09.28.08
… Pray What Jesus Prayed, Do What Jesus Did
A couple of weeks ago I posted the first half of a set of reflections on Matthew 9:35-38, borrowed from a talk by Josh McDowell. This passage in the ESV reads,
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The four simple yet powerful points in here are:
See what Jesus saw
Feel what Jesus felt
Pray what Jesus prayed
Do what Jesus did
Pray What Jesus Prayed
Jesus saw the true spiritual condition of the people, and he felt deep compassion for them. Have you ever wondered what would motivate yourself, or our church, to be more involved with outreach, caring for other people? It’s hard to think of anything that would be more powerful than this. It’s about letting ourselves see the reality of lives without Christ, and be touched inwardly by it.
When Jesus saw and felt these things, he called his disciples to pray. “The harvest is plentiful,” he said. He was actually seeing more than the crowd’s desperation when he said this. He was also seeing hope. Elsewhere (John 4:34-36) he had said “lift up your eyes and see, the fields are white for harvest.” Jesus prayed for laborers, and called on us to do the same. As our eyes see the condition of our neighbors, and others around the world, how can we help but pray that God would send laborers to help, or workers to join in the harvest?
Do What Jesus Did
To pray is also to commit our hearts, though; and as we pray what Jesus prayed, God will lead us to do what Jesus did. In this passage he taught, he proclaimed, he healed. He got involved. He spent himself caring for the full range of human needs, spiritual and physical, setting us an example to do the same.
Oh, and by the way, the story doesn’t end there. It’s the end of a chapter in Matthew, but the chapter divisions aren’t part of the original Bible, and they’re not divinely inspired breaks in the flow of thought. Matthew 10 begins with Jesus doing one more thing: he sent out his disciples, whom he had trained, and was still in the process of training (which is part of the reason he had them focus on Israel):
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons…. (Matthew 10:5-8)
Jesus is still doing what he did then: sending us out to proclaim the kingdom of heaven and to minister to the full range of human need. He is still our example to see what he saw, feel what he felt, pray as he prayed, and do as he did and still does today.
