Migrant Workers

Recently, I saw A Million Miles Away, a movie about the life of a migrant who worked hard to join NASA and became the first migrant worker to go to space, José M. Hernández. Migrant workers have nomadic and difficult lives, especially those who work in the fields picking strawberries, vegetables, cotton, or whatever that’s growing. They move from field to field, picking produce for various masters. When the fields don’t have sufficient workers, they work overtime, breaking their backs.

Jesus, too, selected and sent out seventy as “migrant workers” to work in their master’s field (Luke 10:1–12). He said to them,

“The harvest is plenty, but workers are few. Ask the master of the harvest to send more workers into his field. . . . When you go, don’t carry money bags, other bags, or sandals. Don’t stand around and greet people on the way; instead, enter a house and say: Peace be in this house. If they accept your greeting, stay there, eat their food, and drink their drink since workers are worthy of payment. Do not leave that house.” (Luke 10:3–8)

He then explained they were to heal the people and proclaim God’s rule (10:9). If someone were to reject them, they were to dust the dirt off their feet and move on to another location (10:11). The villages that rejected them would face more condemnation that Sodom received (10:12). They could face danger as they would be like sheep among wolves (10:4).

Basically, the Lord taught the principle of proclaiming the good news only to those willing recipients; in other words, reaping only the ripened harvests. Those seventy he sent wouldn’t necessarily find every village willing to receive their message. Some would reject them and their message, and they must move on. All because “God’s rule was near” (10:9, 11).

The opening line of this paragraph – “The harvest is plenty, but workers are few” – is often cited as a call for missionary work or invite people to join a full-time ministry. The message, however, was about discerning which fields were ready for harvest and which weren’t. Just as some rejected and others accepted the seventy then, the same is true now: some mission fields are open and ready. The Lord would want us to go where the harvest is ready – he alone knows which fields are ready to harvest. That’s why he said, “Pray” – “Pray for the master (Lord, kurios) of the harvest to send people to his harvest.”

Not all mission or ministry work begins with where God works or which field is ready. Instead, they look at “unreached” people groups and go to them. As such, they often face “failures” in their ministry. Let’s be people who diligently seek where God is working or which of his fields is ready for harvesting and go there (unless our task is to till the ground, sow seeds, or water parched lands). Regardless, we must consider ourselves migrant workers, not owners of the fields!