Harvest Jesus Style

This is a bit of a departure for me, but then I realize that nothing I do is very predictable, so maybe not. I want to write briefly about some of the things Jesus said about the "Harvest" (admittedly a badly "Christianized" word in our day, but I am using His term).

Jesus only spoke directly about the "Harvest" twice, and we will look at those passages and a few others to distill for you some more "upside down" thinking. First, however, I need to correct a few common misconceptions about "reaching the Harvest." The first correction involves what it means to reach the harvest: it is not about "saving souls from hell" but rather an invitation into a family and to join Father God is seeing His Kingdom expand. The second correction, which I have made in earlier blogs, is that not everyone is called to be an evangelist or apostle. Everyone is to be prepared to "give a reason for the hope that is clearly within them" (1 Peter 3:15), but making people feel guilty about not sharing their faith when their gifting lies otherwise is not what Jesus intended. The challenge to be a witness is a corporate challenge that we engage in together as the Body of Christ with each part doing its work as defined by the Head, Jesus Christ (see Ephesian 4:11 ff.). Third, any understanding of how Jesus viewed "reaching the Harvest" must take into account everything about how He lived out His life (e.g., doing only what He saw Father doing, doing everything in complete dependence upon Father, etc.)--reaching the Harvest is never something we do on our own initiative or in our own strength.

Okay, now let's list a few observations about the Harvest from Jesus' life and teaching. For the sake of brevity, I will just briefly list these things. You can unpack these yourself with Holy Spirit's help.

In Matthew 9:36-38 Jesus is moved by compassion for the crowds when He sees them "harassed and helpless" and it is this that triggers His instruction to "Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers." Things to note here: Jesus saw the people, He was moved with compassion, He said to pray... (and as the disciples subsequently learned, they were to pray with a willingness to be sent!).
John 4:35-38 we find Jesus' other statement about the Harvest. Here His instructions are quite simple: "open your eyes and look!" (this as the Samaritans were streaming out to meet Him). Then He goes on to explain that reaching the Harvest is a joint effort wherein some people plant, others gather, etc. and implied in this is the importance of catching God's timing and our role at the moment. (Think about that one for a while). Note that in both Matthew and John what triggered Jesus' remarks was His own seeing... "God, open my eyes to see what you are seeing" would seem to be an appropriate prayer in this regard.

But there are some other important things that Jesus said about "reaching the Harvest" that come from the context of His life and teachings. Consider the following:
1. In Matthew 5:13-16 He gives clear instruction as to how (in part) we are to invite people into His family: we are to be salt and light. In other words, our character and our acts of kindness are to point to God as an invitation into Father's family.
2. In Matthew 10:1 ff. He gives the rest of how the invitation is to be made: we are to announce that the Kingdom of God is near and then demonstrate that by healing the sick, casting out demons, etc. This is extremely important, folks: telling people that God exists and asking them to commit to an "unexperienced idea" was never God's method for inviting people into His family. In the Bible God always clearly demonstrates His reality and then invites people to turn and trust Him in light of that reality. So much for merely handing out tracts, eh? (Not that there isn't a place for that, but please don't think that doing so is all that there is to "reaching the Harvest"! Somehow I just can't picture the apostles handing out tracts!). Yes, I know I am stepping on toes here, and I am doing so not to condemn but to stretch. If you have a passion for the Harvest then learn how to demonstrate God's presence and power through healing the sick, casting out demons, etc.
3. The invitation into the family is to be validated by the loving community that extends the invitation. Jesus said this in a number of ways on a number of occasions. He sent the workers out in twos so that they could be a small community of love that demonstrated God's family to those who were being addressed. And He clearly stated that healthy, loving relationships were the validation of everything He said (John 13:34-34, 17:21-23), in other words, followers of Jesus are the message embodied that validates the power and the words of the invitation into the family. Hmmm, how well has what we call church done with this one, eh? Why is it so easy to pretend that power and love aren't the most important parts of reaching the Harvest?
4. Last one for today: the invitation to those in the Harvest is to come from the overflow of what God is doing in our lives. In Matthew 10:8 Jesus says, "Freely you have received, freely give." I also think of John 7:37-39 where the from the believer rivers of living water flow. This, again, is why I remind folks not to harass people into "sharing their faith." If love, joy and peace are not exploding from a person, they don't have anything to share. But if the Good News is really good news, they cannot help but overflow...

Okay, I could write more, but this is all that I sense I am to do for now. As always, I invite your comments and reflections.

Joy to you,

Tom, one of Abba's little boys