It’s
harvest time in Illinois
One sign of
autumn in Illinois is that the corn fields are harvested and cleared. As I drive
around I’ve noticed that almost all of the corn fields have been harvested.
However, I didn’t make this observation until I saw one field that hasn’t been
harvested yet.
A thought
hit me as I drove by this one particular field, “All the other fields have been
harvested, what’s up with this one?”
My thoughts
quickly gravitated towards spiritual things, as they always do. I started
thinking about Jesus and His comments about harvest time.
Specifically I started thinking of the event that John records in John 4, tucked
right in there with the story of the woman at the well. This passage about the
harvest has always puzzled me. Let me set up the story and tell you what Jesus
says.
Jesus and
His disciples have come into Samaria (cultural “no-no” no. 1 – They’re Jews,
they don’t mix with Samaritans). A woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her
for a drink (cultural “no-no” no. 2 – Talking to a woman in this manner was not
appropriate in this day). Jesus engages this particular woman in a spiritual
conversation and convinces her that He is the Messiah. The woman goes back to
her town, many people of the town come out to see Jesus because of the woman’s
testimony. Finally, the disciples, who had gone into town to purchase food come
back.
Here’s what
Jesus says next:
“Do you not say, ‘there are four more months, then
comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields
are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and
gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
For here the saying holds true, ‘one sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap
that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into
their labor.” John 4.35-38
These few
short verses have always been a mystery to me. Is Jesus simply talking about the
Samaritans that are coming out to see Him, are they the harvest and the
Disciples are just going to act as “decision counselors” and receive them? Or is
Jesus talking about “The Harvest,” on a global scale, to which he will, after
His resurrection send His disciples out into (“Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations” Mathew 28.19).
Jesus’
differentiating between the sower and the reaper is also puzzling. Why does He
separate the sower and the reaper? As well, Jesus’ statement (probably a
quotation from an ancient proverb), “one sows and another reaps” is also
puzzling. Is Jesus saying that we are primarily sowers or reapers? Are
there some fields that are just sowing fields, and others that are reaping
fields?
And what
about Jesus saying, “I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others
have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Does Jesus mean the
Woman’s sowing, after all it was her testimony that has the town coming out to
see Jesus now. Or does Jesus mean the Holy Spirit’s sowing? (John 6.44, 64-65; 2
Corinthians 4.4-6).
Regardless
of all of these questions, a theological principle can be developed, “God is a
missional God, sowing for His harvest, and sending workers into His fields to
bring it in.”
Personally,
I believe that what Jesus was talking about regarding the harvest involves both
the Samaritans coming from the town and the global harvest of God’s elect from
“every people, nation, tribe, and language.” But what I really want to get at,
to highlight, is the thoughts that I have as I stand before a huge field that is
ready for harvest, it just hasn’t been harvested yet.
I think
Jesus is teaching us at least three things in this passage, but because this is
for a blog and not a sermon I can only use one point (sorry, it’s a rule that I
learned in seminary – sermons get three points, blogs and newsletters only get
one). (Okay and if you believe that....) At any rate, here’s how I think this
passage boils down.
·
The harvest is
always ready, not just at “harvest time” – Look up, don’t wait four months, it
can be harvest time, any time.
·
Sowers are not
always reapers; sowing fields are not always reaping fields.
·
How humbling it is
to be a reaper who hasn’t labored in the field. – Try to wrap your mind around
the Gospel going out from beginning to end, from Adam in Genesis to the last
ones in Revelation. Think about being a part of that – humbling...
If we can
pull these points together with the Theological Principle that we have derived
from the text we can understand that: God is a missional God, sowing for His
harvest, and sending workers into His fields to bring it in. God expects His
workers to bring in His harvest, be it one at a time, or in great multitudes; He
expects us to be ready to bring in His harvest whether we think we’re sowing or
reaping; and He expects us to be humbly minded, knowing that it is His efforts
that make the harvest possible, not ours.
Let’s put
this all into perspective now. I’m standing before acre after acre of
unharvested corn stalks, an unharvested field with so much potential, so much
fruit (corn actually) just waiting to be brought in. I’m a church planter
looking over an unharvested field in a town where there is one church for every
50,000 people!
So, the
thought enters my mind, who’s sowing, who’s reaping? Or, who has been
sowing, and who will be reaping? Will the harvest happen quickly? Will it
be slow and hard? How long will it take? And, finally, how do I participate?
But now let
me but you into my shoes; let me share with you the context (and the catalyst)
for this writing.
Almost
thirty weeks ago, probably the same time that the farmer of this field planted
the seeds for his corn, my wife and I moved back to Chicago to do some planting
too, church planting. Church planting is the most exciting thing that I have
ever done in my life, it’s also the most difficult! We lack the people resources
that we need to accomplish administrative tasks, ministry projects, and just
getting the word out. We lack the financial resources that we want to expand our
ministry potential.
However, we
do have an abundance of spiritual warfare which seems to make “opening doors” so
slow and difficult. And we lack the spiritual power, more prayer partners, to
help us push the spiritual war into our favor.
Most days,
nothing goes right.
Whether
it’s finding a place to hold a ministry project like a coat drive, or a food
drive, or trying to meet some new people and invite them over. When we wanted to
meet our neighbors we spent the whole morning making cookies, but then no one
was home (or they didn’t answer their door). When we wanted to have a BBQ for
the community it rained and everyone stayed in. We announced our new small group
no one showed up. Heck, even last night all of the trick or treaters walked on
the other side of the street!
But the
greatest frustration is that there is hundreds, thousands, of people created in
the image of God, that don’t know Him. Hundreds, thousands, who’s sins have been
atoned for by the blood of Christ. Hundreds, thousands made to worship our Great
God – but don’t know His Name.
It’s like a
field of unharvested corn. Acre upon acre of fruit – you just have to go pull it
off the stalk. I’m reaching, I’m trying... I can’t seem to reap the harvest.
But there
is good news.
Some time
soon the farmer who planted this corn is going to turn the key in his combine
and drive through this field, harvesting the corn that he planted months ago.
And just like that farmer, the field that I stand before, the mission field, is
going to be harvested too. They might come in one at a time, they might come in
great multitudes. They might come today, they might come in ten years. They
might come because someone sowed before me, they might come for someone else
because of our sowing.
All I know
is that they will come.
They will
come because He will call them.
They will
come because God is a missional God, He has and is sowing for His harvest,
and He has and is sending workers into His fields to bring it in.
What do I
need to do?
Be
ready, be active, be humble.
