Matthew 9:38 tells believers to pray that the Lord who owns the harvest will send out workers to gather it. The verse is less a command to go and work than an instruction to ask God first, because the need is larger than human effort alone can meet. Jesus spoke these words to his disciples after seeing the crowds around him and recognizing how many people were waiting to hear about God’s kingdom.
Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest.”
Matthew 9:38 (WEB)
What Matthew 9:38 Means
The picture behind the verse is farming. A harvest is ripe and ready to be gathered, but there are not enough people to bring it in before it spoils. Jesus uses that image for people who are hungry for truth and care. When he calls the harvest “plentiful,” he is saying the opportunity is abundant, not that the job is small.
The phrase “Lord of the harvest” places authority over the work in God’s hands. The disciples are not told to recruit or organize their own crew. They are told to ask the one who holds the field to send the workers he chooses. The request is direct and specific: send out laborers.
The verse does not promise that every prayer for workers will be answered in a particular way, or on a particular timetable. It does not say who the workers will be or what they will look like. What it does show is that prayer is the right starting point for the mission, and that God is the one who supplies what is needed.
The Context of Matthew 9:38
Matthew’s Gospel was written for a community that knew the Jewish Scriptures well, and it presents Jesus as the teacher and healer who fulfills them. Tradition attributes the book to Matthew, a former tax collector and one of the twelve disciples, though scholars debate the exact date and setting. The original readers would have recognized the shepherd and harvest images as familiar ways of describing Israel and its leaders.
Just before the verse, Matthew says Jesus saw the crowds as harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. Verse 37 then describes the harvest and the lack of laborers, and verse 38 answers that gap with prayer. Read this way, the request is not an abstract wish for more church members. It is a response to real people who are lost and in need, and it shows the heart of Jesus toward them.
Key Phrases in Matthew 9:38
Luke 10:2
Then he said to them, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.
(WEB)
Luke records a parallel saying from Jesus when he sends out the seventy-two. The same harvest image and the same call to pray for workers appear there, which strengthens the sense that this was a central teaching about mission.
Romans 10:14
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?
(WEB)
Paul asks how people can call on someone they have not heard about, and who will preach unless they are sent. The question echoes the need for sent workers in Matthew 9:38 and shows why the gospel depends on people who carry it to others.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 9:38
Lord of the harvest, you see the crowds of people who are weary and lost, just as you saw them long ago. I confess that I often notice the need and then forget to bring it to you. Teach me to pray with a burden for the people around me, and open my eyes to the ways you are already at work. Send out workers into your fields, and if you choose to send me, give me the willingness to go. Amen.
