Sowers and reapers

 

We seldom think about ‘what God wants of us’. We know that He wants us to do his will, but what does he want of us to become? In the book of John4:34, when his disciples were showing concern about Jesus not having eaten anything all day, he answered “ my nourishment comes from doing the will of God who sent me, and from finishing his work.”


Jesus was explaining in simple terms what we are all here to do, the will of God. And he goes on to add one more thing, ‘finish his work’. So basically, we are all here for two things, 

   1. To do the will of God

   2. To finish His work.

‘Doing the will of God’ seems like a basic instruction, it simply means following the light, embracing the light as good, and doing good, which means Love. But then the second instruction is to ‘finish his work’. What work is he talking about? Finish how? Who started? These are questions we battle with every day, we wake up not knowing our true purposes, and waste a day of goodness not doing God’s will, because, if we can’t finish God’s work, we are not doing his will. But if we can not even make out what works God has set out for us, we are lost in the days, We live to await our inevitable end, and that is not Living at all.


 I’ve seen people waking up to jobs they don’t like, and coming home to strangers from work. A whole day wasted on what has nothing to do with God, but serving another man’s god. I have seen slavery at its sharpest, deadliest form. Modern day slavery has made us forget asking the right questions, we have forgotten who we are so much that if we are not told who to become, we lose ourselves. We do not know our purpose, consequently, we can not ‘finish God’s work’. 


Jesus continues to explain the second instruction to our true purpose and says, “I sent you to reap where you did not sow, others did the work, and you received the harvest.” The harvest is the final process in crop cultivation. It is work on its own. Jesus clarifies that we are here to obey and work, and this work is part of what has already been started. Which means to do God’s work, you simply need to finish what was started by others.


I was at the union buildings in Pretoria the other day, and when ever I am there, I can not help but to marvel at the beauty that was once no more. Men, not sure from where or under what circumstances, planted the trees there, and made an environment where these trees could flourish. It takes a different kind of humanity to plant trees that you have no hope of ever enjoying its fruits, nor sit underneath its shade. These man started the work, and we enjoy the harvest, and as we enjoy this harvest, we must bear in mind that we need to finish the work.

We reap, we enjoy, we sow for others to reap.

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