“The Jesus of the gospel
is more concerned
with people
than tradition.”
Three year old Tripti, daughter of Hindu parents, came to the Sunday School class at Light of the Nations and heard a story about Jesus, in English. Her English was not that good at all, yet we heard from her parents later, that she told the whole story to her attentive father and grandparents, in Nepali. And they loved it. Little Tripti, an unlikely missionary crossing cultures with a gospel seed on her wee little tongue.
At the beginning of this year, I had felt impressed that we were entering a season of seed planting: that everywhere Light of the Nations was to go we were to plant seeds. And then, in a time of fasting at the end of the summer, I was again pressed by the Lord to announce a time of harvest for the new season. But doesn't that seem kind of A.D.D. to you? A year of seed planting, and now before the year is over, here we go with harvest??? You might be saying, “I mean really, pastor, settle on something and stick with it.” This was my question. But Jesus didn’t look at it that way: “Do you not say, ‘there are four months yet until the harvest’? Look you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” The harvest is now, the planting is now, and they pile up on each other. In fact in Amos 9:13 we are told that the ploughman overtakes the reaper. Reaping and planting are to be simultaneous actions. The Samaritan woman at the well became Jesus’ apostle before she was even saved! In the beginning of the conversation he told her: “Go call your husband and come here.” As he planted Gospel seed in her, he was sending her as a missionary to the village; and harvest came rapidly.
But wasn’t Jesus being a bit risky, using such a person as His emissary?
No theological degree, questionable character? Lesslie Newbigin,
Scottish theologian and missionary to India, notes that: “The Jesus of the gospel is more concerned with people than tradition.”
Wouldn’t we plant many more seeds and reap a much greater harvest if we were more concerned with people’s salvation than tradition, protocol and performance history?
How about you? Don’t count yourself out because you are older, younger, handicapped, feeling disgraced or just plain useless. Don’t miss the chance to plant a seed. Send people to tell the story, armed with a message of God’s love and power. And do some reaping today. Someone like Tripti, with a capable heart and tongue, is most likely listening.