Lord of the Harvest

Over 2,000 years ago, a couple went to search for their Son who stayed behind after the family attended a Jewish ceremony in the old city of Jerusalem. They presumed that the boy must have joined their relatives to journey back home and so left Jerusalem without Him. As they went back to Jerusalem in search of their Son, they found Him after three days. The couple must have been pretty worried about where their Son was, who was taking care of Him, how He fed for the three days they have been searching for Him and so on. To their utmost amazement, they found him in church interacting with the teachers. At 12 this boy was already in the midst of teachers asking them questions about the Scripture and responding to their questions. The teachers were stunned at his intelligence and understanding. When His parents mentioned that they have been tirelessly searching for Him and asked why He decided not to go with them, without any apologies, He answered, “Why did you have to search for Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

Obviously, this boy already discovered His purpose early in life and He began to prepare Himself for the task ahead. He knew that He was on earth to accomplish His Father’s business. However, no one heard about Him after the Jerusalem encounter. The Bible narrates that He grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him (See Luke 2:40). He reemerged at the age of 30 after 18 years of preparation. What was He really doing within this period? Was He helping His parent in his carpentry workshop? As firstborn, was He helping His mom to fend for His four brothers and two sisters? All this while, He was not distracted as He focused on fulfilling His purpose. When He began to fulfill purpose, His eyes were opened to see the physical and spiritual needs of His neighbors. He had compassion and delivered many from satanic oppression. He realized that He needed more hands to join Him to do His Father’s business. So, He discipled 12 men of different professions, who worked with Him throughout His ministry. Thanks goodness there were no gender activists to ask Him the reason for not having a woman among the 12 disciples.

One evening, after a stressful outing, some of His disciples brought him food to eat but He told them, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to accomplish his work” (See John 4:34). He was bent on winning a lost soul – the Samaritan woman, to God’s Kingdom thereby depopulating the kingdom of darkness. He knew that His Father does not want any one on earth to perish or be destroyed on the Judgement Day (See Romans 14:12; Matthew 25:41). With passion, He reminded His disciples to open their eyes and look at the fields as they are ripe for harvest (See John 4:35). In another occasion, He admonished His disciples to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest field.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'” (Matthew 9:36-38)

Jesus Christ, Who started His Father’s business as a teenager continued at His thirties until He died for every sinner, is indeed the Lord of the harvest. He has shown every Christian believer an example to follow and commissioned them to go into the world to preach His gospel and make disciples (See Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:19-20). The “harvest” for every Christian believer is about bringing people from unbelief to faith and from sin and destruction to eternal life. So often believers are blind to the spiritual state of others. Jesus tells his disciples to become alert to the readiness of the harvest. Therefore, every believer must be intentional about the harvest and aside from praying daily for the Holy Spirit to convict and convert unbelievers and sinners in their families and neighborhoods, their lifestyles should lead people to Christ and they should not fail to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to lost souls. May God help us as believers to prayerfully be about His business as the Lord of the harvest did and is still doing.

By Sunday Omori