Ripe for Harvest

February 23 Ripe for Harvest John 4:27-42

“It is the nature of faith that we want to bring others to share eternal life with us when we have become partakers of it… we should note the woman’s earnestness and eagerness all the more, in that it was only a small spark of faith that kindled them. She had scarcely tasted Christ when she broadcast His fame throughout the whole city.” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:104

Many people today are thirsty for the things of God. They may not recognize the nature of their need; they may spend a lifetime trying every other drink in the cooler, but if they never taste the Living Water which is God’s gift to us in Christ, they will go to their graves unsatisfied.

Excitedly, the woman turned on her heels and hurried off, back to Sychar, her village. In her haste she forgot the water jar that she had brought to the well. Everything was put in perspective when she met Jesus. Arriving in the village she went, as tradition dictated, to the elders and asked their advice. Her behavior was somewhat shocking; women would not normally have been so forthright, but the circumstances were not normal. She had met a man who seemed to know her inside out. She wondered, could He be the Messiah, the long-awaited One? Even the manner of her approach to the men was blessed by God – a simple assertion would probably have been rejected out of hand – but on her lips her experience became a question. Could it be true? Come and see!

The men of the village were startled into action. Perhaps fear motivated some of them. If we are interpreting the woman’s reputation correctly, the may have had something to hide from their wives. They hurried through the streets and set off through the fields. Their white, Samaritan robes moved through the grain towards the well. Jesus, seeing them, pointed out to His disciples that the fields were ripe for harvest.

Even at this stage the disciples failed to understand. They asked whether Jesus was hungry; then they, too, defied convention by finding a local merchant. They bought lunch. Wouldn’t Jesus like to try what they had brought? But Jesus was not interested in eating; He had found something far more satisfying. Living in the will of His Father meant more to Jesus than satisfying the demands of His body. He would go hungry, if He could use this opportunity to turn hearts and minds to God.

Jesus’ words are a lesson in priorities. Naturally, He knew that He had to eat; supernaturally, He realized that some things are more important than bread. His attention to the Samaritan paid rich dividends. They came, not in anger but in curiosity, anxious to find out about this man who had told the woman “everything she ever did.” In time, they swallowed their cultural pride (for they were as infected as the Jews) and invited Jesus to stay with them. He did so, and as He shared with them the Living Water and the Bread of Heaven, many came to believe.

All this, because a woman told her story. She did not come loaded down with propositional truth; she did not attempt to argue them into the Kingdom; she simply told her story, and that was enough.

For further reading: Psalm 41