Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 International Workers’ Day

John 4: 34-38

"And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.”
           
God created Adam and Eve and put them in the garden of Eden. God gave them the responsibility of tending and keeping the garden. So, it was the divine purpose of the Creator that the human being He created should work during their time on this earth. Due to the rebellion of man against God, work became very hard and tiring. It became necessary for human beings to toil all through their lifetime to make a living. Man had to bear the physical burden as well as the spiritual burden of sin.
God, by His infinite mercy, sent forth His son in due time to relieve the humankind from this burdensome yoke. Lord Jesus declared: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29). Obviously, Lord Jesus is talking about physical work in order to highlight a spiritual principle. He can provide relief for the weary souls from physical exhaustion as well as spiritual depravation.
God’s Word was at work from the beginning of the world. At the completion of God’s time, His Word took human form as Lord Jesus Christ. (John 1:14). Even though the Word of God was around from the beginning, people did not perceive it due to their spiritual blindness. The context of the key verse given above, is Lord Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. As she realized that she may be talking to the Messiah himself, she ran and brought the people of her town to the well where Lord Jesus was sitting. Lord Jesus realized the future implication of her act as far as the gospel was concerned. Therefore, He told His disciples that since she shared the gospel seed with others, they (the disciples) can expect a big harvest of souls from the land of Samaria in the future.
Here, even though the gospel seed was planted by Lord Jesus himself, the forthcoming harvest will be carried out by the disciples and others who will follow them. In other words, Lord Jesus is foreseeing the whole group of believers at different points in the timeline from recurring batches of sowing and reaping till the Last Day. When the whole humankind is gathered before the Lord on the Last Day, both the sowers and the reapers of souls will be glad in the presence of the Master for the toils and pains they took for the sake of the gospel. 
In a similar parable namely, ‘the parable of weeds’, Lord Jesus talks about the end of time harvest. Here the reapers are His angels. The sowers are those who brought the gospel to the world at large at different points of time. Here also, those who proclaimed the gospel around the world rejoice with the angels who would bring the harvest to the Master. Lord Jesus has promised rewards for those who toiled in this world for the sake of the gospel.
 
Prayer
Dear Lord, teach us to be faithful in sharing the gospel with those around us. Enable us to be unashamed in this world about Your name and Your message. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
John 6:27


Abraham Mammen
Dallas Sehion Mar Thoma Church, Texas
       

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