There existed a bitter rivalry in the farming world in Jesus’ day. We might easily miss this, but the saying “one sows and another reaps” was a comment about some people having bad luck and others having good. One man might do the work of planting and nurturing seeds, but then someone else would come and take the fruit that grows for themselves. It would be like if I put money into an account to accrue interest and become a fortune, but then someone else got to claim it all. No one wanted to be a sower without getting to reap. Unless, that is, you were sowing rewards not for yourself but for the kingdom of God!
This was the lot of people like the Old Testament prophets and ultimately John the Baptist. They devoted themselves to a life of trying to turn sinful people back to the Lord. They labored to plant seeds, hoping to see restoration between God and man, but they never got to see it fully work out. All they had was the hope that God would eventually accomplish his great plan of redemption.
But God never fails on his plans! When the time was exactly right, when the world was ready to be redeemed, the Son of God entered the picture with the most important mission of all time—to reap what had been sowed. Christ came to evangelize to the nations. The fields were ripe for harvest; that is, the time was ripe to gather as many people as possible to the Father, and there was work to be done!
In fact, Jesus recruited others to handle his mission of evangelism with him and after him. But here’s the irony of this story. Though the disciples were the ones assigned the mission of reaping, they stood around confused while someone else entirely went out and begin reaping. After only a brief encounter with Jesus, the woman at the well went and evangelized to her entire town. No one is ever too immature, or too incapable, or too new to the faith to carry out the mission. The task of sharing the gospel, and gathering people to the Father, falls to anyone who has a testimony to share.
Christ’s mission is our mission as well. Others have gone before us to sow seeds, but the time to reap has come. The fields are ripe for harvest; there is work to be done! And so long as so many in the world do not yet understand the good news, the work is not yet finished. But all of us who know Jesus have a story to tell, and good news to share. The time to share the gospel is now. We are reaping eternal rewards for the kingdom of God.
