Harvesters

Our focal passage this week is Luke 9 to 12, and it was in Luke 10 that a verse jumped out and grabbed hold of me this morning. Luke 10:2

And [Jesus] was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

This verse jumped out at me immediately because I was already thinking along similar lines. . . I was thinking about how much good could be done in our world today if people of influence and means would do it. I was thinking of the advances that could be made in education in impoverished areas of the world, particularly if education was paired with industry or job opportunities for the newly educated. I was thinking of the importance of just laws justly enforced. I was thinking about how businesses might bless more people if "the common good" was an equal goal with profit. And I was thinking most of all how all these kinds of "good" and many more were possible for people of good will.

But Jesus is speaking about more than doing good in the world here. He is speaking about that essential foundation out of which eternal and abundant life grows: allegiance to a faithful God. Apart from a heartfelt loyalty to God, there is no foundation upon which to build lasting good. Apart from the faithfulness of God, there is no soil to plant seeds of hope for the future. Apart from a God who creates and loves human beings, there are no inalienable human rights to respect and nurture.

And Jesus know this. But he also knows that people in the world are hungry for just such a hope-filled relationship with just such a faithful God. The fields are white unto harvest! But the laborers are few - men and women who will do the relational work necessary to communicate the hope, the faithfulness, and the goodness of God to those who are hungry for it.

So we are commanded to pray. Pray that the Lord will send out harvesters. Pray that the Lord will raise them up, equip them, empower them, encourage them, and send them out! If you've ever wanted to know what Jesus might pray, here is one answer. He would pray for harvesters in the fields of God.

Will you join Jesus in praying for harvesters this week?
Will you be such a harvester?