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Gospel Reading - First the Jews

³⁵Jesus traveled around through all the cities and villages of that area, teaching in the Jewish synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And wherever he went he healed people of every sort of illness. ³⁶And what pity he felt for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they didn’t know what to do or where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd.

³⁷“The harvest is so great, and the workers are so few,” he told his disciples. ³⁸“So pray to the one in charge of the harvesting, and ask him to recruit more workers for his harvest fields.”

¹Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of sickness and disease.

^2-4Here are the names of his twelve disciples: Simon (also called Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James (Zebedee’s son), John (James’s brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (the tax collector), James (Alphaeus’s son), Thaddaeus, Simon (a member of “The Zealots,” a subversive political party), Judas Iscariot (the one who betrayed him).

⁵Jesus sent them out with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, ⁶ but only to the people of Israel — God’s lost sheep. ⁷Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.^{a 8}Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!

1. Or “at hand” or “has arrived.”