The Harvesters

I spend a lot of time preaching about reading the Bible in context.  It was stressed to me in my training days in seminary and I have heard Scripture used so very often in the pulpit and in the pew...and in the world and heard it used out of context that it is something that I often emphasize.  As the saying goes, "A text without a context is a pretext", it typically is very true.  As I read 3 chapters of Matthew this morning (www.lifejournal.cc), I noticed the context in a better way than I have in a while.  We typically stop at the end of a chapter but Matthew, nor any other book in the Bible, was not written in chapters. When you also keep in mind that chapters were placed in relation to length more so than context, you realize, in order to read in context, you have to continue to read after the chapter sometimes.  In chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew, Jesus is healing people, doing miracles, and making a large visual impact.  Then at the end of chapter 9 (v.35-38) this happens: ³⁵ And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶ 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; ³⁸therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send  out laborers into his harvest."  Keep reading though- because in chapter 10 the situation continues: v.1-  And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.  He then continues in chapter 10 giving them instructions on how to go out in His Name.    When you get to Acts, it is the disciples that are teaching the church how to go out in the Name of Christ. 
Now, my point to all this is not a new point but a point well emphasized in our passage today:  We are the laborers of the harvest.  We are our generation's extension to Christ.  We are the ones that must go in His Name, if His Name is to go out to the lost and dying.  Jesus was working, working, working, when He asked for prayer for laborers. He then sent the disciples working, working, working.  Now we are to go working, working, working.  We are laborers and the fields are more white for the harvest than, maybe, they have ever been.  Let's get busy for the Lord today!