1 After this, the Lord chose seventy-two others and sent them out in pairs ahead of him into every town and place where he planned to go. 2 He said to them, “There are a great many people to harvest, but there are only a few workers. So pray to God, who owns the harvest, that he will send more workers to help gather his harvest. 3 Go now, but listen! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. 4 Don’t carry a purse, a bag, or sandals, and don’t waste time talking with people on the road. 5 Before you go into a house, say, ‘Peace be with this house.’ 6 If peace-loving people live there, your blessing of peace will stay with them, but if not, then your blessing will come back to you. 7 Stay in the same house, eating and drinking what the people there give you. A worker should be given his pay. Don’t move from house to house. 8 If you go into a town and the people welcome you, eat what they give you. 9 Heal the sick who live there, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But if you go into a town, and the people don’t welcome you, then go into the streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dirt from your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. But remember that the kingdom of God is near.’ 12 I tell you, on the Judgment Day it will be better for the people of Sodom than for the people of that town.
13 “How terrible for you, Korazin! How terrible for you, Bethsaida! If the miracles I did in you had happened in Tyre and Sidon, those people would have changed their lives long ago. They would have worn rough cloth and put ashes on themselves to show they had changed. 14 But on the Judgment Day it will be better for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No! You will be thrown down to the depths!
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever refuses to accept you refuses to accept me. And whoever refuses to accept me refuses to accept the One who sent me.”
17 When the seventy-two came back, they were very happy and said, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we used your name!”
18 Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Listen, I have given you power to walk on snakes and scorpions, power that is greater than the enemy has. So nothing will hurt you. 20 But you should not be happy because the spirits obey you but because your names are written in heaven.”
Read Luke 10:1-20 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
While Jesus was sending out the larger group of His regular followers, He sends them off with a set of instructions that are profound when we stop to look at them. In the opening lines of this send-off message, Jesus tells His followers, “There are a great many people to harvest, but there are only a few workers. So pray to God, who owns the harvest, that he will send more workers to help gather his harvest.” (v. 2)
Part of me wonders if this is the same today as it was back then. At that time, Luke tells us the number of followers was 72 and the world had millions of people in it. Living 2000 years later, the world has greater than 7 billion people and growing, and a good percentage of these people describe themselves as Christian. It would appear as though God has answered this prayer in the centuries following His ministry on earth.
I have heard people in the 21st century say that Jesus’ instructions for His disciples should be our prayer today. On one hand, I agree, because our mission as disciples of Jesus is to make more disciples of Jesus – and if God offers to send us help, there is no reason we shouldn’t take Him up on His offer.
However, I also disagree with part of this prayer request. When I hear God promise to send more workers to help with the harvest, I am tempted to think this promise is an escape clause from actually doing work. I am one person, and if God sends 500 people to help, it would be easy to think that those 500 helpers would be better and more effective than me. Thinking the 500 helpers are more effective than me is just a short step from thinking I can let the 500 helpers do all the work because my contribution is now insignificant.
Before you begin thinking that I am lazy and quick to avoid doing work, I am only sharing with you the temptation hidden within this promise. I think this temptation is one reason we might not pray as hard as we do for help, and I think this might be one reason why many of us don’t see help come when we pray for help.
In Jesus’ instructions for His followers, there is a powerful, clear theme at the foundation that we first must be workers in God’s harvest. When we are actively working in God’s field (a.k.a. the world) and we ask for help, God is happy to send helpers up to the point where He knows they won’t stop us from pushing forward with His mission and vision for us. Sometimes the helpers might simply be one or two close friends, other times it could be a group of 500 to help with a big task or project. We must trust that God will provide the exact number of people that He knows will help.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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