Short answer: In Matthew 9:35–38, Jesus moves through cities and villages teaching, announcing the kingdom, and healing, and when he sees the crowds he is moved with compassion because they are harassed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. From that compassion he tells his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. He commands them to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest. So praying for Japan begins with the Shepherd's compassion and with asking God to raise up and send workers, not with techniques or formulas.
The setting of the prayer: a shepherd, a harvest, and a mission about to begin
Matthew 9:35–38 closes a long stretch of the gospel in which Jesus' authority has been on display through teaching, healing and casting out demons. The crowds have marveled, and the Pharisees have answered by crediting his power to the prince of demons (9:33–34). Against that backdrop verse 35 summarizes the circuit: Jesus moves through cities and villages, teaching in synagogues, announcing the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. The wording deliberately echoes the earlier summary in chapter 4, so this is not a one-off burst of activity but the settled pattern of his ministry. Matthew wants the reader to see a Messiah who keeps going, town after town, in the face of both wonder and rejection.
The shape of the scene then turns inward. What Jesus sees in the crowds is not a statistic but a condition: harassed, scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. That image comes from Israel's prophets, where the people of God are dispersed for lack of faithful shepherds, so the description carries the weight of a long history rather than a passing mood. Matthew says Jesus was moved with compassion at the sight. Then he speaks to his disciples a plain picture: the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. The movement is from observed activity, to sight, to compassion, to a spoken image, and finally to a command. The compassion comes first; the instruction to pray grows out of what he sees.
The command in 9:38 is to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Matthew does not leave that prayer hanging. The very next scene records Jesus calling the twelve, giving them authority over unclean spirits and to heal, and sending them out (10:1–2). The disciples themselves become part of the answer to the prayer they are told to pray. This is a narrative about Israel's Messiah and his mission, and the mission the prayer concerns is the disciples' own going. That shape matters for praying with humility: the text commands the asking and leaves the timing and the results with the Lord of the harvest, who answers in his own way and his own hour.
The compassion that moves us to pray
Matthew 9:35 sets the scene before anything else in this section: Jesus is moving through cities and villages, teaching, announcing the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. Then 9:36 turns from what he did to what he saw. The crowds were not merely a crowd to him. The wording describes a deep inward stirring, not pity from a safe distance. He saw people harassed and scattered, worn down and thrown about, with no one to gather or guide them. The shepherd image is deliberate. Israel's Scriptures tied shepherding to God himself and to rulers who were supposed to care for the flock. Jesus looks at the crowd and sees the absence of that care.
The stirring becomes a word to his disciples. In 9:37–38 he names the situation plainly: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Notice whose field it is. The harvest belongs to the Lord, not to the workers, and the shortage is not a reason for despair but a reason to ask. The command is literally to pray, and the request is specific: ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. The word behind "send out" carries the sense of being thrust into the work. Prayer here is not a vague wish for things to improve. It is asking the owner of the field to press workers into his own harvest.
Then 10:1 shows what that prayer looks like when God answers it. Jesus calls his twelve disciples and gives them authority over unclean spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. The laborers are sent, and the sending begins with ordinary named men, beginning with Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. For Japan, this shapes how we ask. We pray to the Lord of the harvest, not to a method, and we do not treat a certain volume of prayer as a guarantee of revival. The text commands the asking and leaves timing and results with him. We ask with humility, and we ask for laborers, not merely for outcomes we have already decided on.
Praying to the Lord of the harvest
Matthew 9:35 sums up a pattern already seen earlier in this gospel: Jesus travels through cities and villages, teaches in synagogues, announces the good news of the kingdom, and heals every disease and sickness. The verse deliberately echoes the summary given in chapter 4, so this is settled practice, not a single remarkable day. The context sharpens it. Just before, a mute man is freed and the crowds marvel, while the Pharisees credit the prince of demons for the power on display. Matthew places the compassion of 9:36 beside that rejection. Jesus is not naive about opposition, and he is not deterred by it. He keeps moving through ordinary towns.
What he sees in the crowds is not a market or a statistic. Matthew says he was moved with compassion because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. That picture comes from Israel's prophets, where a people scattered for lack of a shepherd is a people in trouble, not merely unchurched. So the compassion is concrete: it sees exhaustion, directionlessness, and vulnerability. From that compassion Jesus speaks about a plentiful harvest and few laborers, and he tells his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers. The prayer is aimed at the owner of the field, who supplies the workers.
The answer arrives immediately. Matthew 10 opens with Jesus calling the twelve, giving them authority over unclean spirits and to heal, and sending them out. The disciples do not merely pray about the need; they become part of the answer, which keeps the prayer from being a technique. For a nation like Japan, this shapes the asking. We do not know the timing or the measure of the response, and the text gives no formula or guaranteed volume. It gives a Shepherd who sees, a harvest that belongs to him, and a command to ask him to send workers. Praying that way is honest humility, not a strategy for controlling outcomes.
The prayer is directed to the Lord of the harvest, who owns the field and supplies the workers.
The harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few
Matthew 9:35–38 records a rhythm of ministry before it records a command. Jesus moves through cities and villages teaching, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. Then the crowds come into view, and the text gives the reason for what follows: he is moved with compassion because they are harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. The need is not merely large but disorganized and leaderless. Only after that does he speak to his disciples about a plentiful harvest and few laborers. The prayer he commands grows out of what he sees, not out of a strategy the disciples devised.
Careful readers differ over how directly this governs prayer for a modern nation. Some read the command as a standing mandate for every generation of disciples; others stress that Jesus spoke it to the twelve in a specific setting and fulfilled it in the sending of chapter 10, where he gives them authority over unclean spirits and to heal every disease. Readers also differ on whether the plentiful harvest means the crowds are already ripe or simply that the need is vast, and on how far visible results should be read as evidence of answered prayer. The text itself promises no numbers, no timeline, and no guarantee that any particular city will respond.
