Scripture: Luke 10:1-11; 2 Kings 5:8-14
Because God has already prepared the harvest through prevenient grace, Christians are freed to do the work of evangelism without fear, since rejection is ultimately borne by God and never separates us from God’s love.
Illustrations: basketball-with-kids, astros-dodgers-blowout, 30-rock-jon-hamm-doctor, burgundy-harvest-laborers
July 6, 2025
The Harvest
2 Kings 5:8-14
Luke 10:1-11
But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. - 2 Kings 5:8-14
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ - Luke 10:1-11
I love playing basketball. I’ve never been particularly good, but it is a sport I enjoy. I love that I can just pick up a ball, shoot for five minutes, then put it down and do something else. I play with my kids, Dominic and Ephraim, as much as possible. Usually, we play Horse or Knockout or other games like that, where my height advantage wouldn’t be such an asset. Sometimes, though, we play one on one. And if my kids aren’t careful, BAM, a slap their shot away.
It feels pretty good, to be honest. Blocking a shot, even from a nine year old, feels good. However, getting blocked does not. Getting rejected does not.
Being rejected is not a fun thing, it is usually filled with private shame, but God has a lot to say about rejection. Today, I want to hone in on these three important points about rejection in the Bible.
- We will be rejected in this life.
- Rejection does not define us
- We are never rejected by God.
You can feel rejected by a prospective partner, rejected by a friend, rejected by school, rejected by work, rejected by neighbors, or even rejected by yourself. The feeling of rejection, though, is radically different from the reality of rejection. We need to disentangle the feeling of rejection from being rejected. When you are directly rejected in basketball, there is a moment of shaking your head, thinking, gosh, that was lame, and then moving on. Last night, the Astros beat the dodgers 18-1, which was the worst loss in the history of dodgers stadium. Today, they play again. Their manager, Dave Roberts, said they are just flushing that one down the toilet.
The feeling of rejection, though, is never ending, it is mind numbing. Maybe some people never experience it. We all have different experiences of rejection.
There is this episode of the old show, 30 Rock, where Liz Lemon’s new neighbor is this incredibly handsome doctor played by Jon Hamm. And she is enraptured in him and amazed at her luck for finding a single, handsome, doctor in Manhattan. Over time, though, she discovers that he is horribly incompetent and rude and nobody ever corrected him because he is so handsome. He was never rejected in his life so he never realized what he was doing wrong and so could never fix any of his mistakes.
That is not a life worth living. We are shaped by the no’s in our life more than the yes’s. The point of life is not to avoid rejection but to remember that love that casts out fear.
As we think about the scripture for today, I want us to remember these three points.
- We will be rejected in this life.
- Rejection does not define us
- We are never rejected by God.
The Gospel of Luke shows us a powerful moment in the center of the Gospel when Jesus sends 72 out to prepare the way. Often, we read these stories as if Jesus sends disciples out willy nilly, but there is something specific going on.
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.
Jesus isn’t randomly going places. He is preparing the way. Like John the Baptist prepared the way for his own coming, Jesus is sending folks out to prepare the way for the Son of God.
Another way to talk about preparing the way is evangelism.
Evangelism can be an icky term for many people. It has been done poorly so often that it seems like it can’t be done.
There is shame, confusion, as well as process questions.
Evangelism is a word that means good news. The Good news is that you are loved so much by God that even though this world is broken, you are not. You are loved, and forgiven and offered purpose and endless grace to live a better life, to grow in love, to let go of all the things in your life that keep you from love, both now and for eternity.
But not just you. It would actually be really horrible news if God just loved those of us in this room and nobody else. That would not be a God worth worshipping. It is not just about us.
Getting back to Luke 10, Jesus is matter of fact in sending out the disciples. There is no hesitation. There is a harvest and it is full.
Harvest is different for different plants. A corn harvest and an apple harvest do not look similar. What is similar, though, is that by the time harvest has come around, the work of growing has already taken place. In Wesleyan language, we call this prevenient grace. God has already been with people before they were aware of God’s presence.
Some of you may have a lot more agricultural experience than me. My knowledge mostly comes in the most pretentious way possible: from the burgundy region of France, where the landowners hire traveling groups to pick the harvest. The ones who own land and raise the grapes don’t pick the grapes. They hire laborers to go through their ancient vines and bring forth the harvest before they turn it into 50$ bottles of wine.
Jesus sends folks out to be laborers in pairs, why? Why pairs?
There is a practical reason as well as a metaphorical one. The practical one is that two people are safer. The metaphorical one is that being with another person reminds you that it is not all about you anyway.
Jesus goes on and tells them:
Whoever rejects you, rejects me?
Whoa. That is a big statement that we need to wrap our heads around. When we are rejected doing the work of God, we are not really being rejected. God is being rejected. And do you know who handles rejection well? God.
But what Jesus offers here in Luke 10 is freedom from taking rejection about God personally. Just like the laborer can’t make the grapes grow, God never asks us to change anyone’s heart, simply to offer the grace that was given to us. And if the result is not what we hoped, we are not to look to ourselves but back to God. Still, it is one of those things that we cannot accept at face value. Even if we intellectually acknowledge that it is true, it feels like people are rejecting us.
So we must build up a habit of sharing good news. Of finding what we can share. If it is hard to think about who we could invite to church, who can you talk to about important things? Who are the people in your life that you can be real with. That is Good News. God is the God of truth so where truth is spoken, God is present. Taking the time to offer yourself to another in a way that you get nothing out of it.
We are going to take a few moments of guided reflection.
(1) who is someone in your life who could use grace
(2) why do you think that is?
(3) How can you share life with them in order to hear their stories and life
This is evangelism. This is the heart of evangelism. Does this seem like something to get rejected. Ask, listen, hear, share. Offer time and grace because that is what God offers to us. You may still be rejected, but again God carries that burden for us.
You are loved by the God who is love. This is not just for you alone, though. The harvest is plentiful. What Jesus means by that and what I mean by that is that there are a lot of hurting, tired, lonely, scared people outside these walls. I’m not talking about the lovely folks moving to the community looking for a Methodist Church, I am talking about neighbors and friends in need of the blood of Jesus Christ. In need of hope and purpose, grace and kindness.
The harvest is plentiful, but today, many people have been hurt by the church and cold-call inviting someone to worship may not be the best way to show them Jesus. It may first mean, inviting them to dinner. It may mean opening up before they do.
- We will be rejected in this life.
- Rejection does not define us
- We are never rejected by God.
Especially in sharing God’s love through word and deed. You are loved. Don’t be afraid of rejection. You are loved. Offer that love.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen