Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?

 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.

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 the 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 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."

 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 disciples marveled for several reasons.  Jesus spoke first of all with a Samaritan, and also with an unaccompanied woman -- which for the time, place, and culture was a potential scandal.  My study bible cites several other instances further on in John's Gospel in which Jesus' dealings with women are remarkable:  John 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.   This Samaritan woman becomes an early evangelist, says my study bible.  She testifies to the advent of Christ and also brings others to Him.  This woman is known in tradition as St. Photini.  According to early tradition in the Church, after the Resurrection she was baptized with this name Photini, which in Greek means "the enlightened one."  Along with two sons and five daughters, she went to Carthage to spread the gospel.  Later she was martyred with her family under the emperor Nero by being thrown into a 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."  Here is another example of a particular type of interaction which is notable in John's Gospel, a misunderstanding meant to illumine or enlighten.  He fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father, and therefore this is His food.  But the example is for all of us; it teaches us not only about priorities and what we put first, but also the mysterious energies of God, God's grace (see also 6:27; Matthew 4:4, 6:25-33).  My study bible says it teaches us to do the will of God in our lives without being distracted by earthly cares.

"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. Chrysostom, when Jesus says Behold to the disciples, He is looking at the approaching townspeople, who are ready and eager to believe in Him.  Jesus compares these foreigners (relative to the Jews) whose common dress was white, to fields ready for harvest.  My study bible tells us that 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."  St. Chrysostom further comments that those who sow and those who reap are the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, respectively.  The prophets sowed in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but did not see His coming and thus did not reap.  The apostles didn't do the preparation, but they will draw thousands to Christ in their own lifetimes.  And we, too, build upon all these labors in our own lives.

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." These foreigners and enemies of the Jews are the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world.  What it teaches us is just that the gospel is for all people in every nation.

John's Gospel has already repeatedly given us the action of faith:  some are told to "come and see."  (See also John 1:38-39, 1:46).  But their faith takes hold with experience, coming to know Christ for themselves.  This sense of personal experience is important.  By the time John's Gospel was written, John was an elderly man.  By tradition, it is said that he dictated his work to a disciple.  Therefore we infer that the experience of the early Church, and also of course his intimacy with Christ and with the Mother of Christ (see John 19:26) shape many of the understandings that we find in John's Gospel.  We've already read two previous examples of people who are told to "come and see" and who become Jesus' disciples.  Here in today's reading, St. Photini does the same with her own townspeople.  But they testify themselves that their faith takes hold "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."  They come and see for themselves, just as did Andrew and John the Evangelist, and Nathanael.  So the real question here for us becomes, how do we come and see?  Jesus is no longer in the world as incarnate human being.  His worldly ministry ended with His Passion, death, and Resurrection.  But it is precisely because of that "ending," which was not an ending at all, that we are capable of coming and seeing and experiencing Christ for ourselves.  We not only have the entire tradition of the Church which testifies to Christ, including the history of all the saints and the Gospels, Epistles and other books of the New Testament, but we have the entire history of Judaism in the Old Testament which testifies to who the Christ is.  As Christians, we understand Jesus as the fulfillment of all that is in the Old Testament.  We can study the Scriptures, as in this blog, and we find over and over again new insights that they tell us about.  John gives us the wonderful and repeated examples of "misunderstandings" that are intentional, in which Jesus uses figurative language designed to initiate those listening in concepts of the Kingdom.  Jesus also gives us parables to teach us about the Kingdom, which give repeated insights to listeners, regardless of how many times one may have heard the same parable before.  All these experiences are ways in which we, too, can "come and see" for ourselves.  But finally there is the greatest blessing of all, that which forms and shapes the Church and our worship, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Regardless of where we are, who we are, when we live, God is with us.  God's presence leads and guides us.  We can call on the Spirit, on the Father, on the Son, and pray with the entire communion of saints for our help and true experience of faith, for which there is no substitute.  It is on this the Church rests, and builds, and grows.  Jesus has promised that "where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).  At the end of Matthew's Gospel, He gives His disciples what is known as the Great Commission, saying, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you."  He ends with this promise:  "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  In all these things, and in the true worship of God in spirit and in truth, He is with us always.