AMLWCH METHODIST CHURCH
Wesley Street, Amlwch, North Wales

The Labourers are Few

(Matthew 9:35 – 10:8)

 

This is a picture of the training that Jesus organised for his 12 disciples.   Jeus was very busy at this point.   He was active in many towns and villages.   He taught in their synagogues proclaiming the good news and he cured the sick and infirm.   When you think of that time you are bound to wonder at the amount of work Jesus carried out.   Here he starts the training phase of the work the disciples shared with him.   They had become accustomed to his way and words but now they had to be sent out to do the same work as Jesus.   You might call it a baptism of fire.   The gospel says nothing about their feelings as they accepted this sending out.

If you drive a car you will remember the difference between the two front seats.   As a passenger you would have gazed out of the windows and appreciated the scenes as you passed them.   Once you have begun to learn the art of driving things change dramatically.   On passing the test you are now in charge, and you have to decide on your route.   As a passenger you may done the journey many times, but it is only now that you have the task of navigation.   Without today’s technology like satnav and Google Maps you have to be able to follow the old route to get to your destination.  

This is hat happened to the disciples.   It was one thing to follow Jesu and witness his methods and another to do it themselves.   When Jesus said to each of them “Follow me.”   I doubt they would have thought they too would be doing the work.   But this was how it was.

He had remarked earlier that there was a massive harvest but few workers to bring it in.   It was now that Jesus gave them the titles, “apostles” meaning those who were sent out on mission.   It would have been something to feel nervous about, but it was their calling.   Like the rest of the population, they would be aware of many people who went round the towns and villages speaking to the locals.   They were now to join their number with authority from Jesus to preach the word, cure the sick and lame and basically make a difference to the lives of those they met.

We can see from this how, in our time, we are to emulate this task.   Once we have committed ourselves to Jesus, we have to start learning what our faith has to be like.   Commitment to Jesus is only the start.   There is much to learn, and we shall be learning for the rest of our lives.   Along the way we shall reach the point where we can teach others about the way of Jesus Christ.   There are many tools available to us with the advent of new technology and the Internet.   We need to discover useful ways of teaching to complete our mission.