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 

 

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."

 

  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?"  Today's reading continues from where our previous reading (above) left off, in the encounter between Jesus and the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well.  Here, His disciples return, seeing Jesus alone and speaking with an unaccompanied woman at the well.  They marveled not only that He spoke with a Samaritan, but with a woman alone, which was potentially scandalous.  My study Bible references other instances of Christ's dealings with women in John 7:53-8:11; 11:20-23; 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.  My study Bible says that this Samaritan woman becomes an early evangelist, as she testifies to the advent of Christ and brings others to Him (see the response of the townspeople further on in today's reading).  According to an early tradition, it notes, after the Resurrection this woman was baptized with the name Photini, meaning "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 the emperor Nero by being thrown into a well.  She is remembered in the Orthodox Church tradition 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."  Here is another example in John's Gospel of Christ using misunderstandings to convey the deeper things of God's work in the world, as the disciples initially misunderstand Christ's statement.  Jesus fulfills His role as Messiah, my study Bible notes, by doing the will of the Father -- therefore, this is His food.  It says that this also teaches us 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 the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, this command to look is given because the townspeople were approaching, ready and eager to believe in Jesus.  Some suggest this reflects the traditional clothing of the Samaritans who approach in white robes.  Christ compares these foreigners (that is, relative to the Jews) to fields which are ready for harvest (a sprouted grainfield ready for harvest appears to approach white in color).   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 who wants 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."  Again, my study Bible cites St. John Chrysostom's commentary here, noting that those who sow and those who reap are, respectively, the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles.   It explains that the prophets sowed in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, but they 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 that the fact that these foreigners are among the first to recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world shows that the gospel is for all people in every nation.  

One wonders if the Roman Empire at the time of Christ claimed a kind of universality of membership and citizenry, although it was a stratified society which included slaves and other classes of citizens and non-citizens.  Certainly its claim to peace and stability was rooted in the concept that under the powerful rule of one absolute figurehead, there was an absence of traditional warfare.  But in today's reading, we are given to understand the powerful pull of Christ which would cross ethnic, national, social, gender, and other boundaries in a different kind of kingdom, a kingdom united in faith.  Once again, we must note here that faith in the sense conveyed in the Gospels and the story of Christ's ministry is not simply a code or creed, and does not come about simply through an intellectual acceptance of a set of rules, conditions, or concepts.  Faith is trust in the Person of Christ, a relationship that forms a network of relatedness through its effects and spiritual connection, or the grace of God.  Today's reading, as my study Bible notes, gives us a taste of that concept, of this unification between peoples across all kinds of boundaries, and in the Person of Jesus Christ.  It makes one pause to wonder about how radical a concept this was.  Certainly in Jesus' own behaviors, we see the breaking of boundaries in a number of ways.  His conversation at the well with the Samaritan woman alone causes the disciples to marvel, as He not only speaks with a Samaritan, but with a woman unaccompanied by others.  As pointed out above, His repeated encounters with women express this kind of surprising crossing of the usual social restrictions in favor of compassion, healing, communion, and the relatedness of faith.  The Samaritans are clearly looked down upon, generally speaking, by the Jews.  As the previous reading told us, "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans" (John 4:9).  What should really cause us to marvel, together with the contemporaries of Jesus, is that the Samaritan members of this town come to Christ in what is a clearly "marvelous" development, and are among the first people to do so as a group.  From the perspective of the Gospels, this is a highly commendable position, a revelation of their character which is purely praiseworthy.  They, like others in the Gospel before them, "come and see" Christ for themselves, and find faith for themselves, as revealed in their testimony.  In this radically new kind of Kingdom, everything is stood on its head:  conventional divisions between people, categories or groups of citizenship and status, even contemporaneous ideas about what constitutes a "kingdom."  If we look to Mary's Song, and others that prefigure them in the Bible (including texts from the Psalms and repeated stories of Israel), what we find is even predicted, for this is a God who lifts up the lowly, and fills the hungry with good things, who has regarded "the lowly state of His maidservant" whom "henceforth all generations will call me blessed" (see Luke 1:46-55).  This is the God who upends the materialist perspective, whose power is shown through the weak (2 Corinthians 12:9).  He is the One who prepares a kingdom for the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:1-12).  Let us be like these townspeople, who come and see for themselves, and find the Savior of the world.