Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you

 

 Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.  And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time.  And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.  When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg You, do not torment me!"  For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.  Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?"  And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him.  And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.  

 

Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain.  So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them.  And He permitted them.  Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.  

 

When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.  Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed.  Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.  And He got into the boat and returned.  Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him.  But Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

 

- Luke 8:26–39 

 

On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught, "No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him."  Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.  And it was told Him by some, who said, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You."  But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."  Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake."  And they launched out.  But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, master, we are perishing!"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.  And they ceased, and there was a calm.  But He said to them, "Where is your faith?"  And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, "Who can this be?  For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!"

 

  Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.  And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time.  And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.  When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg You, do not torment me!"  For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.  Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?"  And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him.  And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.  My study Bible comments that these demons recognize Jesus as the Son of the Most High God.  Notice that the demons speak through the man, saying, "I beg You, do not torment me!" when clearly this man, occupied by a legion of demons, is tormented by them himself.  A Roman legion consisted of over 5,000 men divided into ten cohorts, so we can imagine what this name "Legion" meant at the time the Gospels were written -- at a time when the Roman Empire had expanded to its largest extent.  The text describes the man's torment under this legion of demons:  it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.   His life is in such a miserable isolated state that he wore no clothes and lived among the dead in the tombs.  

Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain.  So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them.  And He permitted them.  Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.  My study Bible comments that, although the malice of these demons is great, they can do nothing against the will of God.  Therefore, they can only enter the herd of many swine if Christ permitted them.  The immediate destruction of these swine, my study Bible says, shows that the man had been protected by God's care.  Otherwise, he would have perished under the demonic influence.  Additionally, it reinforces that swineherding was not lawful for the Jews -- plus it shows the incomparable vale of human beings, whose salvation is worth every sacrifice.  There are those who say that the presence of the swine indicates a Gentile population.  But, my study Bible comments, since our Lord forbade His disciples to go to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5) and was Himself reluctant to seek out the Gentiles (Matthew 15:24), it's likely that these were Jews engaged in a sinful occupation.  

 

When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.  Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed.  Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.  And He got into the boat and returned.  Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him.  But Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.    My study Bible comments that the magnitude of the economic loss of the herd of swine would remain as a sign for the hard-hearted people who fled the region.  Their response is simply to treat Jesus with great fear, clearly caring more for their economic loss rather than the marvelous healing of this man who had suffered so extremely.  Note that although this man has no community among these people who simply want to banish Jesus, Christ Himself appoints a place for him, and a good mission:  "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  And so he did.

Lately I have been reading a lot and pondering quite a bit over the idea of giving thanks.  How important is gratitude in our lives?  Some say that the whole of our well-being depends upon how able we are to give thanks, or not.  How do we experience gratitude, and what are we grateful for?  Is it possible that without his horrible "occupation" by a legion of demons, this man never would have known Christ?  It's very strange indeed how Christ comes straight across the Sea of Galilee, and through a very frightening storm of wind and waves in which the disciples thought they were perishing, to come to this one man.  What loneliness it must have been, living among the tombs, unable even to wear clothes, and tormented night and day by a legion of demons!  It is almost a metaphorical image of a child subject to terrible abuse, the isolation and torment that he would have survived.  Certainly the "hard-hearted" (as my study Bible describes them) people around him cared little that he was cured, finding the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.   They had no use for him, but the swine were their livelihood (likely Jews selling to a Gentile market in this region of mixed populations), and that's what they cared about.   So this man is saved, but wants to go on with Jesus, because there is seemingly no tie for him here where people do not care for his life and salvation.  It seems they were happier when he lived among the dead and with the daily terrible punishment and torment of the demons.  But Jesus finds a place for him, an honored place -- he becomes a kind of evangelist under Christ's direction.  This is the saving nature of Christ's command, which brings this man beyond the lack of mercy of such people, and under Christ's authority,  "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  So he does:  and he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.   A good mission, a good identity, under the saving yoke of Christ, who is gentle and lowly in heart.  Indeed, we may presume that sooner or later, he will come under the care of the Church to come, and remain a disciple.  Surely we can imagine the gratitude this man feels to Christ, who singled him out enough to come across the sea to save him.  But what of his early life experiences?  Perhaps to find this singular place in the Gospels, a man who had demons for a long time, and who survived to tell of the great things Jesus had done for him, the first from his region to proclaim this good news, experienced a tragic beginning.  For some of us who have survived harmful things, this may be the best story of all, and with the best outcome -- the truth of Christ's saving redemption from the callous to a life of dedication and mission and belonging, to the unique identity only He can give.  

