Eyes Upon the Harvest
1. In Matthew 9:35 the gospel writer sums up Jesus' program once again.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease among the people.
Matthew 9:35This is nearly an exact copy of the introduction to Jesus' ministry found in Matthew 4:23
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
Matthew 4:23Taken together these two verses can be seen as a kind of parenthesis. In between these verses we read of specific examples of Jesus' work. Most of these examples were drawn from Jesus' first few weeks of ministry after He had moved to Capernaum. After that, He extended His ministry to the rest of Galilee. There were at least 35 small towns and villages He had to visit: Magdala, Tiberius, Cana, Korazin, Nain, and Bethsaida - to name a few. There were many others. Some of the towns were not quite so small. Magdala, for instance, had a population approaching 30,000!
2. Great crowds of people thronged to hear Jesus, and to be healed by Him wherever He went. Picture Jesus standing on a hill with His disciples, watching the crowd gathering below, and beginning to come up to Him....
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Matthew 9:36
or as in Greek...
But when He saw the multitudes, His guts were moved for them, because they were distressed and prostrate, like sheep not having a shepherd. Matthew 9:37
From the work of Jesus Matthew takes us to the motive behind it - His great love. The casual observer of these swarming multitudes would never have seen what Jesus saw. Oh yes, they were in pain. Yes, they were sick and needed healing. And yes, some needed deliverance from demons. But Jesus saw deeper. The people were "distressed." The Greek word means they had been flayed. Their skin had been torn, like sheep moving among sharp thorns. They were also "prostrate", thrown down. A "thrown" sheep is a cast sheep. It is helpless and unable to rise. It will die if it is left in that condition. Jesus saw the people like that. Worse, they were sheep who had no shepherd. No one cared about their desperate condition. Jesus was not looking at their physical condition, but rather at their hearts - their true spiritual condition. Their hunger and thirst was not being satisfied, and their wounds were not being tended. Jesus was deeply moved with compassion by what He saw.
3. Matthew must have been with Jesus on this occasion. His description of Jesus' compassion is so vivid that he must have gotten it from something Jesus said directly to him.
4. One cannot read Jesus' next words without seeing the tears welling in His eyes, or hearing the great, rending cry of His heart...
Then He said to His disciples,
"The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38
5. "God give us vision! Let us see as Jesus saw!" is a dangerous prayer. This prayer is probably the most needed prayer in the Church today. Those who see the world as Jesus saw it, are the ones who see it as it is. But no one can see the world this way unless they have God's agape love in them. They are the ones our heavenly Father would send out into His harvest fields. The harvest is standing, waiting, and ready.
Discussion: If you prayed to see the world as Jesus sees it, would God answer that prayer? Would He send you into the harvest fields? Is that something you want? How can God change your heart?
Memory Verse: "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38