A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
The crowds were amazed and said,
“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said,
“He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”
The harvest is truly abundant, getting bigger every day, and at the same time, there are less and less laborers. Not only are they getting fewer in number, but they are getting less and less zealous as well. The culture of our time is indeed very strong, and the pull of it is very very powerful. It is not cool to be faithful, and obedient to the Lord. Maybe it never was, but upon studying history, it does seem worse now than ever before, but I dont know what it was like to live in worlds run by dictators, and tyrants.
Nevertheless, I feel the strength of the pull of culture on our young people today and it is very powerful. They are atheists, because it is cool, they are questioning their identity because they want to be seen as an ally of those friends who are desperately confused. Families are being torn to pieces and being replaced with same sex marriages. And all the while the culture cheers this dissordered nonsense on from the sidelines. What are we to do?
What this passage is saying is that if we are laborers, and we choose to work in God’s vineyard, we have to go out and work. We need to start with our families, teach them, help them and give them the tools they will need to reject the pull of the “spirit of the times.” And when you get done with that, move out to the community, and then the state, and the government, and then once you get all that figured out, you can set out to change the world, but I suspect most of us will not get past working on our families first.
But that is all that is really needed to change the world. If all mothers and fathers set out to work on their faith and that of their children, most of the worlds problems would be solved. But alas, this is not so, and so we are all called to work all the harder. You may not see success in this world, but you will see it in the next. And hopefully then God will say to you “well done my good and faithful servant. I cannot think of another 7 words that I would rather hear.
