The Parable of the Harvest Explained | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are wrapping up our teaching

series called Growing Season, where we've been

going back to the farm to learn what the farm

has to teach us about faith. Today we're talking

about the harvest. After all of the work of planting

and sowing and waiting and watering, we finally

come to the harvest. But what about when we don't

actually get to see that harvest come to fruition?

What then? That's what Rob is going to unpack

for us in today's sermon. Today's reading is

from the Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 35

John 4:35–38

to 38. Don't you have a saying? It's still four

months until harvest. I tell you, open your eyes

and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.

Even now, the one who reaps draws a wage and

harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the

sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus

the saying. One sows and another reaps is true.

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.

Others have done the hard work and you have reaped

the benefits of their labor. The word of the

God. Well, we have spent all summer doing this

teaching series called Growing Season. We'll

be looking at farms and farming and all that

stuff. And you may wonder, well, why would you

spend so much time on that? And I just want to

let you know, there's kind of three. big reasons.

One is that the Bible is actually full of farms

and farmers and agriculture. You can barely turn

a page without coming across it. So that's the

first reason. The second reason is related to

it. The idea that God himself is like a farmer.

He is like a good shepherd, like a vine grower,

a gardener who is growing good things in our

lives and in our world. So that's the second

reason. The third reason we did this is because

it's summertime. And summertime for a farmer

is not a slowing time. It is a growing time.

It is a growing season. And it's true that many

churches will often take summer as an opportunity

to take a break or step back or kind of slow

down. But we said, no, we want to lean in to

the growing season of farmers and see what God

can grow in us this summertime. So that's kind

of why we did this series. And as you can see,

it involved interviews. my dad from time to time

as well, who was a retired farmer. Now, some

of you maybe made it to all 10 of these teachings,

these Sundays, and we're at the very end now.

But if you missed some of them, or if you missed

a lot of them, or this is your first Sunday and

you've missed all of them, then we put together

just a little recap video to let you know kind

of where we've been this summer. You are God's

field. The Bible is an agricultural book. Summer

is the growing season and God is planting and

growing something here at Trinity. And so for

all of these reasons, we are going back to the

farm this summer. This is our old milking barn.

There was a cherry tree out there. It's still

here. Right here. This is a handprint that I

pressed into this cement when we poured this

little basketball court about the late 80s. Is

that your handprint on the cement? Yeah, yeah,

yeah. God's presence is everywhere when you are

dealing with the mysteries of life, planting

a seed and seeing it grow. It's not in human

hands how that seed will germinate and produce

maybe a hundred seeds from the one you planted.

as we pray, God, you know, change my circumstances.

But God says, nah, right now I just want to change

you. God is growing roots and roots take time

and they grow in the dark and no one applauds.

and no one sees everybody has to go to work in

some fashion and i kind of think that maybe i

was fortunate because i just had to step outside

the door and my work was right there and i didn't

have a commute i didn't really mind it most of

the time i think god operates the same way that

a dairy farm operates one ordinary day at a time

every morning every night this rhythm you don't

want it around all summer because of the flies

it attracts so it's often spread on the field

some people spread it almost every day and let

it break down in the fields farmers actually

are there to teach us something that we have

forgotten and that is that what smells like waste

may still have worth that not everything that

smells bad is useless and not everything that

is messy is meaningless. I think being around

animals, you realize that life has its beginnings

and it has its ends. And sure, you can feel badly

if you lose an animal, but you've got 50 others

that are still alive and you have to look after.

So life goes on. God is good. And if we are faithful,

why is there still so much trouble in the field

in my life? or in the world? Why so much pain?

Why so much suffering? It is a very deep question.

