John 4:27-42

It is at this point that the Disciples, Jesus’ not-too-bright Greek Chorus, make their appearance. It may or may not be a coincidence that the woman’s departure coincides with the arrival of a gang of uncouth blue-collar Galileans, some smelling like fish and all of them most likely ill-disposed towards Samaritans on general principle.

27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Having encountered Christ, the woman’s first instinct is to go and tell. Later on, this instinct will be adapted by Jesus into His final instructions. Having realized that she was thirsty, and having found the Water of Life, this woman wants to tell people about it. She’s excited. She is also, O my brothers, not being a jerk about it. Having met Him, she doesn’t go print up some tracts explaining why her neighbors are about to go to Hell. She does not pass out said tracts on the street corner in her Sunday best while giving the unwashed heathens passing by severe looks. This is more like a starving street dog, having found a dumpster full of steaks, letting up a howl so the rest of the starving pack can share the wealth. It’s the difference between “you look like you ought to be hungry. I run a soup kitchen,” and “I was starving! If you’re starving too, come see where I found food!”

Meanwhile, the Chorus are being their usual thick selves.

31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."

32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

33Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"

You’d think, after the fourth or fifth time, they’d start to figure out when Jesus was making one of His oblique shifts into metaphor. But then, if they got smart, they’d no longer serve their vital literary function of emphasizing Jesus’ metaphors. And this metaphor is a particularly good one.

34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

The harvest. Souls stand like wheat, ready to be gathered in. It’s a figure of speech that’s solidly taken hold, all the more so in times and places where talk of sowing and reaping isn’t just a figure of speech. Flip through a hymn book sometime, especially an older one, and you’ll most likely see the proof of it.

One sows and another reaps. And the reaping time is here. Now. And what happens to the grain that isn’t harvested?

39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

The visit to Samaria was a successful one. And it serves to illustrate the rather vital point that Jesus is interested in more than just Israel. And, who feels it knows it, He is the Savior.