What stays central across those differences is that the initiative belongs to the Lord of the harvest. The disciples are told to ask him to send laborers, not to recruit them or manufacture a result. Compassion is the motive, and asking is the commanded response. That shapes how we pray for Japan: humbly, persistently, and without treating prayer as a mechanism that produces revival on demand. We ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers, and we leave the timing and the visible outcome with him, trusting that the one who saw the crowds and was moved for them still knows the fields he has made.
The shepherd who sends workers into his harvest
Matthew 9:35 gives a summary of Jesus' ministry that is easy to read too quickly. He moves through cities and villages, teaching in synagogues, announcing the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. The order matters. Word and deed belong together, and both belong to him. Then verse 36 turns from the crowds' activity to Jesus' sight: he sees them, and he is moved with compassion because they are harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. The people are not a project. They are a flock with no one to lead them, and the one who looks on them is the Shepherd himself.
Notice what Jesus does not do with that compassion. He does not simply feel sorry for the crowds and move on. He tells his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, and he tells them to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers. The prayer is not a technique for producing results. It is an asking addressed to the one who owns the harvest and sets its timing. When we pray for Japan, we are not pressing a lever. We are asking the Shepherd to do what only he can do, and to send the workers he chooses.
The next verses show the prayer already being answered. Jesus calls his twelve disciples and gives them authority over unclean spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. The compassion of the Shepherd becomes the sending of workers under his authority. That is the gospel shape of this passage: the scattered are gathered, not by our strategy but by the one who sees them and sends. Praying for Japan and going to Japan both sit under his authority, and both leave the harvest, its size and its timing, in his hands.
Pray to the Lord of the harvest
Matthew 9:35–38 moves from what Jesus did to what he asked. He went through cities and villages teaching, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. Then he saw the crowds and was moved with compassion, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. The command to pray grows out of that sight. Before you ask for anything about Japan, ask for his kind of seeing: people not as a statistic or a project but as sheep without a shepherd. The compassion in the prayer is not something you manufacture. It is borrowed from the one who looked at the crowds first.
His instruction is specific: ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Note the order. The first response to a plentiful harvest and few workers is not a strategy but a request to the owner of the field. So pray for pastors, evangelists, teachers, and ordinary believers in Japan, that God would raise them up, send them, and sustain them. Pray too for those already laboring, that they would not grow weary. And let the prayer turn back on you. Jesus told his disciples to ask for workers, then in the next breath he sent them. Consider whether you are among the laborers you are asking God to send.
This praying should lead somewhere concrete: supporting a worker, learning about a local church, or going yourself. Grace is the ground of all of it. The harvest belongs to the Lord, and he supplies both the compassion and the workers, so you can ask persistently without treating any outcome as guaranteed. The text commands the asking and leaves timing and results with the Lord of the harvest. Pray for the scattered to be gathered under faithful shepherding, and hold your requests with humility, trusting him to answer in his way and his time.
Biblical fidelity check
Read closely, Matthew 9:35–38 moves from Jesus teaching and healing through the crowds to his compassion and his words to the disciples. The risks here are real. Compassion in 9:36 is not distant pity but a deep inward stirring, and harassed and scattered pictures people worn down with no one to gather them. Harvest in 9:37 speaks of a field ready for gathering that belongs to the Lord, not the workers. The command in 9:38 is to pray, and the request is specific: that the Lord would send out laborers.
Careful readers differ over how directly this governs prayer for a modern nation. Some hear a mandate for every generation of disciples; others note it was spoken to the twelve and fulfilled in the sending of chapter 10. Readers also differ on whether the plentiful harvest means present responsiveness or the sheer size of need. What stays central is that the initiative belongs to the Lord of the harvest, compassion is the motive, and asking God to send laborers is the commanded response. No numbers or timelines are promised.
Where Matthew 9:35-38 connects to the rest of Scripture
Trace how this compassion continues when Jesus commissions the twelve in Matthew 10:1–2, and compare the shepherd language of the crowds here with other passages that describe God's people as sheep. Matthew 1: Genealogy and Birth of Jesus Consider what Jesus says about the size of the field. Matthew 10: Jesus Sends the Twelve with Authority Notice who is told to pray. Matthew 12: Lord of the Sabbath and Sign of Jonah Then read how the prayer is answered in the sending that follows. Matthew 13: Parables of the Kingdom.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few?
Jesus means that the people ready to be gathered are many, but the workers who will go to them are few. He had just seen the crowds as harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd, and his compassion moved him to speak about the need. The plentiful harvest is not a promise of easy results but a picture of great need, and the few laborers are those sent to meet it. So Jesus tells his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers, and then he gives the Twelve authority and sends them.
Why did Jesus tell his disciples to pray for workers instead of just sending them right away?
Jesus first let the disciples see what he saw, so their prayer would grow out of compassion rather than strategy. In 9:36 he looks at the crowds as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, and only then speaks of a plentiful harvest with few laborers. Prayer aligns them with the Lord of the harvest before they become the answer to it, and 10:1 shows him sending them with his authority. The asking comes first; the sending follows.
How should I pray for a country where few people follow Jesus?
Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest, since Jesus gives that exact instruction in Matthew 9:38. He says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, so the need is not a shortage of ripe ground but of workers. Notice what moves him first: seeing the crowds, he is moved with compassion because they are harassed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd (9:36). Pray with that same compassion for the people, and ask God to raise up and send those who will teach and proclaim the good news of the kingdom among them.
