In two of the four Gospels we find a saying about harvest time conditions with reference to gathering people to Christ. The saying in Matthew 9 and Luke 10 and defies our habits of saying yes and meaning no.  This saying is not one to dicker with.  The popular evangelism pep talk does not work. Those soul winners who have reengineered conversion routines will find no socket in the harvest time proclamation for plugging in their membership drives. 

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. (Matthew 9:37) “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:38)

And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. (Luke 10:2)

Unmistakable interpretation clues

Men … de (μεν . . .  δε) is a construction in New Testament Greek that identifies a contrasting pair of propositions or conditions.  In English it corresponds precisely with “On the one hand… on the other”.  Men is seldom translated and de comes out in translation as “but’.  So in our example from Luke chapter 10 and Matthew chapter 9 the contrasting conditions are plentiful harvest and few workers.

Here are two examples of the full translation of men . . . de as “on the one … hand but on the other”.

The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for ON THE ONE HAND the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, BUT ON THE OTHER hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. (Romans 5:16)

23. The former priests, ON THE ONE HAND, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24. but Jesus, ON THE OTHER HAND, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. (Hebrews 7:23-24)

The harvest triad verse and men … de sentence.

The triad designation is my own effort to insist that the appearance of the word for harvest – θερισμός – three times means that this saying should be treated as harvest doctrine.

ἔλεγεν ⸀δὲ πρὸς αὐτούς· Ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς, οἱ δὲ ἐργάται ὀλίγοι· δεήθητε οὖν τοῦ κυρίου τοῦ θερισμοῦ ὅπως ⸂ἐργάτας ἐκβάλῃ⸃ εἰς τὸν θερισμὸν αὐτοῦ. (Luke 10:2)

There are two clauses [thought blocks] in the verse making up one sentence.  The first clause addresses the situation,  namely plentiful harvest and few workers.  Separating the plentiful harvest from the few workers destroys the men . . . de construction.  That is an example of doing violence to the text.

Try separating Christ dying in the flesh from his  being made alive in the spirit as another men … de construction framed the Lord’s reconciling death.  If Christ and all humans are spirit beings this saying by Peter is pure hogwash.

Problem and solution

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; (1 Peter 3:18)

This harvest time saying does not leave a lot of room for people to deny the problem or find workarounds for the solution. Even with that kind of clarity – big harvest, few workers, pray – there is the problem of ignoring what harvest means.  Do not keep saying that harvesting is evangelism, is whatever we do to proselytize.  You cannot turn working with ripe fruit or grain into plowing, planting seeds, watering the plants, or pruning.  It is sheer madness to do so.

What does a plentiful harvest look like?

Finally, let us examine the dimensions of the problem and the solution. If the Lord was saying 2,000 years ago that fields were ripe for harvest, we can conclude that Christians have spent the last 2,000 years acting as if our task is divided into planting seeds, watering crops and do some weeding and applying fertilizer? Does not harvest mean gather the ready produce? The first example of harvest in the church was on the day of Pentecost when Peter’s preaching resulted in 3,000 souls added to the body of Christ.  The plentiful harvest, the Lord of the harvest and the unfinished harvest are beckoning.