Just then, Jesus’ disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with
a woman, though no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with
her?”
The woman left her water jar and went back to town to tell the people, “Come and
see a man who has told me everything I ever did. Could He be the Messiah?” The
people left the town and headed out to where Jesus was.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged Jesus, “Rabbi, eat!” But Jesus responded, “I have
food to eat about which you know nothing.” The disciples said to one another,
“Did someone bring Him food?” Jesus answered, “My food is to do the will and
accomplish the work of the One who sent Me. Don’t you say, ‘Four months till the
harvest?’ I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe
to be harvested. Those who reap receive their wages and harvest crops for
eternal life, so that both the sower and the reaper will be happy together.
Thus, the saying is true that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I send you to reap
what you have not worked on. Others have done the hard work, and you reap the
benefits of their labor.”
Many of the Samaritans in that town came to believe in Jesus because of the
woman’s testimony: “A man has told me everything I ever did.” So when the
Samaritans arrived, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed for two
days. And because of the things Jesus said, many more became believers.
They said to the woman, “We don’t just believe because of what you said. We have
heard for ourselves, now, and we know that this One is really the Savior of the
world.”
(John 4:27-42)
The disciples had left Jesus by the well. He had been hot and tired and had sat down to rest while the disciples went into town to buy lunch. They were rather shocked to return and find Him speaking with a woman, though no one wanted to question Him about it. Jewish men, especially rabbis, were never to speak to women in public, not even their own wives, much less Samaritan women. But Jesus’ ministry included righting the wrongs perpetrated on people.
With the arrival of the disciples, the woman took the opportunity to run back to town with an incredible tale. She didn’t even bother to pick up her water jug first, so excited was she to deliver her message. “Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did,” she cried to anyone who would listen. “Could He be the Messiah?”
“Come and see!” The words of an evangelist. In spite of the fact that she was an outcast in the village, her words were so convincing that John tells us that many in the town believed her testimony, and went back with her to see Jesus for themselves. What is it that she could have told them that would have given them the impetus to believe her?
Her very demeanor would have spoken volumes to them. Outcasts generally act like outcasts, and are expected to do so. If the villagers ignored her presence and avoided her, she would have done her best to ignore theirs and avoid them, too. The very fact that she had shown up at the well in the middle of the day gives evidence to the fact that she avoided being around the other women of the village. To minimize her shame and embarrassment, she would have kept to herself as much as possible. Now, here she was in the middle of the day, acting like the town crier, grabbing everyone she could find to share the news. She was just so excited, that her exuberance spilled over onto her listeners. She said that Jesus had told to her everything she had ever done in her life. She had said, in effect, that Jesus had seen into her soul. Jesus not only knew what everyone else knew, Jesus knew her secrets, too. Even so, even though she was an outcast in her own village, even though He knew every sin she had ever committed, yet Jesus deigned to carry on a conversation with her, a mere woman, and a sinful one at that. If Jesus was the Messiah, and if Jesus so treated a sinful, unworthy, woman, how much better would the Messiah treat the righteous people of the village? They had to see for themselves.
Meanwhile, back at the well, the disciples were attempting to get Jesus to eat. But Jesus wasn’t about food at the moment. Jesus was in a teaching mode, again using a riddle to catch their attention. To their words encouraging Him to eat, Jesus replied that He had food that they had no inkling about. But Jesus was speaking on a spiritual level, while they were thinking on a physical level. “Did someone bring Him food?” they wondered. Perhaps the woman He was speaking to had brought food along and shared it with Him. Jesus knew what they were thinking, so He explained. What feeds me, said Jesus, is obeying the will and doing the work of the One who sent Me. What nourishes Me is spiritual fulfillment, Jesus said. In John 4:4 we read that Jesus had to go to Samaria. Jesus had a hunger to go to the Samaritans, to reach out to them and let them know that they, too, were part of God’s family. Jesus had to give them the good news, too.
Jesus looked up and could see the Samaritans approaching, so He drew an agricultural analogy for the disciples. When people plant their fields, it can take perhaps four months for the crops to become ready to harvest, Jesus tells them. Then, seeing the approaching Samaritans, Jesus points to them and says to the disciples, “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe to be harvested.” The Samaritan woman had “sown the seeds.” She had gone to her village and shared her experience of Jesus with the other villagers. She had gotten their attention and convinced them that an extraordinary Someone was at the well. She had done her job so well that the villagers believed her and were drawn to the well.
Jesus was telling the disciples that the seeds had been sown, but the time would come for the disciples to do the harvesting. Jesus was laying down for the disciples what their ministry would be. People would come to be taught by Jesus, but it would be up to the disciples to bring them and keep them in the fold. Spiritual revelation isn’t enough. Spiritual growth is necessarily a life-long process. The hard part, Jesus says, is to get a convincing word out to the people. However difficult the rest may seem, the minister (harvester) will be the one who benefits from the work of the (sower).
Then Jesus makes an interesting observation. Ordinarily, when a farmer sows seed, it is a difficult task, rather unrewarding. It is really an act of faith, that in the natural course of things the seeds being planted will grow and become a bountiful crop. The one who sows the seed has to wait and hope and pray that things will go well. On the other hand, the one who does the harvesting is full of joy because he or she can see the product of what the sower did previously. But Jesus tells the disciples that: some of you will be sowing seeds of faith while others of you will be harvesting what was sown. But both the “sower” and the “harvester” can share in the joy of knowing that you are preparing “crops” for eternal life, and God will reward each accordingly.
It may very well be that when Jesus said, “I send you to reap what you have not worked on. Others have done the hard work, and you reap the benefits of their labor,” He might have been referring specifically to the work that John the Baptist had done. But, if Jesus was telling this to the disciples, in the future the opposite would also become true. There would be times when the disciples would do the sowing, without ever knowing if their labor would come to fruition. Jesus reminds them of this by quoting a local proverb: “Thus the saying is true that ‘One sows and another reaps.’” This is a constant challenge of ministry, that one shares what God has called and given them to share, often without ever knowing if what they have shared has been received. It is difficult to continue to share under those terms, but, says Jesus, God provides the reward, so nothing done for God is ever wasted.
Jesus’ treatment of the Samaritan woman was nothing short of phenomenal! Woman though she was, outcast though she was, sinner though she was, Jesus revealed Himself to her and made her the first evangelist of the Christian era. Samaritans in Sychar came to believe in Jesus because of what the woman told them, and her words brought them to Jesus. The villagers were so taken with Jesus that they pleaded with Him to stay with them, so He stayed with them for two days, and because of this visit even more became believers. God used the woman the villagers rejected to be a blessing to them. This story not only shows us how Jesus felt and responded to the marginalized of a society, to the outcast, to “sinners,” but this story clearly demonstrates, as Peter said (Acts 10:34) that “…God does not show favoritism but accepts people from everywhere who respect God and do what is right.” She may have been what people called a sinner, but when Jesus revealed Himself to her, she couldn’t keep it to herself. She had to share it, and she wasn’t concerned about what others thought of her. There was no bitterness in her. She did the right thing!
This ends our study for today.
Points to Ponder