My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work

 

 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 

 

Yesterday 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  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." 

 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?"   My study bible comments that they marveled not only that Jesus spoke with a Samaritan, but that He was speaking with an unaccompanied woman, which was potentially scandalous.  See also other of Jesus' dealings with women in 7:53-8:11; 11:20-33; 20:11-18 (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.   As we mentioned in yesterday's reading and commentary, this Samaritan woman is known in the Church as St. Photini.   In the context of these verses, she becomes an early evangelist, who testifies to the advent of Christ and brings others to Him.  In accordance with early Church tradition, after the Resurrection, she was baptized with the name Photini which means "the enlightened one."   Together with her two sons and five daughters, she went to Carthage to spread the gospel.  Later she was martyred with her family under 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.  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 cites St. John Chrysostom, who comments that Jesus' command to behold was given because the townspeople were approaching, ready and eager to come to faith in Christ.  Jesus compares these "foreigners" (relative to the Jews) to fields which are already white for harvest.  Some suggest that they approach wearing traditional white garments, and so we understand the image given to the disciples.  My study bible further notes that this command is also to believers to look to those around us and to share the gospel with anyone wanting to hear it, regardless of race of 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."  Again, according to the commentary of Chrysostom, those who sow and those who reap are, respectively, the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles.  The prophets sowed in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but didn't see His coming and therefore couldn't reap.  The apostles didn't do the preparation, but they would draw thousands to Christ in their own lifetimes.  All who testify and witness to Christ do the same, entering into others' 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."   My study bible comments on the fact that these "foreigners" or outsiders (to the Jews) are among the first to recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world shows that the gospel is for all people in every nation.

The story of St. Photini is a remarkable one because this revelation of Christ's identity happens so early in John's Gospel.  It tells us something powerful about Jesus' reception within the lands of "strangers" or "foreigners" vis-a-vis Christ's own people.  Jesus declares to Photini (in yesterday's reading, above), "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews."  So there is no confusion about this faith and about His mission and identity.  But once Christ begins to manifest His divine nature in the form of signs, such as turning the water to wine at the wedding in Cana, He knows what will happen.  Once Christ begins to gather followers, so the leadership begins to take notice and to oppose.  Indeed, Jesus is here in Samaria because He's on His way to Galilee, having already begun His conflicts with the religious leadership in Jerusalem.  But here among these foreigners, He finds one to whom He has revealed Himself, and she in turn brings many more along who believe.  This is the paradoxical stuff of the Gospels.  It is the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" to whom He has been sent (Matthew 15:24), but it is here -- and to this woman, no less -- where He chooses to reveal Himself.  It is also a kind of affirmation of Christ's words to Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (3:8).  The holy works in accordance with the holy; there is no earthly check on God and the works of God in the world.  But despite the reception here, Jesus has work to do, and a mission, to go to those to whom He was sent, and to whom He will also first send His apostles before they go out to all the nations (Matthew 10:6).  And so it might work in each of our own lives.  There are those to whom God has sent us, or whom God sends our way.  Perhaps, as faithful, we share or at least live our faith among those to whom we're closest, those whom God gives us.  We should be prepared, as is Christ, for a kind of heartache and rejection, the image of the cross, in our own lives should that become a part of our experience.  But it nevertheless does not diminish the mission to live the life God has given us.  We should not be attached to images of success and particular outcomes, because this is not the way that Christ lives His life and leads His ministry either.  Spreadsheets and profit margins don't belong in the ministry of the word that works mysteriously, with its own living power that we don't control and can't see.  Jesus will be rejected among His own family and neighbors, something John's Gospel will go into in quite a bit of detail, but it is Christ who says -- in some form in all four Gospels -- that a prophet has no honor in his own country (4:44).  We should be prepared to understand that living a life faithful to Christ isn't without its pitfalls and rejections, and to keep our mind open to our faith and where it takes us.  Those whom we might expect to be most receptive may in fact be quite the opposite, but God's word and truth finds reception perhaps in the house of strangers, those who become brothers and sisters through faith.  Let us keep in mind the understanding of work, the "labor" in which He's engaged, and His own attitude toward the mission with which He's entrusted.  In today's reading, He tells His disciples, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."  He is faithful and true to the One who has sent Him.  Let us understand our own lives in the same context, and our own faithfulness in whatever way we're sent.  We also enter into others' labors, and we don't know the time of the harvest or even what that harvest might look like.  But we who know His love must be true and faithful to it, as He has shown us first.