The story goes that Mark Twain loved to go fishing, but he hated to catch fish. The problem was he went fishing to relax, and catching fish ruined his relaxation, since he had to take the fish off the hook and do something with it. When he wanted to relax by doing nothing, people thought he was lazy, but if he went fishing he could relax all he wanted. People would see him sitting by the river bank and they would say, “Look, he’s fishing, don’t bother him.” So Mark Twain had the perfect solution: he would take a fishing pole, line, and a bobber, but he wouldn’t put a hook on the end. He would cast the bobber in the water and lay back on the bank. That way he could relax all he wanted and he would be bothered neither by man nor fish.
Mark Twain is like a lot of Christians I know. They have their pole in the water, but there is no hook on the end. They are not fishing; they are relaxing. Do you think this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”? (Matthew 4:19). There have been so many people come to our church because they say, “We are here because this is a church that is reaching out to the community.” They want to be identified with a church that is serious about making a difference for the kingdom in the community where they live, but they never become a part of any of the ministries of the church. They don’t become a part of the outreach ministries personally. They have a bobber floating on the water, but they have no hook.
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37-38). If it was true then, it is true now. So often we are just glad that we are safe that we forget that there are others in danger who need us to become those who reach out. George E. Sweazy warned, “The law of any church is, and always will be, evangelize or fossilize.” The Bible puts it this way, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
I want to divide the scripture we have read today into the three “he” statements: 1) He saw the crowds. 2) He had compassion. 3) He called to his disciples. I believe that if we follow the example of Jesus by truly seeing the crowds and having compassion, it will solve the problem of needing workers in the harvest field.
The first thing Jesus did was: He saw the crowds. When you really see the needs of people, you will want to help them, if you are a person who has been born from above. You can’t help it. The Bible says that Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching and preaching about the good news of the kingdom, and healing. He became overwhelmed with human need. He saw the people and their problems because he went where they were and allowed them to crowd around him. This is not a god who sits on a golden throne above the clouds and goes, “tsk, tsk.” No, this is the God who comes to us in order to put his face in our face. He sees because he is here. Someone can tell you about the needs of people here in Mount Vernon, but until you begin to put your face in the face of a person who is in need, you will not see the reality that is all around you. You have to go to where people are. You have to rub shoulders with them, smell their sweat, cry with them and wipe their tears, feel their frustration and experience their feelings of helplessness. You can’t “see the crowds” until you have interacted with the people who make up the crowds.
There is a moving scene in the movie Dr. Zhivago where the Comrade General is talking with Tanya about a traumatic experience in her childhood. He asks her, “How did you come to be lost?” She replies, “Well, I was just lost.” But he persists and asks again, “No, how did you come to be lost?” Tanya doesn’t want to say, but finally gives another cursory explanation: “I was just lost. My father and I were running through the city and it was on fire. The revolution had come and we were trying to escape and I was lost.” The Comrade General kept pressing: “How did you come to be lost?” She still didn’t want to say, but finally blurted out: “We were running through the city and my father let go of my hand and I was lost.” Then she added plaintively, “He let go.” This is what she didn’t want to say. The Comrade General said, “This is what I’ve been trying to tell you, Tanya. Komarov was not your real father. Zhivago is your real father and I can promise you, Tanya, that if this man had been there, your real father, he would never have let go of your hand.”
Witnessing is just telling people what their real Father is like. The message that we have to give to the world is that they are lost only because the false gods they were trusting in let them go and let them down because they were not their real Father. Their real Father would never let go of their hand. I think that Jesus was saying that there are many people who are like Tanya in Dr. Zhivago. They got lost, not because of something that was their fault, but they became helpless and harassed when the world let go of them. They are wandering and simply need to be found. But how will that happen if we stay in our comfortable homes relaxing instead of fishing?
But Jesus did more than just see people’s need. The second thing the scripture says is that: He had compassion. He not only saw the need, he felt the need. It is one thing to see the need, it is quite another thing to have a heart of compassion. Jesus’ famous parable of the Good Samaritan is a great example. A man lies dying on the road to Jerusalem after being beaten and robbed. A religious leader sees him lying on the road, but there is no compassion in his heart, and he passes by on the other side. Still another religious leader happens upon the scene. He too sees the man, understands what has happened and realizes that he is in great need, but he also passes by on the other side of the road. Then the Samaritan, a man the religious leaders considered a hopeless case as far as God was concerned, not only saw the man but had compassion on him. He bound up his wounds, put him in his Mustang and drove him to the nearest emergency room. And when he got there he pulled out his credit card and told the man at the desk to charge everything to him. After telling this story to an expert in the religious law, Jesus asked, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:36-37). This is true evangelism. This is what it means to go into the harvest field.