 

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.

 

 

 

Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you

 

Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.  And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains.  And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.  When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.  And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I implore You by God that You do not torment me."  For He said to him, "Come out of the man, unclean spirit!"  Then He asked him, "What is your name?"  And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many."  Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.  Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.  So all the demons begged Him, saying, "Send us to the swine, that we may enter them."  And at once Jesus gave them permission.  Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.  So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country.  And they went out to see what it was that had happened.  Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.  Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.  And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that He might be with Him.  However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you."  And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled. 

 

- Mark 5:1-20 

 

Yesterday we read that, when evening had come, Jesus said to the disciples, "Let us cross over to the other side."  Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along int he boat as He was.  And other little boats were also with Him.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.  But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.  And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!"  And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?"  And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!"

 

Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.  And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains.  And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.  When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.  And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I implore You by God that You do not torment me."  For He said to him, "Come out of the man, unclean spirit!"  Then He asked him, "What is your name?"  And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many."  Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.  Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains.  So all the demons begged Him, saying, "Send us to the swine, that we may enter them."  And at once Jesus gave them permission.  Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.  So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country.  And they went out to see what it was that had happened.  Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine.  Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.  And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that He might be with Him.  However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you."  And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.   My study Bible comments that the country of the Gadarenes was in Galilee, an area where many Gentiles lived among the Jews.  It explains that Gentile influence on the Jews caused many of them to take on Gentile practices, such as raising swine, which was forbidden by the Jewish Law (Deuteronomy 14:8).  Once again, the demons recognize who Jesus is, and identify Him as Son of the Most High God.  We notice the power of Christ:  although the malice of the demons is great, my study Bible point out they can do nothing against the will of God, and so they can only enter the swine at Christ's command.  The destruction of the swine shows the real effect of these demons, and we may conclude that the man had been protected by God's care:  otherwise he would have perished under their influence.  My study Bible adds that it reinforces that swineherding was not lawful for Jews, and shows the incomparable value of human beings, whose salvation is worth every sacrifice.  

There are some details we must notice about this story.  First of all the demon-possessed man clearly reminds us of some things we  might see in a modern Western city:  some homeless who are afflicted with mental illness.  He's wild and disordered, uncontrolled:  no one can bind him even with shackles and chains.  The text says that no one could tame him.  And night and day he was crying out and cutting himself with stones.  He lives among the tombs, because he can't live among the living; he is not a part of any community or society.  But the demons in him nevertheless know Jesus, and Christ comes and restores order; even the effects upon the swine have a reasonable teaching behind them.  For if we look at the environment here, we see several things.  First of all, as Jesus taught His disciples only to go to the Jews we can assume that although this is a region of mixed Gentiles and Jews, these are Jews who are raising swine for the Gentile market, in violation of the Jewish Law.  Therefore we may conclude from several aspects of this story that their values are purely materialistic:  they care about the money they might gain much more than a desire to honor God.  We can see it in their attitude toward the miraculously healed man who is now sitting and clothed and in his right mind:  they are just afraid of Jesus and beg Him to leave their region, for they've lost their swine, and that was clearly the only thing they cared about.  That the healed man becomes an early evangelist for Christ tells us about his transformation and redemption.  He goes to the Decapolis, a region of ten cities (this is the meaning of the name Decapolis, "ten cities") of Greek and Roman cultural establishment, but with mixed populations including Jews.  If we could make a modern metaphor out of this story, we might come to see a disordered environment that produced this tormented man, one that preferred wealth and materialism over the transcendent values of God.  This man is afflicted by what is hidden behind the scenes but nonetheless present and apparently thriving in such an environment:  the demonic activity that destroys souls, and the evil that seeks to afflict those who would come to love Christ.  The life among the tombs is a life we might see as one lived among the spiritually dead, where the only thing that matters is material wealth, and not the things of God.  Certainly love is missing from this picture.  The disordered man, we might say, is simply the evidence of a disordered society with disordered values.  Those who herd the swine are perfectly content with the way things are; they are simply distraught by Jesus who sets things in order, and in so doing upsets their own apple-cart and shakes up their material world.  But the formerly demon-possessed man has found himself, and Jesus sends him out with the gospel message that the Lord has done great things for him, and especially telling the story of the Lord's compassion.  The thing that characterizes those who herd the swine is selfishness; even in the sending away of the demon-possessed man among the tombs and the mountains we can see a world content to distance itself from problems so long as they are compartmentalized away and do not interfere with the pursuit of wealth.  We may find ourselves in such an environment, where the things of God matter not in terms of the real choices that people make.  Healing is fine as long as it simply enables those afflicted by the cold detachment of unloving values can function without disrupting that materialist system.  Some of us may even find ourselves living in a family environment like this.  But, as in this story, in a modern setting we also may find that faith in Christ comes to teach us different values, upsetting the apple-cart of those who prefer their swine to the spiritual health and well-being of those who need the love of God alive in their hearts and in their lives, who cannot truly live among the cold tombs of emptiness and abandonment except in pain and obvious disorder.  Jesus will say to one who comes to Him but wants to delay discipleship for a family duty to bury his father:  "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead" (Matthew 8:21-22, Luke 9:60).  In Luke's Gospel, He adds, ". . . but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  So it is with this man healed from the affliction of a legion of demons, and so it may be with all those who recognize a disordered world without the love and compassion of God to guide us, where the love of money and faith in its solutions prevails instead.

