harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” The context in the Greek implies it is God who is the Lord of the harvest, and Jesus’ instruction for His disciples to pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send out His laborers is a command to the disciples to align their will (their prayers) with the will of the Lord. The disciples do not coerce “the Lord of the harvest” (God) to perform any action that He has not previously committed to accomplish. It is also important to recognize that the Lord of the harvest “sends” laborers, not just disciples.
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.
