Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).
With such simple words, our Lord perfectly describes the pastoral office. It is appropriate that these words follow the Parable of the Sower (vv. 1-20); for the pastor, like Christ, sows the seed of God’s Word everywhere. The pastor does not know what will become of it. He does not know if it will fall on someone’s path and immediately be stolen from Satan, if it will fall on someone’s rocky ground and immediately abandon it as soon as they suffer, if it will fall among someone’s thorns and be choked out by idols of the world, or if it will fall among someone’s good soil and grow to be fruitful catechesis. If the pastor lives long enough to see the fruits of his labour in the flock into which he’s called, he is blessed, for he might have to wait a whole generation or two. Just as he does not know where the seed of the Word will fall, so he does not know how the seed sprouts and grows in the individual, save by Christ alone. If he sees nothing at all, his labour is still not in vain, for the Lord has His own timetable of growing the kingdom.
Therefore, “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). All that a pastor sows will lead to the harvest. For “when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” This is apocalyptic language for Jesus, and He is the one who puts in the sickle to harvest the Earth (Revelation 14:14-20). Let us, therefore, not worry too much about numbers, for those into whom we sow and nourish with the Word of Christ are people in the kingdom of God, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Christ is King of His harvest; He will cause the growth according to His own mystery, and He will reap the faithful harvest of every pastor.
The Lutheran Column 