The harvest is dying (Pt.1)

(Part 1)

“The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.”-Luke 10:1-3

As we have watched the devastation caused by the rain this year on our farmer’s fields, my heart couldn’t help but break as I passed acres of field saturated by water still loaded with early wheat crops that needed to be harvested. I thought to myself, if those fields don’t dry out soon there will be no harvest taken from them. 

I wonder how many of us have driven by those same fields and not noticed, not calculated the loss, not considered the impact of those crops dying in the field?  It got me questioning why aren’t we bothered by harvest dying in the field? That led me to a similar spiritual thought. As believers the harvest that Jesus was speaking of was not grain or corn, but people. Jesus saw the souls of mankind to be the greatest commodity on the planet.

After His encounter with a Samaritan woman, Jesus was speaking with his disciples and makes this powerful statement:

 “You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike.”-John 4:35-36

Jesus’ mission according to Luke 19:10 is to seek and save those who are lost. I am certain that when it is time to bring in the harvest, that a farmer sees what lies before him as a monumental task. Yet, they feel a sense of urgency and responsibility to bring it in. Nobody is bringing that harvest in for them. They must get it before it is lost. 

I wonder what would happen, in the body of Christ, if we lifted up our eyes and saw the harvest with the same urgency and sense of responsibility. Winning the world to Christ is also a monumental task, but where is the urgency and passion?

It begins with understanding that we do not have harvest problem; we have a laborer problem. The reason the harvest is dying in the filed is there are not enough people committed to bringing it in:

“These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”-Luke 10:2

Part of the problem is that we don’t see harvesting as our job. We convince ourselves (wrongly) into thinking that one person plants, another waters, and another brings in the harvest; when in reality it is all of our responsibility to glean the fields. 


Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church