There’s a wonderful legend about Saint Francis, a monk who lived in the thirteenth century. One day he informed his fellow monks that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching mission, and invited a novice to go along. On their journey to the village, they passed an injured man and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the poor fellow’s needs and arranged medical care for him. They went on and soon passed a homeless man who had not eaten for days. Again, Francis interrupted his journey and helped the hungry, homeless man. So it went, throughout the day: they would come across people in need, and Francis would minister to their needs as best he could. Finally, darkness was about to set in and not a single word had been preached. Francis told his novice that it was time for them to return to the monastery for evening prayers. The young man was disturbed and said, “But, Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people.” Francis smiled and said, “My friend, that’s what we’ve been doing all day.” Having a heart of compassion is the best form of evangelism. But it means being inconvenienced. It means going out of your way. It means it may cost you something. When we minister to the needs of people, we have to do more than just see the need, we have to feel the need and respond to the need.
James wrote: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do’” (James 2:14-18). Some people talk about their faith and other people just quietly live it.
The third thing that Jesus did was: He called to his disciples. He called them to pray, and he called them to be a part of what he was doing. They didn’t have to search for the harvest field, Like St. Francis and the novice, they had been in it all day. He was calling them to see the harvest. He was calling on them to have compassion. And he was calling them to go into the harvest field with him. He was also asking them to pray that more would be willing to be workers and go into the harvest field. The harvest was bigger than the workers. It was true then, and it is true now.
We have a lot of ministries going on in the church now, but honestly, we have barely enough people to keep them going. We have all kinds of new ideas of things we would like to do and could do, but there are just not enough people willing to do them. A few people are doing a lot, and a lot of people are doing very little. Pastors have what they call the 80/20 principle. It means that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. What would happen in this town if every Christian was involved in just one ministry? What if every person who calls themselves Christian was in the harvest field? What if every time a Christian passed by someone in need, they stopped and became Christ to that person or family? This community would be transformed overnight. Many Christians have their lives so full of things they have no time to serve God or invest in the lives of others.
It is not that their lives are filled with bad activities, most of them are good. What the Lord is asking us to do is to set our priorities so that we are choosing, not between what is good and bad, but between what is good and what is better — between what is good and what is best. For me it is like reading books. There are hundreds of books I would like to read, but I don’t have time to read them, so I make the choice of reading the best books. There would be nothing wrong with reading some of the other good books, in fact I would like to, but I only have so much time so I am going to make sure that the books I do read are the best ones available. You can’t do everything, so choose to do the best things. There are many good things you can do, but choose the best. Don’t try to do it all. And don’t cram so many things in your child’s life that they have no time to be a kid. Choose a few of the best things. God did not design us to go at the hectic pace at which we live.
Going into the harvest field doesn’t mean that you have to stand on the street corner and preach. You don’t have to know the Bible or be a student of theology. You just have to love God and love people. You just have to minister to the places where people are hurting.
In the past evangelical Christians used programs like Evangelism Explosion where we went door to door and asked people questions like: “If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?”, and, “If God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven,’ what would you say?” This method had its place, and even had a lot of results, but it may not be what works for most people today. When I was in college we used the Four Spiritual Laws a lot when witnessing to people. It began with: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” There were definite steps that you walked people through, and it ended with a good prayer to pray if you wanted to receive Christ. Both of these plans, which were good, had a lot of things to memorize. There were diagrams and charts and a certain way that you went through the plan. But in today’s culture, we are much more likely to win people by becoming their friend and serving them. People are looking for other people who are authentic and real. They respond to people who are willing to do what it takes to build and retain a friendship. We are discovering that there is more than one way to do things.
Carl Boyle is a sales representative, and he was driving home through his suburban neighborhood one day when he saw a group of young children selling Kool-Aid on a corner. They had taped the typical hand-scrawled sign on their stand: “Kool-Aid, 10 cents.” As a salesman, Carl was intrigued. He pulled over to the curb, and one of the boys came up to his car and asked if he would like strawberry or grape Kool-Aid. Carl placed his order and handed the boy a quarter. After much deliberation, the children determined he had some change coming, and rifled through the old box in which they kept their money, until they finally came up with the correct amount. The boy returned with the change, then stood by the side of the car watching him as he drank. The boy became impatient and asked if Carl was finished drinking. “Just about,” said Carl, “Why?” “That’s the only cup we have,” answered the boy, “and we need it to stay in business.”
Fortunately, we have more than one cup and we don’t have to use the same one to stay in business. There is more than one method of evangelism. There is more than one way to enter the harvest field. There is more than one cup of cold water we can share with the world. We can care. We can help. We can share our story of what Jesus has done for us. Paul said, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. . . . To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23).
Jesus is calling you to see the need, have compassion and go into the harvest field, and share in the blessing of the harvest.
Rodney J. Buchanan
June 12, 2005
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
