SAYING 73 – Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So plead with the Lord to dispatch workers for the harvest.”
Here we have another familiar saying from Jesus that our modern Christian ears cannot help but associate with evangelism due to our exposure to the way it’s used in the New Testament Gospels.
But in the Gospel of Thomas, without any narrative suggestion that the harvest is a metaphor for the Day of Salvation, we’re left to make sense of the saying with fresh ears. So, remembering that everything we hear in Thomas is, at least in some ways, a reminder of the illusion of separation or our Oneness with God, let’s try to reframe the saying if we can.
The metaphor here is “the harvest” and we’re told that it is “plentiful”, or as other translators phrase it, “indeed great.” So, this harvest is very great and abundant, but what could that be in the context of Oneness found in the Gospel of Thomas?
Well, the previous saying gave us a bit of a clue when it reminded us that the opposite of sharing everything was to divide it all up equally. So, perhaps the abundance here is a reference to the mindset of plenty which is available to those who see the Kingdom reality as Jesus reveals it to us.
All is one and everything is connected. That means there are no discrete beings who exist in isolation from one another. Instead, what we have is one single consciousness that stretches outward to encompass the entire Universe. That is the most abundant abundance one could ever imagine. Not some or part or even half, but the whole entire everything is all that there is.
So, if we’re correct, then Jesus wants us to realize that the plentiful harvest is the fullness of Oneness with all things. Yet, the workers in this field of plenty are few in number. Why is that?
Is it because only a few of the workers recognize the infinite scope of the infinite harvest which stretches outward in every direction without end? Perhaps. And if so then the answer is to “plead with the Lord to dispatch workers for the harvest”, or to ask the Holy Spirit to open the hearts and minds of those who cannot see the harvest just yet so that, in time, they might all awaken to the beautiful bounty that awaits us all in the plentiful and abundant harvest of God’s wonderful Kingdom reality.
The abundant and plentiful Kingdom lacks only the workers with eyes to see and enjoy it.
Sadly, only a few are hungry and thirsty for the beautiful presence of God.
Let us pray that more of us would seek the face of God and desire that endless abundance.
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Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
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