Matthew 9:37-38 presents a great motivational text for getting church members involved in evangelism. It deserves some attention during this year of evangelism.

Matthew 9:35 depicts a period of restless activity of teaching, preaching, and healing by Jesus in the cities of Galilee. One key result of this extended period of exposure to the people was Jesus’ “gut reaction” which Matthew describes with the use of the vivid word “compassion” in verse 36 (NASB). Jesus is moved to this reaction by a sense of need that he perceived among the people, and Matthew captures this need with the metaphor of sheep without a shepherd. By elaborating on the metaphor, the text states that the people were distressed and downcast.

The absence of Moses (Num 27:17) or a king (1 Kings 22:17) would constitute Israel as sheep without a shepherd, although when Israel had unfaithful shepherds (i.e., religious leaders) God himself became Israel’s shepherd to gather them together, feed them, and give them rest (Eze 34:11-16). Sheep without a shepherd may bring to view a lack of political leadership, but in the context of our text it is the lack of spiritual care and guidance that is in focus. The lives of the people whom Jesus met in His ministry throughout the cities and villages of Galilee were aimless, “centerless,” and futile.

A distressed, downcast people, with no spiritual guidance, gave rise to one great spur to urgency (9:37-38). Jesus describes the spiritually destitute, aimless, and “centerless” crowd as a “plentiful harvest,” and by implication, ripe. Obviously, the Old Testament picture of harvest as the coming judgment (Isa 27:12; Hos 6:11; Joel 3:13) has given way, in this context, to the thought of people’s readiness to accept the gospel. The readiness of the Galileans to respond to the good news of the kingdom created a strategic evangelistic opportunity that required urgent action. Indeed, this opportunity may provide a partial answer to Jesus’ rather startling restriction of the disciples’ missionary activity, in this instance, to Israel (Matt 10:5-6).

In the face of what clearly presented itself as a great potential evangelistic opportunity, Jesus makes a grim assessment of the prospect of an actual harvest; and the reason is simply a paucity of laborers (verse 38). The “laborers” are men sent out to rescue others from judgment. The method proposed by Jesus to have this deficiency rectified speaks to the nature of the scarcity of “laborers”: Prayer should be made to the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into His harvest, because laboring in the harvest does not seem to be a natural human disposition. Laborers for the harvest come about as a result of divine prompting and urging.

The significance of this passage for a year of evangelism is quite illuminating: a strategic evangelistic opportunity requires a divinely qualified and energized “labor force.” First, it is not unusual during times of evangelistic emphasis to fall back on standard, formerly tried methods and strategies. The net is usually cast into familiar waters with more or less standard results, which is all well and good. But the insight from our passage that the spiritually destitute and centerless constitute a harvest should spur us on to creative strategic evangelistic planning at a time of immense spiritual and theological upheaval. It is crucial to identify “harvest ripe” populations whether among postmodernists or the spiritually deprived segments of contemporary culture. Second, our passage draws attention to the kind of preparatory work needed in order to meet the challenge of effectively reaping the harvest. The need for reapers requires the involvement of real people. Money and prayers will be needed, but they cannot take the place of men and women engaged in harvesting. More importantly, these men and women “laborers” may not undertake the work at hand simply on the basis of experience, training, or proven methods, important as they may be. Success will come about as “laborers” petition the Lord, whose harvest it is, to qualify, motivate, and inspire and thereby thrust them forth into the harvest.