What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

 

 Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.  And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time.  And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.  When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg You, do not torment me!"  For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was drive by the demon into the wilderness.  Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?"  And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him.  And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.  Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain.  So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them.  And He permitted them.  Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.  

 

When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.  Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed.  Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.  And He got into the boat and returned.  Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him.  But Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

 

- Luke 8:26–39 

 

On Monday, we read that Jesus taught, "No one, when he has lit lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him."  Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.  And it was told Him by some, who said, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You."  But He answered  and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."  Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake."  And they launched out.  But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.  And they ceased, and there was a calm.  But He said to them, "Where is your faith?"  And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, "Who can this be?  For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!" 

 

  Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.  And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time.  And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.  When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg You, do not torment me!"  For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was drive by the demon into the wilderness.  Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?"  And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him.  And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.    My study bible comments that the demons recognize Jesus as the Son of the Most High God.  It says that although the malice of the demons is great, they can do nothing against the will of God.  Therefore, begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss, the place of total abolition or destruction of being.  Additionally, they may only enter the swine because Christ permitted them. 

 

Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain.  So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them.  And He permitted them.  Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. My study bible comments that the immediate destruction of the herd shows that the man had been protected by God's care -- otherwise he would have perished under this destructive demonic influence.  It adds that some teach that the presence of swine indicates Gentile population.  However, since Christ forbade His disciples to go to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5), and was also reluctant Himself to seek out the Gentiles (Matthew 15:24), these swineherders are more likely to be Jews engaged in a sinful occupation.  The destruction of the swine reveals that although animals are a venerable part of creation, human beings are of far great value.  Christ also removes a source of sin, as swine herding was an abomination to the Jews (Deuteronomy 14:8).

When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.  Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  And they were afraid.  They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed.  Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.  And He got into the boat and returned.  The magnitude of their economic loss will remain as a sign for these people who fled and who are afraid because of the miraculous recovery of the formerly demon-possessed man.  They show their hardheartedness in their failure to rejoice over his recovery, but instead they beg Jesus to depart from them.

 

Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him.  But Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you."  And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.  Let us note the healing and recovery of this man, who himself is given a great role to play in the salvation story of Christ.  He became an evangelist, as he proclaimed the good news of the great things Jesus had done for him.

