John 4:28-42

John 4:28-30 On the Way to Faith

²⁸ And so the woman left her water jar and went into the town,

and said to the people,

²⁹ "Come and see someone who told me all I have done.

Could this be the Christ?"

Jesus had taken the woman seriously; he had listened to her; he had not passed judgment. His attitude had allowed her to look at and accept herself as the person she was. For her, the experience was electric. She had the feeling that Jesus had seen her, the real her; and it seemed as though, in the process, his touching her as the person she was had, effectively, revealed to her all she had ever done.

Peacefully in touch with his truest self, totally confident in his sense of who he was, Jesus was able to relate to the woman without agendas of any kind. His freedom, integrity and utter simplicity released her freedom. She began to see herself, to know and to own herself and to come to peace with herself – free, at last, to recognise and to accept her true self, along with everything she had ever done.

As Andrew had done with Simon Peter at the Jordan, and Philip with Nathanael, the woman invited the townspeople to encounter Jesus. The woman joined the others in the narrative who had borne witness to Jesus. Her invitation Come and see echoed the call that Jesus himself had made to Andrew and his companion. Jesus had told her about herself, as the Samaritan Messiah was expected to do; yet, the woman was reluctant to commit herself definitely to the view that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah they awaited. Her previous certitudes had been undermined, and she was open to truth, whatever it might be. Together, she and the townspeople could continue their exploration of Jesus’ identity.

³⁰ They came out of the town and went towards him.

The awkward translation, went towards him, accurately picked up the fact that, though their leaving the city was “once off”, their movement towards Jesus was a continuing journey (as is that of every disciple).

John 4:31-42 Mission – Completing God’s Work

³¹ In the meantime, the disciples said to him, "Rabbi, have something to eat."

³² He replied, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."

³³ So the disciples said to each other, "Has someone brought him food?"

The Gospel once more reverted to the literary technique of misunderstanding to set up the opportunity for a theological comment by Jesus.

³⁴ Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of the Spirit,

and that I complete his work.

What nourished, stimulated and energised Jesus’ ministry was his sharing the same priorities as those of his Father. He had a deep sense of his God-given mission, not as something imposed from without, but as a desire planted in his heart by the God who created that heart.

As, through the Word, God had created the world [1:3-4], so, too, through the Word, God would re-create the world and complete his work by raising Jesus, and, following on that, by giving believers a share in Jesus’ resurrected life.

The theological reflection continued. From Jesus’ sense of his own being sent by God, the narrative moved to the disciples’ being sent by Jesus:

³⁵ Do you not say, 'Four months and harvest comes?'

Jesus may have been quoting a common saying; or the comment may have originally served to situate the actual time of year. Four months before the harvest would indicate a time in early spring, possibly around the Passover. Jesus had been in Jerusalem at the Passover, when he had spectacularly interrupted activity in the Temple. His journey back to Galilee through Samaria would have fitted with this timing.

Look, I tell you, open your eyes and look at the paddocks.

They are white and ready for harvest.

The openness, firstly, of the Samaritan woman, then, of the Samaritan townsfolk, to the person and message of Jesus prompted Jesus’ observation about the readiness of the spiritual harvest. The time of fulfilment had obviously arrived.

³⁶ The reaper is getting his pay, and is gathering fruit for eternal life,

so that both sower and reaper rejoice together.

³⁷ The saying that one sows and another reaps is true in this sense,

³⁸ I sent you out to harvest what you did not work for.

Others did the work, and you walked into their hard work."

Though the comment had in mind concrete applications for the different roles of sower and reaper, it reinforced the message conveyed when water became wine in Cana: this would be the era of fruitfulness and of joy in which all are called to share: eternity had broken into time.

At this stage of the story, as story, the disciples had not been sent anywhere. The time-line had turned to the time of the Christian community, and the speaker was even more obviously the risen Christ, present to the community through his Spirit.

The Christian mission to the world was to be seen as the continuation of a mission entrusted centuries before to Israel: to show to the world the true face of God, revealed now through the person of Jesus.

³⁹ A lot of the Samaritans from that town came to believe in him

because of the woman's testimony,

"He told me everything I did."

⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him,

they asked him to stay with them.

He stayed there two days.

⁴¹ Many more came to believe because of what he said.

⁴² They said to the woman, "We have come to believe

not because of what you had to say.

We have heard him ourselves,

and we know that he is truly the Saviour of the world."

The woman’s witness had been vital for the townspeople to begin their journey to Jesus, to put them on their way towards him [verse 30], just as John’s witness had led Andrew and his companion to Jesus [1:36-37]. But, as with the first disciples, so, too, with the townspeople, their journey to Jesus needed to continue so that their faith could deepen. They asked Jesus to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days – again, like those first disciples [1:39]. Only by staying with Jesus does faith move to relationship: from knowledge about him to personal trust in him.

They recognised him as the Saviour of the world. The salvation that comes from the Jews [verse 31] had reached them through Jesus. Salvation, which came from the Jews, was not reserved for the Jews. Jesus was the world’s Saviour: to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God [1:12].

The experience of the Samaritans had been the experience, also, of the community of disciples. It is the experience of every disciple. God is not a “God-on-our-side” and “against-them”. God is equally the God of all.

Ripe for Harvest

Surprising. Jesus invited the disciples to share the joy and fruitfulness he would bring to the world. Yet he did so in a Samaritan/Jewish context that was highly confrontational. The first group in the Gospel who had responded in faith to Jesus were Samaritans. The witness who had first aroused their interest was a woman – a woman to whom Jesus had related as an intelligent and dignified human being.

To Jesus’ contemporaries, the story would have been disturbing, radically so – as the Beloved Disciple intended it to be. To the Jewish mind, these were people beyond the margins. Mere contact with them rendered Jews “unclean”.

Universal. Jesus’ openness to Samaritans clearly conveyed the message that Jews were not particularly special. God’s interests were universal. Jesus believed that all people could respond to “grace and truth” (or, more clearly translated, to “merciful love and faithfulness”). The Samaritans did not become Jews. They remained as they were, Samaritans, but they recognised Jesus as their Saviour. Within the community of believers, through Jesus, former enemies and outsiders learned to embrace each other in mutual love and respect.

In today’s world, it is important to remember that God does not have favourites. Christians are not particularly special. They have a responsible role to the world, to which, like Jesus, they have been sent. They are loved passionately by God, the God who loves all people. But God’s love reaches out indiscriminately to all.

Discerning. There are people who open to “merciful love and faithfulness”, but who never become Christians; others, whose expectations of Christian living do not tally with those of the mainstream. There are people not welcomed to Churches because of judgments passed on them, despite the fact that no one can see into their hearts.

There is sin abroad in the world, just as there is goodness; there is darkness as well as light. Not everyone can distinguish the difference – only those who have experienced the gracious love and mercy of God.

The fields are ripe for harvesting, and it is time to rejoice. But to see that the fields are ripe calls for discernment that can see the world through the eyes of Christ, unclouded by conventional views.

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