Plentiful Harvest?
Here are some thoughts on this coming Sunday’s gospel.
Gospel: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ ”
16“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
17The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (v. 2). In other words, there’s a lot of work to do and not enough people to do it all. Does this sound at all familiar to today’s working world? What I find particularly striking is that Jesus was sending them with very little natural resource: no purse, no bag and no sandals–nothing extra to weigh them down. For food and housing, they were to rely on the kindness of strangers. I think it could make one feel like you were out on the branch of a tree, just hoping someone wasn’t lurking in the shadows to cut the branch down.
The good news is that Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. They were not alone. Yes, there was the challenge to trust in God and not all your belongings, but at least they had each other.
God did not design us to be lone rangers, but rather, formed us to live in community with each other. God has given us our brothers and sisters in the faith to encourage us when we’re down and for us to encourage. In this way, we strengthen each other to work in God’s kingdom. As a hymn we sang last week asks, “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?” What will your answer be?
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