Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Passage: Matthew 9:18-38
Focus: “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:38.
I want to give some introductory attention to the idea of “Lord” and begin with a quote from Philippians 2:9-11. “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
In review of chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew, we’ve seen Jesus presented as Lord over sickness, Lord over spirits, Lord over weather, Lord over sins, Lord over death, and now as Lord over the harvest…the harvest of the souls of men for the Kingdom of God. Notice that it is “his harvest field.”
We have here a prescribed prayer request. We are instructed to pray that the Lord would raise up and send workers to the harvest. Jesus knows what He’s doing. He knows that no one can legitimately pray a prayer like this without making himself available to work in the harvest. He knows that if we can embrace the importance and seriousness of this task, we actually become answers, at least in part, to our own prayer.