This is one of my favorite stories in the Gospels.  I am intrigued by this hopeless man lost among the tombs, living among the dead, because he's not fit for civilization in the cities and towns.   In the grip of the demons, he's uncontrollable, constantly abusing and hurting himself, unable even to stay clothed.  For some of us, it is a reminder of facets of homelessness and mental illness among our own homeless populations.  But this stark picture in the Gospels of someone so lost and forsaken is hard to shake in spiritual terms.  One of the most striking aspects of the story is how Christ directed the apostles to set out overnight across the Sea of Galilee, through a terribly frightening storm, just to come to this particular forsaken place.  It's as if Jesus directed the disciples to pilot here specifically to save this man, or possibly to rebuke and destroy this hostel for a legion of demons.  The place is also forsaken as a home to Jews who raise swine, and who care so much more for their money-producing swine (to sell to Gentiles in this region) than for the holy healing action of Christ.  In this sense, Jesus is the picture of a type of warrior who goes abroad not with a sword and armaments, but with the spiritual power to reclaim territory for children of God who are occupied, abused, and subject to terrible tortures by a hostile enemy invader army.  This is a picture of a spiritual liberator, who comes to banish a cruelly uncivilized legion from those who would simply be at peace.  We can see the gratitude of the healed man, and his essential good character that it reflects.  Plus he clearly wants to come to be with Jesus.  But Jesus has a better assignment for him:  to spread the good news of God's work in him to his fellow townspeople, an evangelist and witness giving testimony.  Christ's saving work isn't just about the eternal life in the sense of what comes after life in this world; in this story it is a clear story about salvation and Resurrection impacting life as we live it in our present lives day to day, about bringing life to those in the tombs of this world who are lost or forsaken, seemingly hopeless, given up by others.  This is about the impact of Christ's abundant life that restores here and now and in the present, no matter what the problems are, and it is about being released from affliction that destroys on any level of the human soul.  The saving power of Christ works to protect and to heal; it's not an abstract and not a philosophy.  I always take this story to heart because there is more to find in it each time it is read and thought about.  The good news isn't just about what Christ said, it is about life and how it is lived and experienced, and witness testimony to the good things God has done -- for you, for me, for anybody who can testify about life as it is lived. 

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified

 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 yesterday's reading, we read the continuation of the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (for the first part of this encounter, see Thursday's reading):  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 he 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 Jesus' disciples marveled not only that Jesus was speaking with a Samaritan, but that He was speaking with a woman who was unaccompanied was potentially scandalous.  We can learn more about Christ and the faith He teaches in the same way that His disciples did, by observing His actions in His dealings with women:  see 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.  She testifies to the advent of Christ and brings others to Him (see the following verses in today's reading).  An early tradition tells us that after the Resurrection this woman was baptized with the name Photini.  In Greek, this means "the enlightened one."  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 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."  Jesus fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father; this is therefore His food.  It teaches us, as well, that we are to perform the will of God in our own lives, without being distracted by earthly cares (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!"  My study bible cites St. John Chrysostom here, who comments that Jesus' command to look (behold) is given because the townspeople are approaching.  They are ready and eager to believe in Christ.  Jesus compares these foreigners (considered to be so by the Jews) to fields ready for harvest.  The command equally applies to all believers to look to those around us and share the gospel with anyone who wants to hear it, regardless of race, origin, 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."  St. John Chrysostom teaches us that those who sow and those who reap are the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles, respectively.  The prophets all sowed in preparation for the Messiah, but they did not see His coming and so therefore did not reap.  The apostles did not do the preparation -- but in their own lifetimes they will draw thousands to Christ.

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 says 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.

Jacob's well is located near the modern city of Nablus, a Palestinian city on the West Bank populated by descendants of the Samaritans of Christ's time.   As current tensions between the populations of the region are familiar to us, so we can understand the tension between  Samaritans and Jews of Christ's time and earlier.   They are a part of a long history.  What today's reading teaches us is an important lesson in the centrality of Christ for all of us.  It doesn't really matter what tensions we have between us, nor what differences we may find between ourselves -- whether that be for whole populations, such as nations or groups of any kind, on the family level, or even as individuals.  All of these differences -- no matter their duration -- are bridged in Christ.  In yesterday's reading, the Samaritan woman remarks to Christ, "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."  She brings up the matter of contention between the populations, and we know that a little over a century earlier, the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim had been destroyed by the Jews.  But Jesus will not engage in such matters with her.  Instead, He resolves the issue by proclaiming, in essence, that the basis for this historical argument is untrue, by revealing the higher truth that God is Spirit, and so must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.  This is the true reality of the revelation of Christ:  He is the center of all things, and the resolution of all things.  While we may not easily recognize this ourselves, while Christians themselves may contend with one another about all kinds of issues, the truth is that He remains the resolution.  It is in Him that we find the way to love one another even through our differences, that we find a true peace which is reconciliation in Him, that we learn all that He has to bring into our lives, including the joy of fulfillment in identity as those who put our faith in Him.  The very fact that God is Spirit gives us an enormous wealth of information that there is mystery beyond what we know, that reconciliation essentially lies in faith.  There are many things that Christ teaches through the discipleship offered to these individuals who populate the Gospels.  Jesus does not reveal Himself to scoffers, He teaches discernment, He chooses His battles in accordance only with the will of the Father, He teaches all of His followers to "love one another as I have loved you" (13:34, 15:12).  We are given the Holy Spirit in order to help us to grow in that likeness that is possible for us through the Incarnation.  But do we take these seriously?  Do we get caught up in our own "proofs" and understandings and dogmatic insistence on what must be?  Can we find ways to love one another in Him?  The conversion of these Samaritans and their welcoming desire for Christ to stay with them teaches us a very important lesson:  that what is necessary is not a truth that drives us apart, but the truth that teaches us better things than we already think we know, deeper things He can reveal to us, something we can only get to with faith.  Let us consider where He leads us, and how we get there.  Let us make note, also, that Jesus does not simply make a convert out of this woman by telling her what (presumably) she would want to hear.  He tells her the truth about her husbands (or lack of them), and He tells her, a Samaritan, that "salvation is of the Jews."  It is the truth that unites; it is we who do the work of faith in that truth.  This Samaritan woman, enemy of the Jews and least likely person for Christ to speak to, becomes one among the first evangelists. 

