The Harvest is Plentiful
Luke 10:1-5; 8-11 (RSVUE)
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He 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. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’
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.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘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.’
This was a dangerous mission. The main risk to the 72 would be the townspeople violently running them out of town or worse, stoning them to death. Judea was a province hungry for a Messiah to come and free them from Roman domination. But it was also a land where many were tired of those who came claiming they were “The Messiah” who then disappointed them. The Romans hated it. The Temple authorities hated it. Even the people were tired of it, or at least the death and suffering such false prophets left in their wakes. Many times in Jesus’ lifetime, such preachers arose and gathered a following only to have the Romans kill everyone involved.
Jesus did not want his followers to suffer such a fate, so he carried out his mission very carefully with a definite strategy and timetable. He would visit Jerusalem, stir the pot a bit and then retreat to an area outside the jurisdiction of any Jerusalem authority. In Luke 10, we find Jesus launching a new strategy in his ministry and in laying the foundation for His Church,
In the 9th chapter of Luke, we see Jesus first sending The Twelve out into the countryside with the same instructions as the 72. When they return triumphant, they got to witness the Transfiguration and the feeding of the 5,000. But they also experienced a Samaritan town that rejected Jesus outright and seeing Jesus reject many who sought to follow him because he doubted their commitment the the Kingdom. So these 72 must have impressed him enough that he trusted them with this new phase.
Jesus gives the same instructions to the 72 that he gave to the 12. But he adds a twist to protect them from harm. Jesus amends the instructions he hadn’t given to the 12, sending them out with a specific plan. Jesus directs them to specific towns, ones he was already planning on visiting. They were to simply enter a town and immediately seek safety. If they were welcomed, they would stay, witness and bless those who had offered that welcome. If not, they were to publicly denounce the town by “shaking the dust” from their feet as they left. In other words, “Hit and run!”
So when the 36 pairs returned, Jesus knew which villages to scratch off his list. He had already set his path for one last trip to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. He had no time to waste on hard-nosed folk. Now the harvest would be “plentiful,” and Jesus would be able to visit, and great things could be accomplished.
I am convinced that the Holy Spirit does not call us into “unfruitful” mission, no matter how fruitless that task may seem. When I was in seminary, we all took a course called “Supervised Ministry” in which we took part in an already established ministry, usually some kind of institution, where we could be safe. But I had read a book, Pockets of Loneliness, which chronicled a seminary student’s attempt to minister to the seedier communities of Atlanta, the bars and “strip joints” of downtown Atlanta. As I read, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart to pick up the mantle that had been left a few years before. Now I had led a very sheltered life up to that point, never having seen anything like the activities I was certain to see in that environment. I received permission to try and, based on the book, I found a bartender in a downtown hotel who had been a participant in the “Night Ministry” as he called it.
I tracked the man down and over several visits, I got an idea of how it had worked. But I also got an idea of just how difficult it would be. It scared me down to my bones. So I found myself simply going back to this same man over and over again until he got fed up with me. He leaned over the bar and in a rather commanding voice said, “Listen, if you’re going to do this, then DO IT! Otherwise, I don’t want to see you again…EVER!”
That was just what I needed to hear. I got up, made my way to the largest strip club in town. I figured I might as well go down in flames if I could not fulfill my calling. I entered and sat in the center of a T-shaped stage on which ladies would “strut their stuff” as we say. The first lady who came out was as shocked to see a young man in a clerical collar sitting front and center as I was to be there.
Once she finished her performance, she came out and dragged me to the back of the bar. She was a backslidden Roman Catholic desperate for money who was doing a dance for the first time. So she, believing me to be a Catholic priest, saw me as a sign from God that dancing was not the life for her. Once she learned of the ministry I was hoping to begin, she took me to every adult club in town (she had worked everywhere as a waitress) and introduced me as her “preacher.” Because she knew everyone and everyone knew her, in a matter of hours I too became known to everyone, everywhere. BOOM! God had done it!
Now some would call that coincidence, but I realized that the Holy Spirit had intentionally prepared the field. Where I feared unbroken ground, the Holy Spirit had created a field already planted with seed. All that was needed was some fool with a watering can. The Supervised Ministry only required that I be there for three months, but I stayed three years, having one adventure after another for Christ. Although 50 years later I still take pride in that ministry, I knew every step of the way that it was not me but Thee who guided my steps.
So when you feel the “tug” of the Holy Spirit calling you to tasks great or small, know that Christ calls us to work already in progress. All we have to do is pick up our watering can...you know you have one somewhere in your heart.
Blessings brothers and sisters in Christ’s ministry,
Jim McGrath
