By Pastor Mark Burd
Your pastor speaks
In the world around us, we see signs of the change of seasons, especially here in Ohio. Whether or not you’re directly related to a farmer, you and I are definitely affected by the season that we’re now in.
We all are pretty much aware that in the northern hemisphere, fall (or the first day of autumn) officially arrived on Sept. 23 this year. For most farmers though, it’s not only fall, but it’s harvest time! This is the time of year that farmers for the most part long for. It’s the time to reap the harvest that they’ve long awaited.
We all benefit from the harvest each year, and so whether you’re annoyed by the farm equipment on the roads, or you’re one driving it around and working the fields, we all need the harvest to be brought in. It can be a dirty job, but somebody has to do it! If you’re someone like me that eats to survive, you need to have this happen! It’s all in the perspective. If you’re glad to have food to eat, then be glad for harvest time again this year!
Jesus spoke about harvest time in a parable in the gospel of John, chapter four. He speaks in a parable which is a story of something very relatable, but one that has a moral or spiritual lesson to it. Starting in verse 35, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.”
Jesus is telling His disciples here that both the sower and the reaper should rejoice together over the harvest. As I mentioned, a parable isn’t just a story, but one that has a spiritual meaning. Notice that He points out here that the harvest is about one that gathers fruit for eternal life! If we look at this verse in context, we will see this clearly illustrated.
Verses 31-34 (of John 4), we see that Jesus sets up this illustration to define what He’s talking about. He is talking about spiritual food, and His disciples were discussing earthly food.
“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’ Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’”
The work that Jesus is referring to here is the work that His Father sent Him to do, which is to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
Back to the passage (recorded in John 4), Jesus told His disciples that he needed to go to Samaria where their enemies lived, but the disciples opted to go to town for food instead. There in Samaria, Jesus encountered whom we commonly refer to as the woman at the well. There she received Him as the Messiah, as He revealed Himself to her as. She became a convert and went and told the whole city about their encounter! When the disciples returned, they still had physical food on their minds, but Jesus had spiritual food on His mind, and began to tell the parable we just read.
Basically, Jesus is pointing out that while His disciples were focused on physical food, He was about His Father’s business of looking for a “harvest of souls” which are all around us! Even though the signs are pointing to the Harvest, if we aren’t paying close attention, we may miss the one that Jesus wants us to notice! Proverbs 11:30 (NIV) says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.”
The writer is the state director for reviveOHIO
