35 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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
One could argue this was one of the most pivotal moments in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. His ministry had been inaugurated with teaching (Sermon on the Mount), preaching, and healing all kinds of sicknesses and diseases. As a result of his impact, thousands were coming to see him and be ministered to by him.
At the end of Matthew 9, we discover a holy pause – a moment where a significant shift was to take place. Jesus had a close relationship with His disciples, but they did not have a close relationship with His mission. The problem was not that Jesus was incapable of ministering to the crowds. The problem was that his disciples were with Him as spectators rather than laborers in the harvest field. There was a massive disconnect between his disciples and the field that was ripe unto harvest. They were there, but they weren’t really there.
His disciples were not seeing what Jesus saw. Jesus looked at the crowds of people differently, and as a result, Jesus felt and experienced things HIs disciples were not feeling and experiencing. When it says he “had compassion for them,” the Greek word used there literally means he felt it in the core of his being, in the deepest recesses of his gut – a love and compassion that moved Jesus to love, to serve, to heal, and to save. Consequently, his disciples were not doing what he was doing. They had yet to become participants in the mission and actively seeking the kingdom of God.
Instead of giving them doctrinal training on how to teach or homiletical training how to preach or practical training how to deliver and heal, Jesus’ response to the disconnect of the crowd’s need and his disciples’ call to join Jesus on mission was to pray. The problem was not the harvest. It was plentiful. The problem was with the laborers because they were few.
The change, the shift that needed to take place could only come through prayer. The way to get connected to the field is by getting connected to the Father in prayer. There is an intrinsic relationship between prayer and mission, not the least of which is how prayer changes us.
Prayer draws us closer to the heart of God, and as we spend time with Him, God’s love is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).
Prayer causes us to see His activity around us. We become more conscious of God as we talk to Him throughout the day. We recognize His hand because we seek His face.
Prayer conforms us with a posture of openness and willingness rather than closing ourselves off with a posture of security and control. With open hearts and open hands, we become moldable and useful to the Master’s work.
Prayer creates and deepens our dependence on God’s power and presence. We choose not to focus on our limitations and weaknesses but God’s power and provision as we depend entirely on Him to do what only He can do.
Prayer confronts our comfort zones and spiritual complacency. The first step of life on mission is out of our comfort zones to a place of consecration to God and commission to His cause. Through prayer, we develop a holy discontentment to stay the same but press on to knowing Jesus and making Him known to others around us.
Prayer commissions us to make much of the God we talk to most often. The more time we spend with God in prayer, the more we are compelled to carry God with us and have him in the forefront of our lives. Instead of keeping us in the closet, we are commissioned to go to the hard places, knowing “He is with us always” (Matt. 28:20).
It is no small thing, then, to see that the very people Jesus called to pray are the ones he subsequently called to mission (Matt. 10:1-4). Prayer is dangerous, if you think that praying is going to allow you to remain on the sidelines as spectators. The goal of such kingdom prayer is that the Lord might SEND OUT laborers into HIS harvest (Matt. 9:38). The sending is the result of the praying!
We see this early in the life of Jesus. In Mark 1:35, we read that Jesus rose very early in the morning and went to a desolate plate and spent extended time in prayer to the Father. When His disciples found Him, He responded like someone who was sent on mission “to preach the gospel…for this is why I came out.”
We see this in the early church as they gathered together in the upper room to pray together (Acts 1:14). We all remember the day of Pentecost but often forget that they were having a prayer meeting together. Again, prayer precedes mission.
We see it in the apostle Paul just after his conversion. When the Lord told Ananias to go bring Paul into the fellowship, He said you will find him praying “behold he prayeth” (Acts 9:11).
And at the climax of his earthly mission by going to the cross, we find Jesus intensely praying to the Father for His will to be done. Before Jesus went to Golgotha to bear the wrath of God, He went to Gethsemane to be in communion with God. Prayer precedes mission.
It should be surprise no one, then, that the one thing His disciples specifically asked Jesus to do for them was “teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). They saw the power of prayer in the life of their Master, and they wanted more than anything else, to know how to pray.
So where does this leave us? How does this apply to our lives?
So often we think the problem is “out there”. People just won’t listen. They don’t care. They will reject anything I have to say. But Jesus said the problem does not lie with the harvest.
The problem is right here. In our hearts, in our eyes, in our hands, in our lives. No longer can we live disconnected from the field because we have been sent by the Father to make much of the Son in the power of the Spirit.
We have to make a choice to see the world the differently. The harvest is right here among us – where we live, work, and play. We simply enter into it and participate in God’s mission with purpose – to live for the sake of the kingdom of Christ!
The sending we all need will never manifest through guilt-driven activity or superficial obligation. God sends His laborers with joy as their hearts overflow with all that He is for them and all that He promises to do through them. Indeed, they are compelled by love to live a life of love because their their hearts have been changed through prayer.
May the Lord of the harvest hear our prayers, change our hearts, and send us out into His harvest field so that those who are lost and broken and needy can be found safe in the arms of Jesus.