As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!

36-38 “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.” (The Message)

When Jesus told His disciples to look at the ”ripe” fields, maybe they saw the Samaritan people making their way across those fields towards Jesus (30).

Evangelism takes a team. When we see a ‘harvest’ in our ministries today, who can say how much we owe to those who came before us and faithfully ‘sowed’ in these self-same ‘fields’?

”And although I see few results, future missionaries will see conversions following every sermon. May they not forget the pioneers who worked in the thick gloom with few rays to cheer, except such as flow from faith in the precious promises of God’s Word.” David Livingstone

‘The whiteness of the harvest appeared in the crowds that were coming down the valley; but at harvesttime we are sometimes apt to forget the sower who passed home without seeing the result of his labour. That is not the divine method. The sower is rewarded for his share, as the reaper for his – they rejoice together.’ F.B.Meyer

As Paul says, whatever part we may play in the process, it is ultimately all God’s work:

”What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-9 NIV)