Mt 9:35—10:1, 5a, 6-8
35Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. 36At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; 38so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
1Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
5Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, 6“Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
LABORERS FOR THE HARVEST: The life of the Israelites, like most of the people, was bound to the cycle of the seasons. “There is an appointed time for everything,” says Qoheleth, “…a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant… a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl 3:1-2, 4). Harvest time was the time to rejoice and to make pilgrimage to God in Jerusalem to thank him for his providence.
The harvest often symbolizes God’s last judgment (Is 9:2-3; Hos 6:11). Those who work at the harvest are the angels who gather men and women for condemnation or salvation. Jesus also uses this imagery in the parable of the Weeds and the Wheat where the harvesters first collect the weeds for burning and then gather the wheat into the barn (Mt 13:30). But here, the harvest symbolizes the beginnings. The disciples are sent not to gather people for judgment but to proclaim the name of Jesus. The angelic harvest at the end of the age will be begun by the work of men and women. Some will sow and others will reap, but there is joy and reward for both—as when people rejoice at harvest time.
Harvesting and shepherding are two images used by Jesus in the Gospel to speak of “gathering.” The disciples are both harvesters who work in the Lord’s field and shepherds in his flock. They gather people for the kingdom and protect and nurture them as shepherds of God’s flock.