A HARVEST OF DISCARDS?

Matthew 9:36-38 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Crowds… dirty feet, smelling like hard labor in a hot Middle Eastern sun.

On top of it all the crowds had “issues.” Harassed crowds. Maybe they didn’t pay their taxes or their tithes. Maybe they walked too far on the Sabbath breaking the law against ‘work’ or perhaps they passed by in the shadow of something or someone unclean, thereby breaking the law on cleanliness. They were ostracized, ignored and so far out on the edge of the “acceptable people” that any re-entry positions were closed or closing fast. They were helpless and unable to change their fate.

Were their issues political or religious? Who cares? One tax was as bad as another. One law sealed their fate just as quickly as another. One ostracism was as painful as another.

What kind of “harvest” could they have possibly been? What did Jesus see when he looked at them?

I imagine my mother digging though a colander of dried pinto beans looking for the “bad ones” to pick out and discard. “Keep this handful…oops! Toss out that one!” Who in the world would call Mom’s bad beans “the “harvest?”

Who would have called the crowds "a harvest?”

Jesus did.

This harvest he longs for isn’t a “weeding” or a gathering up of things unwanted from a blessed and flourishing field. It’s a gathering up of potential life that lies wilting and dying in a field once precious, but now turned to weeds. It’s a RESCUE of something wanted and something loved.

The people in the crowds are ripe for picking not because they are bruised and need to be discarded, but because they are frustrated and victimized and marginalized and so have first hand experience with the systemic sins of a sick and unjust society. They are preciously AWARE. The crowds can SEE. They are not bound or blinded by their own economic and social idolatry. . .

I pastor a small church full of "the crowd." We are not wealthy, we are not well educated, but we are "harvested." We are called and gathered together by the hand of the Lord. If we have needs, we can be sure a supplier is among us. If there are skills required for a job to be done, we can be sure the Lord will provide them. A shepherd cares for his sheep!

We have a motto that we joyously share with visitors to our congregation and new members, partly because it is fun to watch people's faces as they recognize its two interpretations: "No one comes to St. Paul by accident." Yes, it is hard to find our "off the main road" physical location, but the greater truth is that we believe the Lord has called to be among us everyone who comes through our door. We believe that with all our hearts. They are more than our guests; they are his.

The Lord's harvest is not haphazard or arbitrary.
We are wheat hand-picked.
Loved and gathered in!

Thanks be to God!