About The Harvest

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.