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 

 

Yesterday we read that, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (thought Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea an 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."

 

 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 says that the disciples marveled not only that Jesus spoke with a Samaritan, but that He was speaking with an unaccompanied woman -- which was potentially scandalous.  For more instances of the Lord's dealing with women, see John 7:53-8:11; 11:20-33, 20:11-18; 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.  My study Bible says that this Samaritan woman becomes an early evangelist.  She is testifying to the advent of Christ and bringing others to Him (see verse 39).  According to an early tradition, it notes, after the Resurrection this woman was baptized and given the name Photini, which in Greek means, "the enlightened one."  Together with her two sons and five daughters, she traveled to Carthage, an important Roman colony, to spread the gospel.  Later she was martyred with her family under the emperor Nero by being thrown into a well.  (We remember from yesterday's reading that she was asked to draw water for Christ in their meeting at Jacob's well.)  

 

 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."  Here again is another instance in which a misunderstanding is used by Christ to explain concepts of the Kingdom.  In this instance, we are given to know that Christ fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father, the One who sent Him, and therefore this is Christ's food.  It is also an important concept of the "work" of God, in which we seek to follow God's will in faith.  My study Bible says that it also teaches us that we are to perform the will of God in our lives without being distracted by earthly cares (John 6:27; 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, my study Bible tells us, when Christ commands the disciples to behold, it is because the townspeople were approaching, ready and eager to believe in Jesus.  Christ is comparing these foreigners (relative to the Jews) to fields which are ready for harvest.  My study Bible adds that this command is also to all believers to look to those around us and share the gospel with anyone who wants to hear it, regardless of race or ethnicity.  In speaking of harvest, Christ is continuing His metaphor of the work of God being His food.

"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."   Jesus continues to speak about the work of God, in metaphors of agricultural work, planting, growing and harvesting crops.  (See also Christ's seminal parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-23.)  My study Bible notes that according to St. John Chrysostom, 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 therefore 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 on the fact that these foreigners are among the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world.  It says that this shows the gospel is for all people in every nation.

 

Christ's equation of work and food is quite interesting.  We usually think of people needing to work in order to have food, to "put food on the table," as the expression goes.  In an agricultural society, and one without widespread distribution of products and marketing strategies, without the supermarkets and types of transportation we know today, the connection of agricultural work and food on the table is even more direct and significant.  All kinds of things, not simply for families or individuals but also for whole communities, depended on a good harvest, on the work put in before the harvest in planting and sowing and tending to the fields.  Agricultural work is demanding and involves significant labor (again, especially in societies without the modern machinery and corporate farming that exists today).  Still today, those who live in agricultural areas know the hard work that is required in farming and agricultural life.  So when Jesus speaks of His work as His food, we are given pause to consider what He's saying.  This is not about producing, or the quality of the crops nor even their abundance, but it is in actually doing the work -- carrying out the will of God -- that He finds His nourishment, His food.  If we think about the times we were so passionate about something that we forgot to eat, or didn't have time to eat, maybe we can understand what Christ is saying.  There are things that are so fulfilling, work itself that so abundantly satisfies, that it is a kind of food that feeds us spiritually and otherwise:  psychologically, a food for our soul.  It is in pursuing our faith, our love of God, that we can take sustenance in the same food Christ speaks of here.  Of course, the more concrete manifestation of this understanding is in the Eucharist, a food that comes within the "work of God" -- our worship.  In eucharistic worship, we "taste and see" that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8); our partaking of the life of Christ brings meaning and spiritual substance to our lives.   In understanding this idea, we may broaden our thinking in understanding that to participate in the life of Christ, to be illumined with the Spirit in following the new birth of baptism, is to "find ourselves."  We do not simply have faith and take comfort in the love of God as something external to who we are, but the fire of the Holy Spirit burns away what is false in us, as it kindles what is most deeply true.  Do we have artistic talent?  Are there ways we can use our skills to create beauty in the world?  Moreover, is there something God wants of us that we are missing?  To do the work of God might include ways of evangelizing that aren't obvious.  The beautiful architecture of churches reflects our desire for beauty, and human skills for creating, building, and manifesting beauty in "earthly" ways that spread the message that God is beauty and truth and goodness.  Cleaning up a garden and planting beautiful flowers can also be inspired by the saints, and often we find gardens planted and dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, reflecting her own "yes" to the particular thing God asked of her, and the flowering of that "yes" in the birth of Christ.  Who could have known this potential in her?  Through the Church, hospitals and universities were begun and flourished, so we can easily see helping and teaching professions as vehicles for serving God.  There are many ways in which we can serve God and do the work of God, myriad ways of being holy or following the saints, unknown ways that God calls to individuals the kind of "work" that is suitable to them.  Let us consider our "work" to be -- like Jesus -- that which feeds and nurtures us, if we seek to serve God through whatever we do.  Let us consider our prayer time to be that time in which we invest in our "rest" with God so that we are shown the kind of work that rewards and feeds us, and nurtures our souls and spirits.  There may be fields white for harvest we haven't yet seen or understood, which await our attention so that we may join in the work that feeds us, inviting us to join the labor of others, so that we all receive wages and rejoice together.