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.’”
Today’s Text: Matthew 9:27-38 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
I wonder what Jesus would see in the crowds today? I find so many people caught up in the struggle to become “successful” according to the standards of the world. That struggle becomes the meaning of life. That struggle defines the value of living. And then we teach our children that the struggle for “success” is the highest purpose of our lives. That struggle leaves us “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
It’s interesting, I think, that the people who are admired and followed, and even idolized, the most are those people who are “successful” according to the standards of the world. They are the people we admire the most, but on a personal level, they may be the people who care about us the least. And we want to become just like them. We teach our children to admire them, too.
The Bible shows us that there is nothing wrong with attaining success according to the values of the world. Look at Abraham; look at Joseph. But the Bible also tells us that we “cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
“Money” translates the Aramaic word mammona, which is more than just “money,” but everything that the love of money fosters.
Buying into the struggle for “success” according to the standards of the world is serving “mammona.”
We can tell when people are serving mammona when they do not see any alternative to their life. The only real alternative to serving mammona is serving Christ. But for those who serve mammona, serving Christ may seem like a sacrifice on par with martyrdom.
In a way, I suppose it is, but not martyrdom from life to death, but martyrdom from death to life.
Of course, I’m exaggerating when I bring a word like “martyrdom” into my reflection, but I think us believers understand, because we all feel it, too.
CJ and I gave up “everything” to serve Christ. But once we started serving Him, we discovered we really gave up nothing. Rather, we gained everything (Matthew 19:27-30).
If we are Christian, then we have a Shepherd. And a Christian life means to follow our Shepherd. And to follow our Shepherd means to stop chasing after the mammona but to shift our eyes and our hearts toward the harvest field. We were once harassed and helpless in pursuit of mammona, too. But we’re not anymore.
Father, You are our very great Reward. You are our Shield. You are our Success. The life we have in You is the life we yearn for. Forgive me when I seek after mammona. You have saved me, so let my life be found in You. Make us to see the harvest and stir our hearts to gather in the harvest field through our house churches and through our evangelism and through our missions. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