Yeah, that's our loader tractor. It was bought

new in 93. So it's over 30 years old, but it

still works. We used this one to scoop the manure

out of our manure pit. That's right. But eventually,

eventually we're going to get tired and we're

going to discover that human effort is not enough

to get through life. Most of us rely on custom

work to some degree. You hire somebody with the

implement. that you need. More hiring and less

volunteering. It's contracting, not community

building. That's right. It could be a farmer

in the field, could be you in the pew, but community.

essential to what makes for a meaningful life

it was always our aim to give you a range of

experiences that would help you make your own

decision if it was a decision to farm well so

be it in the case of our family and our four

kids nobody really chose farming they all went

different ways this learning is passed on it's

passed on from one person to another person from

one generation to another other generation. And

then, of course, last week when I was away, we

had Mike Messenger preaching. And he spoke about

how generosity and giving is part of kind of

farming culture, both biblically and today. All

that brings us to today, to week 10, where we're

going to end. And what better place to end than

with the topic of the harvest. Now, the harvest.

At this time of year in southern Ontario, it's

a very interesting time. Because on the one hand,

a whole bunch of harvesting is already over and

done. has already been baled and put in the barn.

Most of the wheat has been cut and the wheat

is now in the granaries. That's done. But also

happening right now, there are things that are

coming to harvest at this very moment. So if

you go to a roadside fruit stand, you will see,

you know, peaches and you will see blueberries

and you will see beans and tomatoes. Those things

are being harvested right now as we speak. And

then there are other things that it's still not

time to harvest yet. The big fields of cow corn

or the big fields of soybeans, they're still

green. It's going to be several weeks before

they're ready to be harvested. So that's one

thing about farming. The thing is, a harvest

doesn't arrive everywhere all at once, right?

Some things grow from seed to crop in just a

matter of weeks. Other things take months. If

you had a chicken and it was, incubating some

eggs. It would only take three weeks for those

eggs to hatch. But if you had a cow that was

pregnant with a calf, it would take nine months

in order for that calf to finally be born. Whatever

it is, the harvest represents the moment. when

everything that you've been waiting for, everything

you've been looking for, longing for, finally

becomes visible. The harvest is the culmination

of all that hard work, all the planting, the

plowing, the cultivating, the planting, the fertilizing,

the irrigating, the weeding, the struggle, the

praying, the praying, the praying. For much of

the growing season, you know, a farmer... looks

out at a field where the harvest is not yet visible.

It's only at the very end. It's only at harvest

time that you finally see what you've been waiting

for, finally see what you're praying for and

hoping for. Today, Jesus, in our reading, he

uses the language of harvest, but he's not talking

about the harvesting of crops. He's talking about

harvest in a different way. Because you see,

in our lives, in your life, in my life, there

are things that we are waiting for, things that

we are working for, things that we are praying

for. Some of you here today, you are waiting

for healing in your life. Some of you today,

you are working toward a future, working to get

through your degree, working to get, you know,

a career off the ground. Others, you are praying.

You've been praying and praying for a relationship

or something like that. And nothing has happened

yet. It hasn't come to harvest time. And so we

end up feeling kind of like farmers looking out

over field, just hoping and praying that some

good will come from all of our hopes. prayers

and efforts. In that reading today, we caught

just a little bit of Jesus's teaching, but what

you didn't see is that right before this, Jesus

had had a radical encounter with this woman at

the well. It's a very famous story, John chapter

John 4 · chapter mention

4, Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.

What I want to say to you is that if you look

at that woman's life, you see that she is like

someone who is waiting for a harvest to come

into her life. She has longings that have not

been fulfilled. She has pain in her life that

has not been healed. She has questions in her

mind that have not been answered. So she is a

person waiting. for a harvest. And I wonder if

we look at her just a little more closely, if

you don't see some of yourself in her. Let me

explain. First of all, she is a person who has

been longing for acceptance. The reason I say

this is because we're told that she went to gather

water at the well in the heat of the day alone

at noon. But most women would go in the cool

of the morning and they would go together. It

was a very social time. Why did she go alone?

Why has she been excluded, right? I think she

is feeling, you know, excluded and longing for

a harvest of being connected. I mean, what does

she do? Why are people rejecting her? She's waiting

for a harvest of belonging, a harvest of acceptance.

And maybe you can relate to her in that way.

But the second thing we know about her is that

she has been living with pain. If you read the

story and the conversation Jesus has with her,

it becomes apparent she has had several marriages

that have not worked out. Five, actually. And

if you have had five marriages, I can guarantee

you, you have plenty of hurts to go along with

them, right? So what wounds is this woman carrying?

