Pentecost – the Incomplete Feast
Charles Cooper
Part II
The celebration of the beginning of the wheat harvest began on Pentecost. However, the end of the wheat harvest was unknown. No one knew when it would end. Several factors regulated when it would end; each year was different. The amount of rain, the temperature, the date of planting, and other intangibles all had an impact on when the harvest would end. No man knew the day and hour when the harvest would be completed. Only the sovereign God of the heavens knows that. As well, the grape harvest would occur after Pentecost and hopefully was complete before Tabernacles.
The harvest is a useful and frequent metaphor for God’s work among his elect. This term describes God’s work throughout the ages and at the end of the final age. In Matthew 9:37-38, the Lord stated, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Notice that the Lord Jesus states three facts about the harvest: 1) the harvest is large; 2) God is Lord of this large harvest; and 3) this large harvest belongs to God. What then is the harvest? One author states,
The huge crowds are therefore very appropriately called “the harvest,” the very extensive field in need of immediate attention. By a legitimate extension of the figure one can say that this harvest, as here viewed, consists of the sum-total of “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6). The application to present (twentieth century) conditions would, without doing violence to the basic idea, enlarge the scope of the interpretation, so that the reference would be to all those who can be brought within the reach of the gospel….[1]
In essence, what this author and others are saying is that all peoples should have an opportunity to hear the gospel. The harvest refers to the entire world and each person has a right to hear the gospel whether he or she responds or not.
However, we are of the opinion that a much narrower audience is the focus of the Lord Jesus. Lenski would argue that only those “gathered into the heavenly garner,” that is, to “all those in whom the work of God’s grace succeeds,”[2] are intended in Matthew 9:37-38. Calvin agrees and writes, “The limited number of the elect, who were mixed with unbelievers.”[3]
God would never leave the eternal hope of people in the hands of men. If the Lord Jesus indicates here that prayer is necessary to get people to go and preach in order that others might have a chance to hear the gospel – whether they accept it or reject it – then are we to conclude that if people do not go, those poor souls missed the opportunity to be saved because of someone else’s laziness? Will God only save the lost if people go and share the gospel? If a very few people pray and a very few people go, then the lost have no hope, if this line of thinking is correct. These are very logical questions if this passage refers to the world. Surely, that is not the point of this passage. Rather, God requires men to go, but even if a man is disobedient, God’s elect will come to faith.
The correct view of this passage is closer to what Leon Morris adds. Notice,
Jesus does not spell it out, but he is speaking of people who are ripe for inclusion in the kingdom. In that situation, it is necessary that something be done to bring them in. A crop of wheat needs workers to bring the grain into the barn; without the laborers the crop cannot be reaped. Jesus says that in the great harvest of which he is speaking the workers are few.[4]
My ultimate point here is this: the Lord Jesus looked at the salvation of God’s elect as “the great harvest.” Please do not miss the point that the work of evangelism refers to laboring in God’s harvest now. Please understand that the harvest continues until all the crop is gathered into the barn. We are busy with the work of harvesting now. The work begun at Pentecost continues.
In John 5:34-38 the Lord Jesus again used the harvest metaphor to speak of the ongoing kingdom work of God’s laborers in the world. He told his disciples,
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
The point the Lord Jesus is making is that the wait is over – the harvest time is now. “The saying of Jesus represents the gathering of people into the kingdom of God.”[5] Since we are engaged in the same work, the harvest continues and will do so until the gathering ends. Pentecost is a celebration of the coming harvest, not a celebration of a completed harvest. That is the focus of the Feast of Sukkoth (Tabernacles).
[1] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 9: Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew. New Testament Commentary (440). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
[2] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., pp. 373, 374.
[3] Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, English translation, Vol. I, p. 421.
[4] Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew. The Pillar New Testament Commentary (239–240). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
[5] Beasley-Murray, G. R. (2002). Vol. 36: John. Word Biblical Commentary (63). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
