The Workers Are Few

³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.^{(A) 36} When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,^(B) because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.^{(C) 37} Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest^(D) is plentiful but the workers are few.^{(E) 38} Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.^(A)

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two^(A)(B)(C)

10 After this the Lord^(D) appointed seventy-two^[a] others^(E) and sent them two by two^(F) ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.^{(G) 2} He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.^{(H) 3} Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.^(I)

³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{(A) 36} Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(B) a crop for eternal life,^(C) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(D) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”