Going Deeper: Meeting the Messiah in John 1-4Sýnishorn

Day 8: The Heavenly Harvest (John 4:27-42)

Read John 4:27-42

Have you ever asked yourself what kind of response Jesus wants from us? The Samaritan woman has just heard an extraordinary declaration from Jesus: that He is the Messiah who can give the gift of living water. In these verses we see Jesus’ disciples and the response of the Samaritans side by side.

The Samaritan woman wastes no time – she goes back to her town and tells everyone she knows that they need to meet Jesus (4:29). Like the first disciples back in chapter 1, she invites people to come and see... to consider the possibility that this might be the Messiah Himself.

Meanwhile, the disciples are thinking about lunch. They’re surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman, and want Him to eat something. When Jesus declares that He has ‘food to eat’ that they don’t know about, they are confused; who could have got Him lunch?

But just as in the temple, with Nicodemus and with the Samaritan woman, Jesus is not talking literally. This is about something much more important. Jesus explains that His ‘food’ – the thing that satisfies Him – is to do what God has asked of Him, to finish the work (4:34). What is the work? He invites His disciples to look at the fields in front of them. The crops are still green, but the harvest of people coming into God’s kingdom – the Samaritans coming out of the town towards Jesus – is ripe and ready to reap. This is a harvest for eternal life, something that others, the prophets and preachers that came before Jesus, have sown. Now the disciples will reap and benefit as they see people come to know the Messiah.

And that is exactly what happens. Many of the Samaritans come to believe in Jesus. Their first step is because of the woman’s testimony – her evidence of what Jesus had known about her. But that isn’t everything. They stay and hear from Jesus, so they can say their faith is not secondhand. They have heard for themselves and know that Jesus really is the Saviour (4:42).

How amazing that this message of the Messiah, the eternal life He offers, really is for anyone who will hear and believe. And what an extraordinary promise that Jesus’ followers can play a part in bringing in the harvest. If we’re followers of Jesus, that now includes us; just like the Samaritan woman, we can invite people to come and see for themselves.