This is not a willy-nilly sending out. These are orders and instructions. Their Master and Teacher instructs them where to go and tells his harvesters exactly whom they should go to. He teaches them what he requires them to do and exactly how they should go about doing this job.
They are to tell people about
the new kingdom. The new time of healing, righteousness and joy, which he has ushered in. They are to demonstrate this new way of living in that kingdom, with power and impact, by healing the sick, raising the dead in spirit (giving new life and hope to those who feel hopeless), and overcoming the darkness and evil that has crept into everyone and everything. This is a huge and enormous task (the harvest is vast), but they were to start at the edge of the harvest field for now, with God’s chosen
people, the Jews.
Think about it; one does not harvest in a field where there is clearly nothing to harvest! When Jesus looks out over the crowds, he notices the goodness, value and potential despite the evil and destruction. He can see the lively, virtuous, decent, kind and upright people God had created buried beneath the rubble of the devastation they were in.
Jesus sent the disciples out to harvest this goodness and showed them how. They were to do what he was already doing. To bring their extra hands to his work.
Have you noticed how Jesus, in and through others, is inviting you to harvest the goodness in your own life?
Are you ready to become a harvester yourself, adding your hands to those of Jesus and exerting
your energy to bring about new life in the world?
How do you demonstrate and encourage the new kingdom in your present community?
