In John 4 Jesus was talking with the woman at the well who went into town to tell the people what Jesus had said to her. While the town was coming out, the disciples come to Jesus to urge him to eat. Jesus’ response was,
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
“Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Jesus is saying stop waiting for the harvest because it is already ripe.
I think it’s easy to get distracted from this reality when we are unsure if people even want the kingdom of heaven. But as we learn, study, explore and understand the reality of creation we find that mankind is in the same boat. Mankind was given something, that was lost, until Jesus restored it.
When we look at Genesis 1 and 2, we see that God created the world and mankind on purpose. Man came from God and lived in and with God. In Chapter 3 Adam and Eve declared independence from God through disobedience. Enter in the reign of death through sin.
Romans 5:17
“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”
Adam through the vehicle of sin, ushered in the reign of death. Death was king and the pattern of life was sin. Sin is a malfunction, which is why it creates death. What God created was eternal and everlasting. The pattern of death brought about confusion and identity crisis. This malfunction distorts the knowledge of God, which causes people to be born into a lifestyle that produces the questions of, “Who am I?” and “What is this life about?”.
In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God says let’s make man in our image and likeness, this is where we came from, where our life is sourced, maintained and sustained. This is our Identity. Right after Identity came purpose, God said let them have dominion over the earth. The very questions people struggle with are the very things that were lost in the garden of Eden.
All mankind fell into malfunction and the distortion and confusion of what this life is about. Jesus restored what was lost.
To be continued……