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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Obedience is important to gain access to the power of God. Jesus was obedient to God's desire to send him to earth as a sacrifice for all mankind. He was obedient all throughout his ministry. And here he was obedient and faithful to speak truth about the salvation plan of God, to teach with authority and power out of the scriptures, and to minister to the people. He sacrificed any selfish ambition he could have had for godly action.

And with this, his power came.

Now he takes a moment to observe the situation with the Jewish people as a whole. He sees that they are sheep who wander, because they have no leaders.

Working in risk management and safety, we see trends with companies about their employees' commitment to safety. A rough rule has developed: 2% are Safety Stars, 8% are above average safety performers, 80% are average, and 10% are below average or poor.

The below average and poor performers don’t actually care about safety or its impact on others. They are selfish. They just care about short-term benefits or pleasures. They will watch a movie while driving, they will take shortcuts when performing critical startup and shut down safety measures on machines, and they will leave safety hazards untouched. They only perform when closely scrutinized.

The above average and star performers do care about others and want to either improve or excel in safety activities. They train their minds to have a safety mindset. And the average performers will follow whoever they think serves their best interests. They look for leadership and follow it, but without it are lost and wander.

When I think of Jesus’ assessment of the Jews, it reminds me of this safety rule. The Jewish leaders were not the spiritual star players or above average followers of God. They were the below poor performers. They led them astray spiritually and so the 80% were left wandering about. They did not have good spiritual leaders.

So Jesus had compassion on them. And we should have compassion on these types of people too. We need to look to lead them like Jesus did, and point them to him. And we need to help disciple and build more spiritual star players who can lead, and above average spiritual followers who can model too.

Lord, you see the need and you call for more leaders to lead and harvest souls for eternity. Help me to focus on this calling and fully sacrifice all that gets in my way of being fully devoted to you.