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

 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."
 
 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 reaction of the disciples shows us the social milieu in which Jesus has spoken openly to this woman of Samaria.  They're shocked by His behavior, and simply marvel.  First she is a Samaritan, and second, to speak with a woman who was unaccompanied was to encounter potential for scandal.  My study bible suggests we note other occasions of Jesus' dealings with women in John's Gospel:  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.  Jesus' encounter with this woman wasn't just a revelation of His identity, but rather the making of an evangelist.  She testifies to His identity as Christ, and brings others to Him.  My study bible tells us that according to an early tradition, after the Resurrection she was baptized with the name Photini  -- which means, in Greek, "the enlightened one" (phos is "light").    Along with her two sons and five daughters, she went to Carthage to spread the gospel.  She was later martyred with her family under the emperor Nero by being thrown into a well -- a martyr's death cruelly given her because of her testimony of encounter with Christ at Jacob's 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."  My study bible points out yet another "conventional" misunderstanding in John's Gospel.  What is food?  Christ invites us to think about another type of food, as necessary as any other.  He fulfills His role as Messiah by doing the will of the Father -- therefore this is His food.  My study bible points out that this also teaches us we are to perform the will of God in our lives without being distracted by earthly cares (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, Jesus' command, "Behold!" is made for the disciples to look at the villagers coming toward Him, having been brought by St. Photini.  It says, "Christ compares these foreigners (relative to the Jews) to fields ready for harvest.  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."

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."    My study bible once again gives us commentary from St. Chrysostom.  He writes that who sow and those who reap are the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, respectively.  It says, "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 tells us, "That these foreigners are among the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world shows the gospel is for all people in every nation."

The villagers approach Christ, ready to hear and to believe, to put their faith in Him because of the testimony of the Samaritan woman at the well, St. Photini.  There's a kind of play on the images of light and the bright fields "white for harvest."  It's been suggested that these villagers' dress was traditionally all white, and so as they approach, Jesus makes this statement.  "White" fields "ready for harvest" give me the image of buds, new growth, the "flowering" tops of grain.  The waving grains reflect the light of the sun as they're moved by the wind -- "light" and "wind" are images we're given in particular in John's Gospel, reflecting both Christ and the Spirit (the word for "Spirit" also meaning "wind" -- and the image Jesus gives us of the wind as analogy to Spirit earlier in chapter 3 (see this reading, in which Jesus teaches Nicodemus about baptism and being "born again").   How do we reflect the light of Christ?  How can we be "white for harvest?"  We think of the Transfiguration, that essential moment of the Gospels, in which Jesus' clothes reflected a light beyond white, such as no launderer could attain.  John's Gospel begins by telling us about the Light that came into the world, and "St. Photini" (the enlightened or illumined one) reflects that light.  We're all called upon to do the same, to be "white for harvest" with that same reflection of the fullest spectrum of the light that renders it white as possible.  It's also a part of the story that the whole world is welcomed in this place of faith, for light that is the brightest white is the light that is made up of every ray of the spectrum.   Every "color" of light combines to create white light, every frequency and energy.  All of this is to say that what qualifies us also to become enlightened or illumined is our open heart.  There's nothing that stands in the way but the hardness of heart that keeps it from expanding, being opened, illumined.  Jesus' demand from St. Photini for a drink of water opened up everything for her in her life, the greatest gift possible, as we read in Saturday's reading.  It came under the full sun of noon, the sixth hour, in John's Gospel.  But it opened up everything for her, including all of her past exposed, the things she needed to hear, and the things she needed to know.  Christ's light is like that:  a direct ray exposing everything, asking us to clean up our acts so that we, too, become the best possible reflection for the fullest light, the brightest white that hides nothing, but rather shines back to everyone so that it, too, can draw others into its sphere.  This is the way the light works in Him, He who is the Light coming into the world.  Can we accept as she did?  As her neighbors did? 

