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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.
In the meantime 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
On Saturday, we read that when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." 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."
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 reaction of the disciples shows us the social milieu in which Jesus has spoken openly to this woman of Samaria. They're shocked by His behavior, and simply marvel. First she is a Samaritan, and second, to speak with a woman who was unaccompanied was to encounter potential for scandal. My study bible suggests we note other occasions of Jesus' dealings with women in John's Gospel: 7:53-8:11; 11:20-33; 20:11-18 -- see also Luke 8:1-3.
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. Jesus' encounter with this woman wasn't just a revelation of His identity, but rather the making of an evangelist. She testifies to His identity as Christ, and brings others to Him. My study bible tells us that according to an early tradition, after the Resurrection she was baptized with the name Photini -- which means, in Greek, "the enlightened one" (phos is "light"). Along with her two sons and five daughters, she went to Carthage to spread the gospel. She was later martyred with her family under the emperor Nero by being thrown into a well -- a martyr's death cruelly given her because of her testimony of encounter with Christ at Jacob's well.
In the meantime 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 yet another "conventional" misunderstanding in John's Gospel. What is food? Christ invites us to think about another type of food, as necessary as any other. He fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father -- therefore this is His food. My study bible points out that this also teaches us we are to perform the will of God in our lives without being distracted by earthly cares (6:27; see also Matthew 4:4, 6:25-33).
"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!" According to St. John Chrysostom, Jesus' command, "Behold!" is made for the disciples to look at the villagers coming toward Him, having been brought by St. Photini. It says, "Christ compares these foreigners (relative to the Jews) to fields ready for harvest. This command is also to all believers to look to those around us and to share the gospel with anyone wanting to hear it, regardless of race or ethnicity."
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 once again gives us commentary from St. Chrysostom. He writes that who sow and those who reap are the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, respectively. It says, "The prophets sowed in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but did not see His coming and thus did not reap. The apostles did not do the preparation, but would draw thousands to Christ in their own lifetimes."
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 tells us, "That these foreigners are among the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world shows the gospel is for all people in every nation."
The villagers approach Christ, ready to hear and to believe, to put their faith in Him because of the testimony of the Samaritan woman at the well, St. Photini. There's a kind of play on the images of light and the bright fields "white for harvest." It's been suggested that these villagers' dress was traditionally all white, and so as they approach, Jesus makes this statement. "White" fields "ready for harvest" give me the image of buds, new growth, the "flowering" tops of grain. The waving grains reflect the light of the sun as they're moved by the wind -- "light" and "wind" are images we're given in particular in John's Gospel, reflecting both Christ and the Spirit (the word for "Spirit" also meaning "wind" -- and the image Jesus gives us of the wind as analogy to Spirit earlier in chapter 3 (see this reading, in which Jesus teaches Nicodemus about baptism and being "born again"). How do we reflect the light of Christ? How can we be "white for harvest?" We think of the Transfiguration, that essential moment of the Gospels, in which Jesus' clothes reflected a light beyond white, such as no launderer could attain. John's Gospel begins by telling us about the Light that came into the world, and "St. Photini" (the enlightened or illumined one) reflects that light. We're all called upon to do the same, to be "white for harvest" with that same reflection of the fullest spectrum of the light that renders it white as possible. It's also a part of the story that the whole world is welcomed in this place of faith, for light that is the brightest white is the light that is made up of every ray of the spectrum. Every "color" of light combines to create white light, every frequency and energy. All of this is to say that what qualifies us also to become enlightened or illumined is our open heart. There's nothing that stands in the way but the hardness of heart that keeps it from expanding, being opened, illumined. Jesus' demand from St. Photini for a drink of water opened up everything for her in her life, the greatest gift possible, as we read in Saturday's reading. It came under the full sun of noon, the sixth hour, in John's Gospel. But it opened up everything for her, including all of her past exposed, the things she needed to hear, and the things she needed to know. Christ's light is like that: a direct ray exposing everything, asking us to clean up our acts so that we, too, become the best possible reflection for the fullest light, the brightest white that hides nothing, but rather shines back to everyone so that it, too, can draw others into its sphere. This is the way the light works in Him, He who is the Light coming into the world. Can we accept as she did? As her neighbors did?
