The Work of the Harvest

"The Harvesters" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Two readings from Matthew:

Matthew 13:10-17
10The disciples came to Him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'
16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

This is right in the middle of the parable of the sower, before Jesus gives the disciples the explanation of what the parable means. I find it interesting that He basically tells them that they already have understanding given to them, even though they don't realize it. They understand more than they think they understand.

I think sometimes we are like this; we ask God continually to tell us what we already know. Thankfully, He often obliges. But it is important to remember that He is not asking us to do anything He has not already equipped us to do.

Here's the second passage:

Matthew 9:35-38
35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then He said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

I notice here that He doesn't order them to do the work of the harvest. (Unlike other times in the Gospels, such as when He says, "YOU give them something to eat," before the feeding of the 5000.) He asks them to pray to God to send workers.

The work of the harvest is hard, and He wants us to WANT to do it before we begin.

I am reminded of Isaiah 6, which (not coincidentally) Jesus was quoting in the Matthew 13 passage. This passage is often referred to as "The Call of Isaiah," but as it was pointed out to me recently, Isaiah was not called. He volunteered!

Isaiah 6:8
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Right after that, in Isaiah 6:9-10, come the verses Jesus quoted about how people will not listen and they will not understand. That's the bummer of the work of the harvest: it is a calling to deliver a message that no one wants to hear, that people will actively close their ears to. But we are asked to pray that God will send workers to do this.

And we are challenged to answer His call with "Here am I. Send me!"

I'm still working on the praying part, personally...

Opportunities for Mercy

Veronese's "Christ Healing the Woman With the Issue of Blood"

from the National Gallery, London

The recommended Bible reading for Friday looked like it was a typo to me at first.

Luke 8:40-42
So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.

That’s it. Stop right there.

I mean, seriously! Doesn’t that look like a mistake? We’re right in the middle of the story of Jairus’ daughter and making our way towards the woman with the issue of blood, and we stop here at the end of verse 42 with people crowding around Jesus?

So I looked back at my book and noticed that the theme was on “Waiting to Receive Instructions.” Could they have stopped at verse 42 on purpose after all?

Let’s look at the story a little more closely.

Circumstances were preventing Jesus from reaching His goal as quickly as He probably would have liked. So what did He do?

He didn’t order His disciples to clear these annoying folks away so He could go about His important business.

He didn’t whine about the fact that He wasn’t ever going to get anything done if people didn’t get out of His way.

He didn’t yell, “Everybody MOVE! Son of God coming through here!”

Instead He had patience. He knew that His Father was in control of circumstances, and He just watched to see what opportunities this delay would bring.

Enter the hemorrhaging woman. Now you’ve probably read this story before so I don’t have to copy verses 43-48 here. We all know the woman touches the hem of His garment and is healed. But the important thing was that Jesus took the time to notice her and have mercy on her.

That’s something He would not have been able to do if His focus had been on all the stuff He wasn’t getting done because of the annoying crowd all around Him.

In other words, we should never get too busy to pay attention to others and have mercy on them. We should never see the people around us as a bunch of obstacles in the way of all the things we need to get done.

As a mother, I am completely guilty of this. The constant interruptions my children bring usually drive me insane. Quite often I am too focused on all that I’m not getting done, rather than on the people I’m actually doing all this stuff for, namely those same annoying little interrupters.

Instead I should be taking the opportunity to show mercy in the way Jesus did.

Following are two more verses about keeping mercy at the forefront of our minds:

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

As a side note, my kids interrupted me approximately 4000 times while writing this. (Numbers are not exact.)

Maybe binding a reminder to be merciful around my neck is a good idea...

Loving One Another

I was talking to my kids about how their name-calling upsets me.

I said, “When you call your sister a bad name, it’s like you’re calling me a bad name, because I love your sister the same way I love you.”

My youngest daughter’s eyes got big. “But I wouldn’t call YOU a bad name, Mommy.”

“But that’s what you’re doing all the same,” I explained.

She looked thoughtful.

Her oldest sister rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

I don’t know if the lesson really got through to them, but I was serious. It hurts me when my daughters hurt each other.

Then at my Bible study class, we read the following verses:

1st John 3:14-15
Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don't love each other, you are still under the power of death. If you hate each other, you are murderers, and we know that murderers do not have eternal life.

1st John 4:20-21
But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other!"

I suddenly thought, God feels exactly the same way about His children!

Because He loves us, He wants us to love each other.

And in the same way, when we hate each other, it’s like we’re hating Him.

Pretty strong stuff.

I just hope the lesson sinks in a little better on me…

"Love" image from CD cover art bandcamp.com