Good late morning, Zane.
I’ve done my old man jog with the dogs earlier this morning…and caught a little bit of unexpected trouble. I drove to the Colton Middle School as they have a network of trails around the campus that I thought was open to the public. Well—I guess I failed to read the fine print on a sign there that said the trails are closed during school hours. Suddenly, I’m something like public enemy #1. There was absolutely no one else around. I was kind of surprised the guy didn’t reprimand me for not wearing mask…or not showing proof of vaccination
Moving right along—a big list is staring at me. I’d better get on with it.
Love and prayers—Tua/Ray.
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 with a huge amount of authority—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”—not ours. All we need to do is confess that He is Lord over it all.
Notice that Jesus is not all that excited and satisfied with the size of the crowds, the excitement, and the healings as many churches are. He recognized that there were still deeper needs that could only be met by precept-upon-precept teaching and discipleship—an ongoing vital relationship with the Good Shepherd and Lord of the Harvest. And He had to recognize that beyond this crowd of people were many, many more just like them.
Jesus presents a prescribed prayer request to His followers. We are instructed to pray that the Lord of the harvest would raise up and send workers into the harvest. Jesus knows what He’s doing. If I understand His strategy, it’s incredibly clever! For He knows that no one can consciencously pray a prayer like this without making himself available to be one of those appointed 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.
However you process this, you can’t deny the fact that all around you, wherever you are, lots and lots of people are wandering around like sheep, confused, struggling, hurting, and desperately in need of the saving and transformational Life of Christ.