Meditation on Matthew 9:35–10:8
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford
June 14, 2026
A 4-year-old boy in a wheelchair handed me a thank you note last Sunday. His nana had written the words, “Thank you” and “Love, Grayson.” The boy had provided a rainbow of colors with orange, green, purple, and yellow magic markers.
I had visited him at his nana’s a few days after his surgery. It isn’t often that a child in our congregation has surgery, and I felt it was important for me to be there afterward to encourage him. To be the peace of Christ and let him know that his church is praying for him.
I couldn’t go empty handed, so I brought the boy I have known most of his life a bag of small gifts: matchbox firetrucks, dinosaur squirt gun, and some easy games to keep him busy while he wasn’t permitted to put any weight on his leg, even to stand.
During my visit, when there were pauses in conversation, I remembered when I baptized him and his cousin, Diego, Jr. together on September 18, 2022. It was a memorable day for many reasons. That day, both of Debbie’s parents—Karl and Ethel Kraft—with the help of two aides, were able to be in worship, though their health was fragile. They were able to witness their great grandchildren’s baptisms and pray for them. When I held Grayson afterward and smiled down at him, he smiled back at me. It would be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
After my visit to Grayson, he told his nana that Pastor Karen really loves him. She assured him that Pastor Karen loves everyone. Which is true. “No, she really loves me,” he insisted.
I laughed when Debbie told me what he said. And nodded, “Yes, I really do.”
Jesus calls his 12 disciples to labor in God’s harvest in the 9th chapter of Matthew. His calling is stirred by his concern when he goes about the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. He sees the crowds and has “compassion” for them because they are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” “This fulfills the prophecy of Ezekiel 34, when the prophet claims that God will be the people’s shepherd. God will seek the lost, bind up the injured, and feed them with justice. (Ezek. 34:16) It also fulfills the claim that Jesus will be a ruler who shepherds Israel (Matthew 2:6) and implies the ever-present criticism, found throughout Matthew, of the religious leaders who have failed the sheep.”[1]
Jesus turns to his disciples, who have, up to now, watched and listened as he has done all the labor. And he says, “The Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” That’s his call to them to pray and go and care for the crowds. They are the laborers the Lord of the harvest is calling! Go with compassion to do what they have seen and experienced with him. And before they can protest that they couldn’t possibly do what he is asking them to do, he gives them HIS authority, “over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”
He calls all 12, even Judas Iscariot, the one who will betray him. For all are called, though not everyone will respond and obey. It’s a matter of the heart, isn’t it? Some people just don’t care enough.
These 12 men are no longer merely “disciples,” who sit at the master’s feet, walk, eat, worship, and pray with him, watch and listen to him work. They are now—did you catch this new word that Matthew uses for them? “Apostles.” This is the Greek word apostolos, which means, “one being sent.” But they won’t just be his messengers. Apostolos has a deeper meaning. They have been equipped and commissioned to be his representatives, his ambassadors, as the apostle Paul explains in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, beginning at verse 14, if you want to follow along,
For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So, Jesus sends them out and tells them they have everything they need, without taking anything with them. No money, extra clothes, or a spare pair of sandals for their feet. Don’t even bother with a staff or bag! This is affirming his Sermon on the Mount earlier in Matthew, when he tells them in chapter 6, beginning at verse 25, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?”
Who will provide for them as they labor? The Lord will provide through strangers they will meet on their journey, who will open their homes to them and feed them in exchange for hearing about the love of God and the Kingdom drawing near.
At the same time, Christ warns them to expect persecution and struggle. There will be danger and betrayal. He is sending them out “like sheep in the midst of wolves.” But they will be strengthened to navigate dangers and difficulties and avoid temptation to sin. They have been equipped to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
You might think it is strange that Jesus sends them out only to the lost sheep of Israel here in chapter 9. But there will come a time when the risen Lord sends them out as apostles to every nation at the end of chapter 28, baptizing, healing, and making more disciples to labor for the Harvest, just as they have done.
Sometimes I think we make the call to labor in the Harvest more difficult and complicated than it has to be. We don’t think we know enough about our faith or the Bible to labor for the Harvest. We don’t always have the confidence we need, when, in reality, our call starts at home in our families and with our neighbors and right here in our church family. Our call is to be faithful this day to be a witness to the people whom the Lord places in our lives. The call is for one day at a time, one person at a time.
Our labor here is to Grayson, Scarlett, Jack, Gemma, Guiliana, and Grace. To Roman and Bronx. To Brynn and Gracie. To Natalie, Craig, and Aiden. To Kiera and Joanna. Danielle and Melanie. To Gie and Ishae, Sara and Alyssa, Logan and Dylan, Ryan and Daniel, Mary and Layla. To all the children, youth and young adults who are with us now. And to those we haven’t yet met, whom the Lord has planned for our future ministry.
Our labor involves taking the time to get to know them, to greet and encourage them in their hopes and dreams. To say, “I believe in you! You can do this!” And to be the peaceful presence of Christ to them and their families when they are in need. What a wonderful work it is—caring for the children, ministering to them with compassion, making sure that they know that they are not sheep without a shepherd, preparing them to be Christ’s ambassadors wherever they may go, including their time away for university, college, or vocational school, for civilian jobs or serving in the military.
But we must also equip them to withstand persecution and struggle. Life in Christ isn’t always easy. We need to model perseverance and to expect danger and betrayal. For they will be “like sheep in the midst of wolves.” Most people they will encounter nowadays are not interested in church, Jesus, the Bible, or any of the things of God. We have to trust the Lord, who has chosen them for God’s important work, to strengthen and guide them by the Spirit to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
The important thing to remember in this work of nurturing our children, youth, and young adults is that we are not alone. We are in this together, just like the first disciples who became his first apostles. He never sent them out alone.
To our new graduates, Dylan, Ryan, and Alyssa, I say, “Your church is always with you, wherever you go. We will hold you in our hearts and prayers and we will be here for you, when you need us.”
To our church family, I say, “You have what you need to do the labor the Lord has planned, as God’s will is revealed. We have Christ’s authority and the power of love and prayer. For we are urged, as we labor for Him, to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out more workers, as he did with his first disciples, thinking about you and me, who were not even born yet!
Listen! The Lord is speaking to us now when he says, “The Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
Let us pray.
Lord of the Harvest, thank you for caring for us and for your call on our lives. Thank you for your work of equipping us to do the labor of love for the sake of your Kingdom. Please continue to do that work of spiritual transformation in us so that we may have the confidence we need to equip others, including the children, youth, and young adults in our flock. Bless all who serve in our ministry to children and youth. Thank you that we are not sheep without a shepherd and that you will always be glad to use us for your labor, wherever we may go. Watch over our new graduates, dear Lord, as they embark on a new chapter of their lives. Help them to hold onto their faith, even if they are the only one in the room to be faithful. Strengthen them by your Spirit to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, and to persevere through any dangers, difficulties, or betrayals. May they and our flock hear your Son speaking into their lives when Jesus says, “The Harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Amen.
[1] Sonia E. Waters, Connections, Year A, Vol. 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2020), 81.
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