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 in 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?"  My study Bible tells us that the disciples marveled not only that Jesus spoke with a Samaritan, but that He was speaking with a woman who was unaccompanied; this was potentially scandalous.  For more instances of Christ's dealings with women, see John 7:53-8:11; 11:20-33; 20:11-18, and 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, my study Bible notes.  She testifies to the advent of Christ and brings others to Him.  According to an early tradition, it tells us, she was baptized with the name Photini, which means the "enlightened" or "illumined" one.  Together 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; she was thrown into a well.  Her feast day in the Orthodox Church is March 20th.

 

 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."  Once again, we note the misunderstandings that comprise new learning and teaching stories in John's Gospel.  Jesus fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father; therefore this is His food, my study Bible explains.  This also teaches us, it says, that we are to perform the will of God in our lives without being distracted by earthly cares.  See John 6:27; 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!"  Jesus gives the command, "Behold!"  According to St. John Chrysostom, cited by my study Bible, this command to look was given because the townspeople were approaching.  They are ready and eager to believe in Christ.  Jesus compares these foreigners (relative to the Jews, that is) to fields which are ready for harvest.  This command, my study Bible says, 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 in 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 the commentary of St. John Chrysostom here.  He 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 they did not live to see His coming, and therefore they did not reap.  The apostles didn't do the preparation, but they would draw thousands to Christ in their 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 notes that as 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.  

Just as Jesus has come to the hostile notice of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, so the gospel now begins to spread to Gentile territories.  Just as Jesus compares these Samaritan people to fields white for harvest (suggesting the traditional white dress of these people) so we might think of this people as those who were ready for the flame of Christ, ready to be illumined, as the name St. Photini conveys to us.  It's strange how there are times when seemingly whole peoples, like these from the town, come to Christ en masse, ready to listen to witness and come eventually to testify themselves.  It's remarkable to compare this story to all of the stories of rejection of Christ in the Gospels.  Why these people?  What makes them different?  Perhaps they don't have all of the expectations of the Jews that have been built up over this long period of waiting for the Messiah who would fulfill their hopes?  Is it possible that it's linked to the false expectations of a political messiah who would restore the fortunes of Israel and overthrow the Romans?  Perhaps it would be best if we took such a lesson to heart, and considered our own expectations of Jesus the Messiah.  What do we expect Jesus to do for us in our lives?  What makes these people so different?  Perhaps this woman is struck by Christ's boldness with her:  He speaks to her in an act that is totally unexpected, for a Jewish man like Him would normally have nothing to do with her -- both because she is a Samaritan and also because she is a woman alone.  He has revealed that He knows all about her life story and her string of husbands, and yet He has offered her something marvelous, too good to be true:  "living water" that "will become a fountain of water springing up into eternal life."  But she doesn't strike the listener as a person to be dazzled by such promises.  Rather, I think we can presume that she's simply ready to receive the light of His news, the gospel:  "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."  (See Saturday's reading, above.)  What makes us people who meet Christ at the place He meets us?  What prepares us for faith?  How do we receive the light Christ offers to us?  These are great mysteries, and today's story perhaps bears out Christ's words about the Holy Spirit said to Nicodemus:  "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" (John 3:8).    So how are we receptive to the Spirit?  What gets in the way of our becoming "enlightened" as St. Photini is here?  Let us consider the ways that Christ reaches into our hearts and minds, for our own resistance to that light and to the Holy Spirit makes all the difference between receiving this "living water" and living in denial of the life He offers.  How do we open our minds to the light and the beauty of Christ?