COMPASSIONATE:
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaim- ing the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38
REFLECTION:
“Jesse, my brother, I do not understand what He is saying about the harvest. Please explain this to me.”
“I too am very confused, Caleb. There are no fields here, and this ground is far too rocky for anything good to be grown here.”
“What must He mean?”
“I cannot tell.”
“I can assume He means we are the harvesters. Would you agree?”
“Yes. Of course. We are to be the harvesters, but of what?”
“My brother, could He mean ‘who’ and not ‘what?’”
“Ah, could these be the harvest?”
“The diseased, the sick, the harassed, the helpless – these that have no shepherd? This is the harvest. These are the harvest.”
“Yes, my brother. It is among these, especially these. ‘The kingdom of heav- en belongs to such as these.’ It is here where we together will experience His full harvest.”
“May it be so.”
“Amen. Amen.”
RESPOND:
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- Where do you find yourself experiencing His harvest?
- How might you partner with Jesus in sowing, planting, and cultivating for His harvest?
PRAYER:
Would you remind me of the good you have brought forth in me? The harvest of my own life? Would you break up the unplowed ground, the places of me that remain hardened, and even hidden? Would you empower me to wait in this season? As I grow to know you, would you strengthen me to go, to faithfully sow in these fields where I live, where I work, where I play? That I, that we, may experience the joy of the harvest.
