Read Matthew 9:35 - 10:8
Let’s be straight: there’s no magic here. Magic in the Bible is a black art of those who don’t follow God’s way. But things that seem impossible to us are possible for God. We step out in faith, against the odds. We believe that God will work in ways we have not thought of. It can seem like magic.
Last week’s Matthew reading took us to the end of his book, where Jesus gave the Great Commission: “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). But here we’re much earlier in the gospel – back from Chapter 28 to Chapter 9.
Jesus is faced with a problem of how to minister to so many who need him. He is so busy, teaching, proclaiming, curing (Mt 9:35). But, for all his divine powers, and all the intensity of his compassion, he can’t meet the demand. What does he do? He calls on his disciples in two ways.
When we think of this story, we usually focus on what he does in the first verses of Chapter 10. He gives the disciples authority to do all those things he was doing: “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness” (Mt 10:1). And in verse 8: to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons”. And we remember how they were to travel light, and accept hospitality only from genuine hosts. These instructions were one way that Jesus called on his disciples. What was the other way?
The first thing Jesus asked his disciples was to pray. “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Mt 9:37-38).
Jesus said to “ask the Lord of the harvest” for more helpers. Then he got his disciples to be helpers. So was he just talking to himself? No; the verse starts, “Then he said to his disciples”. The disciples were to pray as well as to do. Jesus alone was not enough, and the twelve together were ultimately not enough either.
We should not underestimate the power of prayer. So often we choose the road of hard effort, pouring ourselves into following the instructions on the work we must do. But Jesus was often in prayer, in spite of his huge capacity for work and the huge demand for him. Prayer is often an effort – you could call it hard work. But it can yield surprising results. It might be a magical multiplier!
There’s something else that takes us by surprise in this passage. There’s another magical multiplier at work. Whom did Jesus instruct the disciples to reach out to? “The lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 10:6). They were to avoid Samaritans and Gentiles. They were to stick to their own kind. This is a big contrast to the end of Matthew, where the call is to make disciples of all nations. What was going on?
We can’t always see every step in God’s plan. The role we’re given may seem to miss out some bits from our point of view. The disciples were told to concentrate on just one sector of humanity at this stage. But that didn’t mean there was no bigger plan. In fact, there’s even a clue in this reading, where Jesus predicts hard times that will have the disciples “dragged before governors and kings” because of him (Mt 10:18). What does it say after that? “as a testimony to them and the Gentiles”. There will be testimony to the ‘wolves’ of Israel, but also to the Gentiles.
We might question God’s ways sometimes. The task might seem to be too great for us. God invites us to ask for help. We shouldn’t forget the power of prayer. The task we’re doing may seem inefficient or incomplete. We can pray about that, too, but it’s also possible that we’re doing the right thing for now, because God’s plan is greater than we can tell.
Through prayer and faithful action, we can help to build the kingdom – it may seem to be by magic, but we multiply the Sower’s seed by the methods that God has ordained.
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