Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

 

 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 

 

 In our recent Gospel readings, we have been given the story of the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus met at Jacob's well (beginning with Thursday's reading).  Yesterday we read that 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 claims they marveled not only that Jesus spoke with a Samaritan, but that He was speaking with a woman who was unaccompanied, which potentially could cause scandal in this time and place.  For more instances of Christ's dealings with women, see 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, as here she testified to the advent of Christ and brought others to Him.  In the Church, she is known as St. Photini.  According to an early tradition, after the Resurrection she was baptized with the name Photini, which in Greek means "the enlightened one."  Along with her 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 Orthodox Church her memory is celebrated on March 20th and the fourth Sunday of Easter/Pascha.  

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."   In a pattern found in the interactions between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, here it is the disciples who misunderstand Christ.  My study Bible comments that He fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father; therefore this is His food.  It says that also teaches us that we are to perform the will of God in our lives without being distracted by earthly cares (John 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, the command to look ("Behold . . . !") was given because the townspeople were approaching them, ready and eager to believe in Jesus.  Christ compares these foreigners (in relation to the Jews) to fields ready for harvest.  My study Bible says 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.  A field white for harvest reflects the appearance of wheat when it's ready for harvest; some of the heads of wheat take on a whitish appearance.  It is also said that these villagers were traditionally dressed in white clothing; hence, as they approached, we understand Jesus' allusion to the image of a wheat field ripe 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."  Once again my study Bible cites the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, who teaches 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 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 comments that, as John's Gospel shows us these foreigners are among the first to recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world, it shows the gospel is for all people in every nation. 

The gospel is for all people in every nation:  I wonder if we can understand how revolutionary such a concept was and is.  Jesus lived in a time when God or "gods" were considered to be local for every people on one level or another; usually that meant within our concept of "national."  But we can read stories in the Bible about pagan peoples for whom there were household gods.  But however we want to understand it, the idea that God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and truth opens up worship and communion with God to an entirely different expression and understanding, and for all people everywhere, in all times.  "God is spirit" (these are Christ's words to the Samaritan woman in yesterday's reading; see above) teaches us that God cannot be confined or defined by a place, and cannot be restricted even to one time or even one dimension.  God is present through all things and in all places, is timeless without beginning and without limits, since everything we know as created (including our entire universe) was created by God.  Therefore when we enter into worship with God properly understood, we enter into a place which has no normal human limits as we conceive of them; we enter into participation with what is far beyond us, includes us, and expands us to know more beyond what we already know.  We enter into mystery.  In fact, we might make note that the Armenian Apostolic liturgy, which traces its tradition to ancient times, begins with this hymn to God while the priest is vesting in preparation for the service:  "O Mystery Deep, inscrutable, without beginning.  Thou hast decked thy supernatural realm as a chamber unto the light unapproachable and hast adorned with splendid glory the ranks of thy fiery spirits" (O Mystery Deep/Khorhoort Khoreen).   The words to this hymn reflect a very ancient understanding of God as Creator, who begins and remains first and last Mystery for us, but who has adorned the created world with beauty, such as the glory of the angels, described as a flame of fire in Psalm 104:4, a psalm which is a hymn of Creation as the glory of God.  Therefore the depths of the mystery of God are opened up by Christ to this Samaritan woman, so that it could be understood as a gift to all peoples everywhere and in all time that communion and worship of this God is open to all.  No one is restricted or kept out except through their own rejected of the light and truth of this God (see John 3:16-21).  In the communion of this God of Mystery Deep, Jesus as a Jewish man may converse and teach this Samaritan woman; as Son He reaches out to all, and teaches to all who will receive, describing even these hated foreigners (to the Jews) as fields white for harvest, those who will come to believe.  There are so many "boundaries" broken in this story that it is explosive in the ways that it opens up the gospel to all -- Jesus speaks to a woman alone, a Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman, and that He would preach to and receive Samaritan townspeople are enough to make that statement.  But perhaps the most astonishing of all is His revelation -- to her, of all people -- that He is the Christ.  As far as we know, this had not even been stated at this time to any of His disciples, especially using the divine name I AM.  All of this is extraordinary; to get a sense of just how much, all we need to do is to look at the reaction of the disciples when they find Him speaking to her.  They're nonplussed:  they marvel so that they cannot even ask Him a question about it.  Perhaps, like the disciples, we need to pay attention to His answer to them:  that others labor, and we enter into their labors -- and we always need to look around to find the fields which are white for harvest.  The gospel works in its strange and mysterious way, just as the Holy Spirit travels like the wind.  In the end, these Samaritans hear Christ for themselves, and declare they believe Him to be the Christ, the Savior of the world.  We should understand that the desire for the gospel will come from the most surprising directions, and the most surprising people, for there is no limit or law about its spread, and be prepared to share our own testimony when others are interested.