harvest

• fields white for

143:6.1On the evening that Nalda drew the crowd out from Sy­char to see Je­sus, the twelve had just re­turned with food, and they be­sought Je­sus to eat with them in­stead of talk­ing to the peo­ple, for they had been with­out food all day and were hun­gry. But Je­sus knew that dark­ness would soon be upon them; so he per­sisted in his de­ter­mi­na­tion to talk to the peo­ple be­fore he sent them away. When An­drew sought to per­suade him to eat a bite be­fore speak­ing to the crowd, Je­sus said, “I have meat to eat that you do not know about.” When the apos­tles heard this, they said among them­selves: “Has any man brought him aught to eat? Can it be that the woman gave him food as well as drink?” When Je­sus heard them talk­ing among them­selves, be­fore he spoke to the peo­ple, he turned aside and said to the twelve: “My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me and to ac­com­plish His work. You should no longer say it is such and such a time un­til the har­vest. Be­hold these peo­ple com­ing out from a Samar­i­tan city to hear us; I tell you the fields are al­ready white for the har­vest. He who reaps re­ceives wages and gath­ers this fruit to eter­nal life; con­se­quently the sow­ers and the reapers re­joice to­gether. For herein is the say­ing true: ‘One sows and an­other reaps.’ I am now send­ing you to reap that whereon you have not la­bored; oth­ers have la­bored, and you are about to en­ter into their la­bor.” This he said in ref­er­ence to the preach­ing of John the Bap­tist.

• plenteous, but laborers few

150:4.1The next evening, hav­ing gath­ered to­gether the twelve apos­tles, the apos­tles of John, and the newly com­mis­sioned women’s group, Je­sus said: “You see for your­selves that the har­vest is plen­teous, but the la­bor­ers are few. Let us all, there­fore, pray the Lord of the har­vest that he send forth still more la­bor­ers into his fields. While I re­main to com­fort and in­struct the younger teach­ers, I would send out the older ones two and two that they may pass quickly over all Gal­i­lee preach­ing the gospel of the king­dom while it is yet con­ve­nient and peace­ful.” Then he des­ig­nated the pairs of apos­tles as he de­sired them to go forth, and they were: An­drew and Pe­ter, James and John Zeb­e­dee, Philip and Na­than­iel, Thomas and Mat­thew, James and Ju­das Al­pheus, Si­mon Ze­lo­tes and Ju­das Is­car­iot.

• plenteous, but laborers few

163:1.3Be­fore Je­sus laid his hands upon the heads of the sev­enty to set them apart as gospel mes­sen­gers, ad­dress­ing them, he said: “The har­vest is in­deed plen­teous, but the la­bor­ers are few; there­fore I ex­hort all of you to pray that the Lord of the har­vest will send still other la­bor­ers into his har­vest. I am about to set you apart as mes­sen­gers of the king­dom; I am about to send you to Jew and gen­tile as lambs among wolves. As you go your ways, two and two, I in­struct you to carry nei­ther purse nor ex­tra cloth­ing, for you go forth on this first mis­sion for only a short sea­son. Salute no man by the way, at­tend only to your work. When­ever you go to stay at a home, first say: Peace be to this house­hold. If those who love peace live therein, you shall abide there; if not, then shall you de­part. And hav­ing se­lected this home, re­main there for your stay in that city, eat­ing and drink­ing what­ever is set be­fore you. And you do this be­cause the la­borer is wor­thy of his sus­te­nance. Move not from house to house be­cause a bet­ter lodg­ing may be of­fered. Re­mem­ber, as you go forth pro­claim­ing peace on earth and good will among men, you must con­tend with bit­ter and self-de­ceived en­e­mies; there­fore be as wise as ser­pents while you are also as harm­less as doves.