Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, watch out for the interactions of Jesus and three kinds of people: religious insiders, his disciples, the crowds.
Jesus has been teaching, preaching, and healing. During this journey, we are told, Jesus had compassion for the crowds because they were harassed and helpless. He said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." I am struck first by my notion of harvest as being something that will benefit the laborer (or, the laborer's employer). But, Jesus is using this term, harvest, as an opportunity to help the helpless.
When I looked for references to "harvest" in the prophets, I found one in Jeremiah 8 that also mentions healing, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." A couple of verses later he queries, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?"
Although I don't think that Jeremiah was using the terms balm and physicians literally, I think the connection between them and harvest is pretty much the same as in Matthew's gospel. Harvest is an opportunity. We don't have enough workers (in Matthew) or time (in Jeremiah) to complete the work.
Read these words of Jesus literally, then ask how much effort your congregation is making toward healing? toward curing disease and sickness? I write this contemplating that the Annual Conference Offering in Mississippi is directed toward the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. Good. But, we're asking only $1 per member. Still good?
Read them metaphorically. What harvest, opportunity, is your congregation working on? What sicknesses are you making an effort to heal? Do you have enough laborers to bring in the harvest? Or, do you plant only enough that your laborers can manage?
Jesus gives them authority over unclean spirits. What is the modern-day equivalent of "unclean spirits"?
No comments:
Post a Comment