We come now to another well-known saying: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Here is yet another example of how context gives meaning to individual stories in the Gospels. Immediately after this saying we have the account of Jesus sending his disciples out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to demonstrate the power of this Kingdom by healing the sick, raising the dead and driving out demons (10:1ff). Immediately before this saying we have some stories of Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead and driving out demons. There is a clear and intentional symmetry to the arrangement of these accounts. In the stories of Jesus’ works before the ‘harvest-is-plentiful’ saying there is a clear emphasis on the role of people’s faith. They were healed because they believed Jesus had authority to do these things. Jesus asks the blind man, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” This is not a question about Jesus’ healing skills but about Jesus’ healing authority. In other words, Jesus is asking the blind man, “Do you believe I am Lord over all creation?” Saying “yes” here was an act of surrender to this authority. In the next anecdote (10:1ff) we are then told that Jesus gave authority to his disciples to do the things he was doing. It seems to me, therefore, that there is a connection between being under Jesus’ authority and operating in Jesus’ authority. The extent to which we entrust our lives to Jesus will be the extent to which we can receive from him.
Give your life, your plans, your circumstances and all your problems over to Jesus and let him be Lord.
Read Matthew 9:18-38
