Shortage of Workers

77 – Shortage of Workers, Matthew 9:35-38; Mark 6:6b; John 4:43-44 

Matthew 9:35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 36 Seeing the [a]people, He felt compassion for them, because they were [b]distressed and [c]dispirited like sheep [d]without a shepherd. 37 Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” 

Mark 6:6b And He was going around the villages teaching. 

John 4:43 After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  

Footnotes (Matthew) 

a. Matthew 9:36 Lit crowds 

b. Matthew 9:36 Or harassed 

c. Matthew 9:36 Lit thrown down 

d. Matthew 9:36 Lit not having 

Commentary 

Since I committed to attempt a chronological study on the gospels, here are a few notes on my choices. I’m reusing John 4:43-44 because it may (or may not) have been out of order before, and in this case, it illustrates that Jesus returned to Galilee after being rejected in Nazareth and that He had said “a prophet is not welcome in His own country,” which is the passage I just explored in my last post. Therefore, this post seems appropriate for tracking His next steps after He left Nazareth for what was possibly the last time (see previous post for more on that). I am not, however, grouping all the parallel passages that relate to the topic of the harvest and workers. For instance, Jesus also used the statement, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” when he commissioned the seventy in Luke 10:1-16. However, because the commissioning of the seventy seems so much later in His ministry, I’m going to assume that He simply repeated this sentiment later, rather than try to combine that passage with this study. 

The meat of this study is in Matthew. There are seven Old Testament verses in the reference section below, relating to Matthew 9:36, but the primary verse scholars believe Matthew was recalling was Numbers 27:17. This is consistent with Matthew’s gospel approach, which was to preach to the Jews and use the familiar Old Testament scriptures and prophecy to point to Jesus’s credence as the Messiah. In Numbers 27:17, Moses was old and was asking God to designate a successor to lead the people after he died. Moses lamented that God’s people would be like sheep without a shepherd, and at the time, God appointed Joshua to be their shepherd. The interesting thing about this choice is that, as we may have discussed before, the names Jesus and Joshua are the same in the original language (https://www.gotquestions.org/Yeshua-Jesus.html), and some 14 centuries after Joshua began to lead the people toward the promised land, Jesus/Yeshua succeeded the ancient prophets as the spiritual leader of the Hebrews and began to point them to the promised kingdom. By comparison to His statement in Matthew (above), where He says the people are like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus refers to Himself as a shepherd in John 10:11. “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” This implies that Jesus is the designated leader that the people have been missing. 

There are also many parallels between the life of Jesus and the life of Moses (fasting for 40 days, calling God’s people to repentance, among others), and there is an interesting parallel between the sins of the Israelites during their 40 years in the wilderness and the temptations Jesus experienced while He was in the wilderness for 40 days. In fact, most of His retorts to Satan were pulled from Deuteronomy, where the Israelites were learning their lesson after committing the very sin in which Satan tried to get Jesus to engage. Jesus succeeded in resisting temptation where Israel had failed. One of the most striking elements of foreshadowing in Deuteronomy is the fact that, when Moses handed over the law to the priests in Deuteronomy 31:11, he told them to read it out loud every seven years, in order for the law to be a witness against their sin and lead them to repentance. This became the Feast of Tabernacles, which Jesus attended in John chapter 7 and where He read the scriptures in the temple and indicted the people for their sinful hearts. I’ll explore that symbolism in more depth when I do the study on John chapter 7, but Jesus’s familiar cry for repentance among the people should be ringing in your ears as you consider the manifestation of the law and the Feast of Tabernacles. 

Like Moses, Jesus also knew that His time on earth was limited, and He also mourned that the people had been and would again be like sheep without a shepherd in His physical absence. Therefore, He encouraged His followers to pray that righteous people would take up the mantle of leadership. Regarding Matthew 9:38, “Kent (p. 945) observes: “As so often occurs those who prayed were themselves sent”” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary p. 1194). Jesus’s audience in this setting consisted of the very people through whom the church was built and experienced explosive growth in the surrounding cities. In fact, how did it grow so fast? 

Despite the prevailing perception that Jesus’s ministry was rural, He actually did much of His work in urban and suburban areas. Jerusalem is estimated to have had about 55,000 to 90,000 residents, and the surrounding area had a total of about 2.5 to 3 million inhabitants. The gospel record cites at least three of Jesus’s visits to Jerusalem itself, and He interacted with a wide variety of people, such as soldiers, Gentiles, women, Pharisees, tax collectors, and beggars. Similarly, when Jesus commissioned His disciples, and later the seventy, to go preach, He sent them to crowded urban areas (Matthew 10:5, 11-14; Luke 10:1, 8-16), and one of the keys to the successful early church campaign was the planting of churches in at least 40 cities, where the population lent itself to rapid growth (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1647).  

The disciples took their commission seriously and were propelled by their conviction that Jesus was the Christ and that the only way to save the lives of those around them was to make them disciples, as well. When we lose our enthusiasm for evangelism, may we also remember that lives are at stake. 

References 

Matthew 9:35 

Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 

Matthew 10:1 And calling His twelve disciples to Him, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could drive them out and heal every disease and sickness. 

Matthew 11:1 After Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. 

Mark 1:14 After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. 

Mark 1:39 So He went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. 

Matthew 9:36 

Numbers 27:17 who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” 

1 Kings 22:17 So Micaiah declared: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These people have no master; let each one return home in peace.'” 

2 Chronicles 18:16 So Micaiah declared: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These people have no master; let each one return home in peace.'” 

Isaiah 13:14 Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land. 

Jeremiah 50:6 My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, causing them to roam the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. 

Ezekiel 34:4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty. 

Ezekiel 34:5 They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts. 

Matthew 9:37 

Matthew 20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 

Luke 10:2 And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest. 

John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest. 

James 5:4 Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. 

Matthew 9:38 

Matthew 10:1 And calling His twelve disciples to Him, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could drive them out and heal every disease and sickness. 

Luke 10:2 And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest. 

John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest. 

Mark 6:6 

Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 

Mark 1:39 So He went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. 

Mark 10:1 Then Jesus left that place and went into the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan. Again the crowds came to Him and He taught them, as was His custom. 

Luke 13:22 Then Jesus traveled throughout the towns and villages, teaching as He made His way toward Jerusalem. 

John 4:43 

John 4:40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. 

John 4:44 

Matthew 13:57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.” 

Mark 6:4 Then Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor.” 

Luke 4:24 Then He added, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 

Commentary 

Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 11 And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city. 12 As you enter the house, give it your greeting. 13 If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. 14 Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 

Luke 10:1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. 8 Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. 13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades! 16 “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”