You know, what mistreatment has she suffered?

I think she represents any of us here today who

are longing for some healing in our life, whether

it's physical healing or spiritual healing or

emotional healing or whatever. Third, this woman

is longing for another kind of harvest, right?

She has had all these marriages end on her, but

we don't really know how. What happened? Did

her husbands die? Did they end in divorce? Did

they end in abandonment each? type of those things

represents a different loss in someone's life.

She has seen her hopes dashed again and again

and again. And so she represents anyone here

today who has ever planted a seed in a relationship,

you know, planted a seed in a marriage or in

a family or in a friendship. And for whatever

reason, it never grew to fruition. I don't know.

Is that you? Can you relate to this woman? And

finally, she is a woman who is looking for answers.

When Jesus speaks with her, it's very interesting.

She has all these questions. She has questions

about worship. She has questions about religion.

She has questions about where God can be found.

So she's not just at the well looking for water.

She is a woman who is looking for answers. And

so therefore, she would represent any of you

here today who are looking for a harvest of Answers.

A harvest of certainty. A harvest of truth. Maybe

you've got questions about God. Maybe you wonder

where God is to be found just like her and you're

waiting for God to show up. So there she is.

She's like a farmer standing at an empty field

or a half -grown field looking for a harvest.

A harvest of belonging. A harvest of healing.

A harvest of restoration. A harvest of truth

and answers. That's her. That's what she's longing

for. But what about you? Like what harvest are

you waiting for in your life, right? What is

that thing you've been working for and you've

been praying for and you've been longing for

and you hope that, my goodness, just one day

I just want to see this happen. Maybe it's a

child who has lost their way and you just want

to see that child find their way again. Maybe

it's some other prayer that has gone unanswered.

Maybe there's an addiction in your life and you're

just waiting somehow for the day to come when

you can finally break that bad habit that is

holding you back. Or maybe it's a sickness that

you're suffering with. Or maybe you're like this

woman and you're just waiting for God to reveal

himself. Waiting to know that God is there. You've

got so many. Here is the thing about harvests.

And let's start with the best news. The best

news is sometimes we actually do live to see

the things that we have longed for come to fruition.

I mean, farmers normally. Normally, they get

to see the harvest. They get to see the seeds

that they plant grow and ultimately come into

the granary. They get to see the animal get pregnant

and give birth. And by winter, the pens are full

of babies. And the same is true for us. Our prayer

does get answered. And the relationship is restored.

And that door opens. And the healing comes. And

we say, I'm healed. I can't believe it. I don't

know how it happened, but I have been healed.

And we get to say, for whatever reason, I saw

the answer. I saw the harvest. That's it. It

happened. This is what I've been waiting for.

I knew that God was up to something. And now

I can see it with my own eyes. I knew it all

along. And that... Happens for this woman actually.

She had told Jesus. Oh Jesus you know I know

the Messiah is going to come one day. And I know

that God will reveal himself one day. And Jesus

says guess what? I am he. I'm the one that you've

been waiting for. It's this amazing moment. She

has been looking for answers and boom, now the

answer is sitting right in front of her. She

had been looking for God and now God has found

her. She had been looking for acceptance and

love and lo and behold, Jesus shows up and accepts

her and loves her. I mean, not everything in

her life is sorted out, but she gets to see it.

She gets to witness it. All of her hopes and

dreams. finally become visible. The harvest has

begun. And she gets to see even more harvest

than that because she goes off to the town and

she tells everybody in town, hey guys, you'll

never guess what happened. I just met the Messiah.

He's out there by the well. You got to come and

see him. And so all the townspeople come rushing

out to the well. So that same woman that was

looking for God gets to witness the harvest of

a whole bunch of people coming to meet Jesus

and to find God just like her. her. And we love

it when this happens. We love it when this happens.

Sometimes God allows us to see the fruit. And

when we see it, we rejoice. You pray for your

child for years. And then you realize there's

some amazing change. Or you work at your marriage

for years. And then all of a sudden you wake

up one day and you're like, you know what? We're

not where we used to be. Things are getting better.

