We know very
little about the man. He was educated, literate, and a physician. At some
point, he became a Christian, a partner in Paul’s ministry, and the author of
two books in the Bible – one a chronicle of Jesus’ life, and the other a
historical account of the ministry of the apostles. His name was Luke, and his
books are the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
Today,
October 18, is set aside by the Church to celebrate St. Luke the Evangelist.
(That’s a fancy word that means a person who announces good news – especially
the good news of Jesus’ salvation by His life, death, and resurrection.)
Today is
also set aside here at Gloria Dei as LWML Sunday. LWML – Lutheran Women’s
Missionary League – has long focused on ways to support the important work of
evangelists – good news announcers. LWML has at its heart the desire for
everyone to hear about God’s love for sinners, and the forgiveness of sins that
flows from Christ’s cross.
This is the
work Jesus has always been about! His first sermon was, “The kingdom of God has
come, repent and believe the good news!” He sent His disciples out to proclaim
that message, and, today, we read about the time Jesus sent seventy-two others
to go ahead of Him, announcing the good news of God’s kingdom. They were
evangelists!
The work of
sharing the good news of God’s love ultimately belongs to Jesus, but he
includes His followers in that work. And today, He works through His followers
– people like you and me – to carry a message to proclaim the kingdom – to
proclaim all the work God does to redeem sinners.
It’s a
daunting task. It’s a big world out there, and there are so many people who
need to hear about Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection so they can believe, too!
Not only that, but there is resistance to Jesus’ message, which can be
discouraging or even frightening!
What should
we do in response to this need? How do we even begin such a task?
Jesus gives
us a good place to begin in our Gospel reading today. In Luke’s gospel, chapter
10, verse 2, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into
His harvest.”
“The harvest
is plentiful.” Do you believe that? Do you believe that there are many people
out there who would love to hear this good news that you believe? There are!
But they don’t want to just hear us talk about Jesus, they want to see us live
our lives as thought we were betting our souls on Jesus salvation. (Because we
are!) But what people often get wrong about the Christian faith is that they
think this is some kind of morality project. It is not. The Christian faith is,
first and foremost, the story of God who saves sinners. It’s not about the
things you do to be a better person. That’s all downstream from God’s
intervention in your life. Our first message about Jesus is that He seeks and
saves the lost, binds the brokenhearted, comforts the sorrowing, forgives the
unforgivable, and raises the dead. I believe there are many people in this
world who have crushed, emotionally killed, and culturally confused about what
it means to be loved, that the harvest is truly large, and the need is great.
“But the
laborers are few.” We can understand this in a couple of ways. First, we need
more professional church workers: pastors, DCE’s, teachers, and missionaries. We
should pray that God gives us those workers. Also, these are noble tasks, and
if God calls you to this work, it is a blessed life! But, secondly, we also
need folks who just go about their lives, living like light to the world,
sharing our hope, loving our neighbors, supporting others, and gathering in
worship. In our hymn today we sang, “If you cannot speak like angels,, If you
cannot preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say He died
for all If you cannot rouse the wicked With the judgment’s dread alarms, You
can lead the little children To the Savior’s waiting arms.” Simply put, we are
those who wrap our lives around “Words of Life, words of Hope” because they “Give
us strength, help us cope In this world, where e'er we roam Ancient words will
guide us Home,” and they have that same message for all who will believe in
Jesus!
So, because
the harvest is great, and the laborers are few, we take Jesus’ prayer request
to heart. “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send our laborers into
His harvest.”
This, above
all, is where we begin with God’s Kingdom’s mission: we pray. We pray for God
to send workers – again, both professional workers and everyone who will share
the hope of Jesus. That means you might be the one who gets sent! Or it might
be that your role is to pray and keep praying for God to bring people into the
lives of people to share Jesus’ salvation with them!
This is what
Jesus teaches us to pray for in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer:
Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. We pray that people
will hear the name of Jesus and find their salvation in Him. We pray that God’s
kingdom of grace will come to us, but also to everyone, because this kingdom is
wherever God is working to redeem sinners. We pray that God’s will would be
done, trusting that God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge
of the truth that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, but are also
saved through grace believing in Jesus, the crucified and risen Son of God.
This is our
first work as Christians: we pray, we intercede, we call upon God for our needs
and the needs of others, remembering that their greatest need is to be saved
from sin and death – and that is why Jesus died and rose! He has saved us from
sin and death and given us a new life – a life that is available to all who
believe, a life that is founded on His mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
So pray.
Pray to the Lord of the harvest, for the harvest is plentiful and the workers
are few, and we have a message to proclaim – the kingdom has come! Salvation
has come!
Have you
ever thought about the people God placed in your life who pointed you to Jesus
and helped you to experience his love? They were an answer to this prayer to
bring God’s grace to you. Perhaps you are an answer to a prayer to bring God’s
grace to someone else. You are definitely among those called to pray that God
sends laborers into the harvest, because that privilege is given to all whom Jesus
has redeemed and made His own. Amen.
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