Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “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 9:35-38
Seven weeks ago was Easter Sunday. That makes today Pentecost Sunday. Interestingly enough, this year Jewish and Christian Pentecost fall on the same day. This isn’t normally the case because Jews count Pentecost (Shavuot in Hebrew; literally, weeks) from seven weeks after Passover, which can fall on any day of the week. Christians, on the other hand, count it seven weeks after Easter Sunday. This year, Passover was on a Saturday, making Shavuot on a Sunday.
As I’ve written before, Pentecost is at the time of the wheat harvest. In the passage above, Jesus referred to the spreading of the kingdom to a harvest. There are fields of people who need to be brought into the kingdom. Pentecost is a firstfruits festival, too. The first of the wheat harvest was to be brought to God before the rest could be harvested. So too, the first Pentecost after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension was a sort of firstfruits celebration as 3000 believed and entered into the community of the followers of Jesus (Acts 2). That harvest continues to this day. May you be apart of that harvest.