Or you serve at church. Or you mentor a young

person. Or you volunteer at kids church. And

you actually get the privilege of watching something

beautiful in their lives change and happen and

come to. fruition. Sometimes God allows us to

see the harvest. And when we do, goodness gracious,

it is time to rejoice. Look at what Jesus says.

The reaper is receiving a reward and gathering

fruit for eternal life so that the sower and

the reaper may rejoice together. So yes. Of course,

there are seasons in your life where you're planting,

seasons where you're working, seasons when storms

come, seasons of loss, seasons when you have

manure on your boots, seasons when it's a dark,

dark night you're going through, but there are

also seasons, by God's grace, that you stand

back and you look at what God has grown and you

say, my goodness, look at that. You know, I think

actually Camp Trinity is one of those moments.

I just, you know, again, you saw the videos,

but we've been sowing seeds all summer. And I'm

not saying that every one of those seeds has

grown to fruition and come to harvest, but today

we saw on those videos, we saw friendships that

had formed, families who had felt welcomed. in

this place. That is a harvest. We have seen young

adults and teenagers who have grown into leaders.

We celebrate that every now and then. God lets

you look across the field and see the harvest

come in. But not always. Not always. Sometimes

we live to see this and other times somebody

else gets to see it, not us. Right? Jesus says

this interesting line. He says, one sows and

another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which

you did not labor. Others have labored and you

have entered in to their labor. kind of true

on a farm. The farmer actually inherits a lot

of work that was done by the previous landowner.

Somebody built that barn 120 years ago. It wasn't

me, but we benefit from it. Someone cleared the

land. Someone removed all the rocks, right? Someone

even, you know, planted some seeds. Maybe you

bought a farm and the first year the crop wasn't

even planted by you, but you get to enjoy the

fruit of it. You have entered into someone else's

labor. you may one day harvest a field that you

never planted, and on the flip side of that coin,

you may plant a field one day that somebody else

will get to harvest. This is really hard for

us to accept, because what we want is what we

want to see the results of the things that we

do right now. Hey, if I encourage someone, I

want to know that it made a difference. If I

pray, I want to know that it was answered. But

sometimes it doesn't work that way. Sometimes...

You know, like a Sunday school teacher might

teach a child about Jesus and never see anything

come of it. But 20 years later, someone else

gets to see that seed come alive in their life.

Or there might be a parent who is praying faithfully

every day, every night for a son or daughter.

And that parent literally never even lives to

see how that prayer eventually gets answered.

I can remember having conversations with friends

when I was in university about faith. And I'll

tell you, those conversations seemed to go absolutely

nowhere. But years later, you know what? Somebody

else came along and had another conversation.

And somebody else had another conversation. And

suddenly, something began to grow in their lives.

One person sows and another person reaps. Jesus

tells his disciples, others have labored. Others

have worked and you have just got to enter in

to that labor. In other words, I want you just

to know that don't assume that the harvest begins

and ends with you. When those Samaritan townspeople

came rushing out to see Jesus, you know, the

disciples got to be there to witness the harvest

come in. But come on, that story had been going

on long before they arrived. God had been working

long before they ever showed up. They just got

to be part of the harvest. And so maybe there

is someone here today, and this is the thing

that you need to hear, and that is that many

of the most important things we do will bear

fruit in someone else's hands. You've been praying,

you've been loving, you've been serving, and

you've not seen much come of it. But don't worry.

And don't confuse the phrase, I haven't seen

the harvest, with... there will not be a harvest,

right? Because they're not the same things. Sometimes

we plant something in someone's life and it bears

fruit in somebody else's time, in somebody else's

field, in some other season. Sometimes our calling

is simply to prepare the ground or to water a

young plant and trust that God is going to make

sure that something happens after us. And so,

if you happen to be the one who gets to reap,

You can be grateful and you can rejoice. But

if you happen to be the one who gets to sow,

just don't lose heart. Sometimes we live to see

it. Sometimes somebody else gets to see it. But

lastly, there is another kind of harvest. And

that is there are some things that we pray for

and some things we work for. long for that we

don't get to see and actually nobody else ever

gets to see the harvest either. Because sometimes

the harvest comes at the very end. See, Christianity

doesn't promise that every prayer you pray is

going to somehow be answered in this lifetime.