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

 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.

Meanwhile, 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 Thursday's reading, we read about a Samaritan woman whom Jesus met  at Jacob's well, and their conversation there.  In yesterday's reading, the conversation continued:  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?"  Jesus' disciples marveled because a Jewish man was not allowed to converse publicly with a woman -- and this is a Samaritan woman (with whom, we've already been told by John's Gospel, "Jews have no dealings.")   My study bible points out that "Jesus' words and actions transcend ethnic and gender-related customs of the time."

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 notes about the woman:  "The Samaritan woman becomes the first evangelist, testifying to the advent of Christ and bringing others to Him.  According to an early tradition, after the Resurrection of Christ she was baptized and given the Christian name Photini, 'the enlightened one' [in Greek].  Along with her two sons and five daughters she went to Carthage to spread the gospel.  There they were arrested, taken to Rome under Nero, imprisoned, and later martyred.  According to tradition, St. Photini, who first met Christ beside a well, was martyred for Christ by being thrown into a well."  That she left her waterpot perhaps tells us about the woman she is going to be, through the action of the Spirit:  something else is more important to her than the water from the well, and that is the living water in the promise of Christ.

Meanwhile, 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."  My study bible points out to us that the disciples also misunderstand Jesus' words.  It's interesting that so often they, too, fail to grasp what Jesus is about, even as they are dumbstruck when they marvel that Jesus is speaking to this Samaritan woman.  Again, here, we see the technique of John's Gospel, to take us from a conventional meaning of words to the deeper spiritual meaning that Jesus' presence and teaching give them.  My study bible says, "His food is to bring people to believe in Him and be saved."   The teaching becomes a matter of setting priorities and values:  the woman left her waterpot because a deeper thirst called her, Jesus has a "food" that is essential and of greater significance than an immediate hunger.  I do not believe the Gospel at all expects the world to forget about its needs for physical food and water:  but there is a priority set here for that which always feeds and always gives its living water as something of far more value, for life that goes further and deeper than what we understand of life in a temporal or purely physical sense.  Here, to say the very least, is an opportunity of far greater value, a work of much more importance.

"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 points out that by tradition, the townspeople are thought to have been dressed in white.  Jesus speaks as they approach with the Samaritan woman.  It notes, "Our Lord urges the disciples to look up and see the ripe fields (that is, these Samaritans) ready for harvest."  This is a labor for food far beyond the food of this moment that His disciples remind Him of.

"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."  My study bible tells us:  The Father is the sower; Jesus is the reaper.  Jesus will send the disciples to reap (17:18; 20:21); their apostolic mission has been implicit from their initial calling.   The others are all those who have prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah:  the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, St. John the Baptist and more."

 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 says, "The Samaritans are the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world.  The gospel is for all people."  Like Nathanael earlier in John's Gospel, these people have come and seen for themselves.

It's interesting to think of the interconnectedness of people in the Gospels.  From a handful of encounters, we really don't know what will arise, how things will come to be known and to be revealed.  And there's also the important issue of encounter.  These people, these Samaritans, testify that they have come and seen Jesus for themselves, a direct sort of encounter -- even as Jesus teaches the disciples that they, too, enter into others' labor.  Everything isn't done just by themselves.  But, in some very real sense, everything that ties together this labor is the presence of Christ.  It is for this reason that Tradition teaches, via Church Fathers, that we read the Old Testament understanding the presence of Christ before the Incarnation.  When Jesus, in yesterday's reading, revealed to the Samaritan woman "I am (He) who am speaking to you" (as the Greek reads quite literally), it is a recognized assertion of the I AM who spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the presence of God.  And so, what we have is an understanding of encounter -- especially couched in the teachings of chapter 4 in John's Gospel -- that can take place anytime and anywhere through the presence of the Spirit.  And this is something important we have to understand:  encounter is necessary and important, for Nathanael and for these Samaritan people, but encounter becomes possible through the work of the Spirit.  As Jesus teaches His disciples that they enter into others' labors, so we have to understand that encounter, even through the labors of many, also becomes possible through the work of the Spirit.  We are not alone in any of this because God makes it possible.  No one's labor is separate from another, even as this blog is written via the assistance of countless contributors through centuries of reflection on the Gospel, via my study bible's notes and other commentaries studied, and the whole history of biblical scholarship and theological understanding.  The Gospel speaks to us all, though, through the presence of the Living Word, through something much more than our intellects.  And that's the spiritual food we need to seek, the thing that gives us life much greater and deeper than a temporal sense of what someone once said "once upon a time."  Let us remember that life is about encounter, that by stepping into the shoes of the journey of faith we're not just listening to and asserting intellectual concepts, but we're on a road with Him, with one another, with those who have come before and those who will come in the future.  All of this is possible through the presence of the Spirit, and the Incarnation that gave it to us, the gift of God.

