I’m a harvest worker and I remember that day so well. It was hot and dry and dusty. The teacher had been in a strange mood the past couple of days. He’d spent the whole night in prayer and he seemed sombre and quiet. Not full of joy like he usually was.
Now of course I understand why. There was an urgency about the task he was about to give us. He wouldn’t be passing this way again and he knew this might be the last opportunity for the people and villages he was sending us to, to hear his message.
He called us forward in pairs, 72 of us in all. The Pharisees didn’t like that. 72, the number of families descended from Noah recorded in the Torah, who populated the world after the flood. ‘Who does he think he is,’ they said. ‘He doesn’t just want to pollute Jerusalem with his teaching. It’s the whole world now.’
Of course we didn’t understand the significance either then. We thought he’d come to save Israel. We always thought it was strange that so often he seemed to single out gentiles for praise. Anyway I diverge. He called us forward and laid his hands on us and prayed for us. I remember his words: “Father empower them as you have empowered me. Work through them beloved Father as you work through me.” I felt a sense of power and love come upon me. So did my companion.
He said we were going out to gather a harvest. Again at the time we didn’t really understand what he meant. But we do now.
He said we were going out like lambs among wolves. This worried me a bit but then I thought - he’s always kept me safe up to now. He told us not to take any provisions.
Again my head told me this was silly, but my heart said trust him, so I did.
And then he sent us off in pairs, to support and encourage each other. We weren’t to stop and talk to anyone on the way. He wanted us to sense the urgency in our task. No time to stop and chat. He didn’t want us to be diverted from our task in any way.
So off we set not really knowing what to think or expect. As we arrived in the village a lady came up to us and said, “I’ve been expecting you.” This really surprised us. But then my companion reminded me of the time Peter had got the tax money from the fish’s mouth and I remembered the time when the master had fed all those people.
Perhaps it wasn’t so strange.
The lady took us into her home and welcomed us and set a meal before us. “Stay with me as long as you need to,” she said. My companion nudged me. “Peace” he said; “we haven’t asked for peace to rest on this house,” so we did. As we spoke the words I felt a sense of power upon them. It was as if the master was speaking through me.
We went out that evening to the main village square. We didn’t really know what to say but then we remembered the master’s words. ‘Do not worry about what to say. Words will be given to you,’ so we spoke in turn and the words just flowed. They poured out like a stream from our mouths. We spoke about Jesus and what he’d said and done, about his kingdom.
And then a man came up with a crippled child. “Please” he said. “I heard you have come from the teacher, the one in Jerusalem, Jesus. I’ve seen that God is with him. Please pray for my child.”
I looked at the man and the little girl wrapped in his arms and I felt an overwhelming sense of love for both of them. I placed my hand upon the child’s forehead and said, “In the name of the God of Abraham, be healed”– the same words that the master used. I felt power in the words I spoke and I knew the master’s power had been in that moment.
The little girl felt it too. “Put me down Abba, Daddy” she said. “I can walk.” The man placed the child on the ground and she stood up, hesistantly at first – like a new born lamb.
Well that was it. Our little mission took off. The whole village came out to see and people started queing up, asking us to touch them and pray for them. Sometimes we sensed people had demons tormenting them so we commanded them to go just like the master did, and they went.
We returned to Jesus overjoyed.
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So this passage is about going out into the world as Christians and extending God’s Kingdom with both words and deeds. It’s about reaching out because the harvest is plentiful. It’s about being a harvest worker.
And although the passage may seem at face value to be aimed mainly at travelling evangelists, I think the principles it embodies, as I’ve tried to show with the story I told, have relevance for our own lives and evangelistic efforts.
Let’s look at just a few of these principles.
The Lord...sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go
The disciples are to go in pairs. They should not be all alone. If we are going to be effective in sharing the gospel we also need to be united with other Christians. We need to be part of a team, part of a church. We need the support and prayer and encouragement of others.
In practice this means that as well as going to church regularly, ideally we should belong to a bible study or housegroup where we can meet with other Christians, and as well as studying God’s word, develop bonds of friendship. We should have a network of Christian friends who can support us and pray for us and encourage us. Our mission is to be grounded in a team effort.
The harvest is plentiful and workers are needed in the harvest field.
We each have our own personal harvest field to work in. Who’s in our field? It’s our family and friends, our work and social colleagues, and anyone else God chooses to lay on our heart. It’s the people around us that we know of and meet and care for. It can be the lady in the newsagents, our cousin abroad, our nephew or niece, the shy man we sometimes see at work, or even the celebrity in the paper for whom God has given us a particular concern.
Every Christian has their own harvest field to work in. Obviously it’s not possible to pray for everyone we know. God however can see how ripe each individual ear of corn is. We therefore need to ask God to lay on our hearts those he wants us to reach out to and pray for.
Heal the sick who are there
Our task as harvest workers is not just to share the gospel and our faith with words but also with deeds. As Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.“
We are not only to preach the gospel but also to heal the sick and to cast out demons as Jesus and his disciples did
This may sound a bit daunting but it’s what Jesus tells his disciples to do in this passage. “Heal the sick and tell them the kingdom of God is near.”
Healing is a very complicated area and we do very much need to be walking closely with God in order to sense when His Spirit in us may be leading us to pray for someone’s healing. We also then need to have the courage to step out in faith and offer to lay hands on them and pray for them.
Years ago I went to an event designed to encourage Christians to pray for people’s healing. The emphasis of the day was to be open to the possibility that God might want to use us in this way and to have the courage to at least offer prayer to someone if you felt it was the right thing to do.
Shortly afterwards, our office secretary came to work in pain with a kidney infection, something she suffered from a good deal. I did feel prompted to pray for her so somewhat reluctantly I asked her if she’d mind if I laid hands on her and prayed for her.
To my surprise she said she wouldn’t mind at all.
We went to a quiet room and feeling embarrassed and hoping I’d got it right, I prayed a very quick prayer, asking God to heal her and take away her pain. To my surprise she stayed in an attitude of prayer herself for what felt like a long time but was probably only 30 seconds or so and said she’d felt the most amazing sense of peace and that her kidneys felt better.
I mention this as it just goes to show what God can do if we are prepared step out in faith. I felt embarrassed and really unsure that I’d got it right, but God was able to work through that.
Remember that God is the healer not us. If His Spirit is living in us why shouldn’t He be able to work through us in the same way he did with these 72 disciples?
Tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.
Speaking out about our faith is also very important. A lady at my previous church who had come to faith after a length of time told me about her neighbour. For many years she’d had this neighbour who was very kind and helpful, but who had failed ever to mention she was a Christian.
The lady I spoke to said there was something lovely about her neighbour, but because she never mentioned her faith it was of very little benefit to her and in fact if she’d known she would have liked to ask her questions. She only discovered her neighbour was a Christian when she met her at a Christian event some time later.
Of course we should try and lead lives that will attract people to God but we must speak out about our faith or the example of our lives may be wasted.
We don’t need to be theological experts. A simple willingness to share why our faith is important to us is all that is needed.
How many of our friends and neighbours and work colleagues know that we’re Christian?
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I’m a harvest worker and I will always remember those days. But of course those days haven’t ended. Since the master left us, the healing and the preaching have continued.
That’s what I do now. His Spirit is with me and every day of my life I am a harvest worker. Everyday I tell people about my wonderful Lord and the things he said and did.
Many days I have the opportunity to pray for the sick and the tormented and I do. That’s what He calls each one of us to do. Of course it’s still Him doing the work. I just offer Him my life and seek to follow Him as best I can.
In the name of the living God. Amen