Some prayers remain unanswered. Some relationships

remain broken. Some sicknesses are not healed.

Some people die. They die waiting for an answer

to their prayer. You know, we spend years and

years planting and we never get to see anything

grow. What do we do in those moments? This week,

I came across this verse. When I was away on

some vacation. And I thought oh man. I want to

print that. It's printed on the back of your

sermon notes. It just stuck with me. Paul writes

this. He says let us not become weary in doing

good. For at the proper time. We will reap a

harvest. If we do not give up. Now notice those

words. At the proper time. Not today. Not tomorrow.

Not even according to your time. But God has

a proper time. An appointed time. When God will

bring all his work to completion. And frankly

that might not be till the very end. The great

hope of the Christian faith. Is that one day.

When? The final day. At the very end. One day.

God will gather up. Everything he has been growing.

In your life and my life. Every prayer you've

prayed. Every act of love that you showed. Every

cup of cold water that you gave to someone who

was thirsty. Every child you welcomed at camp.

Every person you forgave. You may not live to

see the fruit of it. Nobody else may live to

see the fruit of it. But on the last day you'll

realize. What I planted grew into something.

It's there. It lasted to the very end. And God

harvested it. One day there will be a great.

Harvest home. I don't know if you ever heard

that phrase, harvest home, but there used to

be these old festivals. I think they were from

England. It was a big celebration at the end

of the harvest. Once everything was gathered

in the barn, once the long season was over, the

community would come together and they would

eat and they would sing and they would dance

and they would celebrate and they would give

thanks. My friends, that is where the whole Christian

story is going. There is a day that is coming,

and only God knows when that day is coming, when

everything that has been broken will be made

new. Every tear you ever cried will be wiped

away. It's a day when even death will be defeated,

right? And on that day, God will gather like

a... The Lord of the harvest, he will gather

everything home. That's how the story of the

Bible ends. It ends with a gathering. It ends

with a harvest. It ends with a final coming home.

And you may say, oh, that sounds really good

to know that one day it'll all work out in the

end, Rob. But how do we know this is true? How

do we know there'll be this great harvest home

at the end of time? Well, actually, the Bible...

tells us that that harvest has already begun.

And it began in Jesus Christ. And that's how

we know that it will happen. Look what Paul says.

Christ has been raised from the dead. Therefore,

he is the first of the great harvest of all who

have died. When Jesus died, it looked like complete...

Crop failure. Empty field. The dream was over.

But when he rose, you know what he became? He

became the very first apple of the new harvest.

The end harvest. He became the very first stock

of corn from the final harvest of God. Right?

And so now... We know that harvest is coming

because it already showed up in Jesus in the

middle of time. The resurrection of Jesus is

God's promise that the final harvest is coming.

So if you plant something and you don't see the

fruit, don't conclude, oh, I've wasted my time.

No, no, no. And when you pray for something and

you don't see that prayer come true, whatever,

don't doubt that God exists, right? And when

we bury someone that we love, We don't have to

believe the grave gets the final word. No, we

need to remember that one day God will gather

up everything that he's been growing. And some

of it we get to see now. Some of it somebody

else will get to see. And some of it won't be

seen except by God at the very, very end when

he gathers everything home. That's why we keep

planting. That's why we keep working. That's

why we keep praying. That's why we keep loving.

Because the harvest actually finally doesn't

depend on us. It depends on God. And so after

10 weeks of this growing season series, this

is probably the best place to finish. Jesus tells

his disciples to see all these people that are

arriving, the great harvest. And he says, hey,

lift up your eyes. Look at what God is already

growing. Rejoice in the harvest that you can

see. Keep planting for the harvest that you will

never see. Trust God with the fields that look

empty because none of it, none of the praying,

none of the planting, none of the waiting, the

grieving, the loving, none of it is wasted in

the hands of the Lord of the harvest. The first

fruits. are already out of the ground. Jesus

is risen. The harvest has begun. And one day,

by the grace of God, we will all be gathered

home. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks for tuning

in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville

in Mississauga, Ontario on August 16th, 2026.