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

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 yesterday's reading, Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, at the foot of Mt. Gerizim. Jesus is traveling from Judea to Galilee, and must pass through Samaria. As His disciples went to get food, Jesus asked the woman at the well to give Him a drink. She wondered how He, a Jew, would speak with her, a Samaritan. He 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?" Jesus told 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." He told her to call her husband and come back. She said, "I have no husband." Jesus said she'd spoken truly, that she's had five husbands, and the one she has now wasn't her husband at all. She thought that Jesus must be a prophet, and she asked Him about the dispute between the Samaritans and the Jews, where the place was for proper worship: on Mt. Gerizim where they were, or in Jerusalem. Jesus told 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?" We again have the emphasis on the unusual quality of this scene. My study bible says, "Jews were not allowed to converse publicly with a woman, and a Samaritan at that. Jesus' words and actions transcend ethnic and gender-related customs of the time." Even though they marvel, the disciples are dumbfounded. They can ask Him nothing.

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 woman expresses the action of witnessing, and drawing others to Christ. My study bible calls her the first evangelist, spreading the gospel news - "testifying to the advent of Christ and bringing others to Him." By early tradition she is St. Photini ("Enlightened One)". After the Resurrection she was baptized, and with her two sons and five daughters went to Carthage to evangelize. There they were arrested, taken to Rome under Nero, imprisoned and later martyred. Tradition says that she, who met Christ by Jacob's well, was martyred 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." Here we have more evidence of Christ's saving mission; He is sent for a reason into the world. My study bible points out once again that John's Gospel uses a misunderstanding - this time between Jesus and the disciples - to draw out further truth from Jesus about His saving mission. "His food is to bring people to believe in Him and be saved."

"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!" By tradition, the fields white for harvest are represented in the people of the Samaritan town coming to Jesus, dressed in white.

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." My study bible says, "The Father is the sower, Jesus is the reaper. Jesus will send the disciples to reap; their apostolic mission has been implicit from their initial calling. . . . The others are all those who have prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah: the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets, St. John the Baptist and more." When we labor in any form for this Kingdom, through any kind of service, we remember that we are not alone. All that comes to us is through the hands of others, a communion of saints, throughout a salvation history of the world in which God works to bring us to harvest, to fruition from this labor, to God's Kingdom.

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." From one woman's testimony comes a harvest of many believers. There's just no telling how this may work and how the Kingdom may grow. My study bible tells us, "The Samaritans are the first to recognize Jesus as Savior of the world. The gospel is for all people."

When we tell our story to others, there's really no way to know what may come of it. Perhaps others will think about what we've said. Perhaps the thought will grow in them to consider coming to Christ for themselves. One thing is for certain, that encounter has a great deal to do what with what we know and what we tell to others of our own experience. It's not about theory and far more than a statement of belief. The experience and action of this spiritual work in our lives is something that can be shared and expressed to others. That's witnessing, testimony. It's what happens with the evangelists, including the first one mentioned in John's Gospel, St. Photini. She's been enlightened by Christ, and shares that enlightenment with others. When you tell your story, you enter into labors that are not just your own, but everybody benefits. Everybody reaps a harvest. This is the food of Christ, the thing that truly feeds us. Our "supersubstantial" or daily bread is to do this work, to enter into this work, and to reap His joy. The Samaritans come to Christ and have that encounter experience for themselves. It's the shared encounter that creates the real harvest of joy.