A Plentiful Harvest
This last year has thrown a wrench into so many plans. Many people are having to adjust to the idea of the “new normal”, even with certain areas starting to release restrictions we see that there are still many who appear to be wandering around as if they are lost. What grounded many to this world has changed, and many are wishing for simpler times. However, there has been one aspect that has always been the same in this world, we are all lost without God.
“36 Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.””
Matthew 9:36-38
The context of this verse comes after Jesus had been performing miraculous healings, He had healed a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years, brought a young girl back from the dead, and cast out demons. With all of the issues that are mentioned in Matthew 9, we can be assured that there were many more not mentioned. The people were so downtrodden that Jesus brings mention of it, calling them sheep without a shepherd. They were lost and had no guidance, and so He had compassion for them.
It was this compassion that caused Him to tell His disciples that ““The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”” There were so many people who were so downtrodden and lost who were looking for someone to bring them out of the darkness and into the Light. These people, perhaps unknowingly, were looking for Jesus Christ. “46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” John 12:46. The only way these people would find the Light is if there was someone who was there to guide them. That person is Jesus Christ! Yet, He calls the believers to be His workers in the field.
This is still the call that is going out today. There are still so many people who are wandering around trying to find something to hold on too. They are desperate to find the Light, they are distressed and downcast. The harvest today is still plentiful but just as Jesus pointed out. The workers are few. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are not called to sit idly by and grow spiritually obese. We are called to share our knowledge with anyone and everyone who is willing to listen. “22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Jude 1:22-23.
In this late hour, we should not be hoping for chances to share the Gospel to fall into our laps, we need to be actively sharing it. We should not fear that the other person may not listen because we never know if we are one who is planting the seed, tending to the seed, or harvesting. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, “5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” We need to be active today, we need to be those workers who are willing to go out into the field. After all, the harvest is plentiful.
Seek the truth, and encourage one another,
Alex