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And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?" The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
Meanwhile, His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored, others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
- John 4:27-42
In Thursday's reading, we read about a Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at Jacob's well, and their conversation there. In yesterday's reading, the conversation continued: Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?" Jesus' disciples marveled because a Jewish man was not allowed to converse publicly with a woman -- and this is a Samaritan woman (with whom, we've already been told by John's Gospel, "Jews have no dealings.") My study bible points out that "Jesus' words and actions transcend ethnic and gender-related customs of the time."
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him. My study bible notes about the woman: "The Samaritan woman becomes the first evangelist, testifying to the advent of Christ and bringing others to Him. According to an early tradition, after the Resurrection of Christ she was baptized and given the Christian name Photini, 'the enlightened one' [in Greek]. Along with her two sons and five daughters she went to Carthage to spread the gospel. There they were arrested, taken to Rome under Nero, imprisoned, and later martyred. According to tradition, St. Photini, who first met Christ beside a well, was martyred for Christ by being thrown into a well." That she left her waterpot perhaps tells us about the woman she is going to be, through the action of the Spirit: something else is more important to her than the water from the well, and that is the living water in the promise of Christ.
Meanwhile, His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." My study bible points out to us that the disciples also misunderstand Jesus' words. It's interesting that so often they, too, fail to grasp what Jesus is about, even as they are dumbstruck when they marvel that Jesus is speaking to this Samaritan woman. Again, here, we see the technique of John's Gospel, to take us from a conventional meaning of words to the deeper spiritual meaning that Jesus' presence and teaching give them. My study bible says, "His food is to bring people to believe in Him and be saved." The teaching becomes a matter of setting priorities and values: the woman left her waterpot because a deeper thirst called her, Jesus has a "food" that is essential and of greater significance than an immediate hunger. I do not believe the Gospel at all expects the world to forget about its needs for physical food and water: but there is a priority set here for that which always feeds and always gives its living water as something of far more value, for life that goes further and deeper than what we understand of life in a temporal or purely physical sense. Here, to say the very least, is an opportunity of far greater value, a work of much more importance.
"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" My study bible points out that by tradition, the townspeople are thought to have been dressed in white. Jesus speaks as they approach with the Samaritan woman. It notes, "Our Lord urges the disciples to look up and see the ripe fields (that is, these Samaritans) ready for harvest." This is a labor for food far beyond the food of this moment that His disciples remind Him of.
"And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored, others have labored, and you have entered into their labors." My study bible tells us: The Father is the sower; Jesus is the reaper. Jesus will send the disciples to reap (17:18; 20:21); their apostolic mission has been implicit from their initial calling. The others are all those who have prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah: the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, St. John the Baptist and more."
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." My study bible says, "The Samaritans are the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world. The gospel is for all people." Like Nathanael earlier in John's Gospel, these people have come and seen for themselves.
It's interesting to think of the interconnectedness of people in the Gospels. From a handful of encounters, we really don't know what will arise, how things will come to be known and to be revealed. And there's also the important issue of encounter. These people, these Samaritans, testify that they have come and seen Jesus for themselves, a direct sort of encounter -- even as Jesus teaches the disciples that they, too, enter into others' labor. Everything isn't done just by themselves. But, in some very real sense, everything that ties together this labor is the presence of Christ. It is for this reason that Tradition teaches, via Church Fathers, that we read the Old Testament understanding the presence of Christ before the Incarnation. When Jesus, in yesterday's reading, revealed to the Samaritan woman "I am (He) who am speaking to you" (as the Greek reads quite literally), it is a recognized assertion of the I AM who spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the presence of God. And so, what we have is an understanding of encounter -- especially couched in the teachings of chapter 4 in John's Gospel -- that can take place anytime and anywhere through the presence of the Spirit. And this is something important we have to understand: encounter is necessary and important, for Nathanael and for these Samaritan people, but encounter becomes possible through the work of the Spirit. As Jesus teaches His disciples that they enter into others' labors, so we have to understand that encounter, even through the labors of many, also becomes possible through the work of the Spirit. We are not alone in any of this because God makes it possible. No one's labor is separate from another, even as this blog is written via the assistance of countless contributors through centuries of reflection on the Gospel, via my study bible's notes and other commentaries studied, and the whole history of biblical scholarship and theological understanding. The Gospel speaks to us all, though, through the presence of the Living Word, through something much more than our intellects. And that's the spiritual food we need to seek, the thing that gives us life much greater and deeper than a temporal sense of what someone once said "once upon a time." Let us remember that life is about encounter, that by stepping into the shoes of the journey of faith we're not just listening to and asserting intellectual concepts, but we're on a road with Him, with one another, with those who have come before and those who will come in the future. All of this is possible through the presence of the Spirit, and the Incarnation that gave it to us, the gift of God.
