Often I feel like I have become
negligent in diligently reading my Bible. This feeling occurs a lot when I read
through the Old Testament. What I mean by that is I get to a section of
Scripture and say in my head, “Oh, I know this story. I've heard it hundreds of
times.” I think of stories like Noah, Abraham, David and Goliath, and the list
goes on and on. The same is true when I read the New Testament and come across
stories of Jesus as he feeds the multitudes, the fruits of the Spirit, Paul’s
conversion, etc. It is not an ill intended or malicious thought, but I feel
like it is an approach most of us are scared to admit. As a part of a series on
the Gospel of John at church we covered the story in John 4 where Jesus
encounters the Samaritan woman at the well. Like most other popular Biblical
stories, this is one that I have long heard repeated in my years being active
in the church. My initial reaction was one I described above and I approached
the chapter with the thought that I will read this to refresh my memory, but I
already know this story. I could not have been more wrong. Upon reading I began
to see an application of this Scripture that I had not personally noted before
(and have not heard in the past). I felt it best to share my initial thoughts
before I forget them. I also hope to do more study on this story.
The most well-known part of this
story is Jesus encountering the Samaritan woman at the well. The section I want
to focus on is verses 1 through 38. One of the points of the story that began
to stand out to me is the disciples of Jesus and their actions throughout. In
verse 8 we read that His disciples had gone down into the city of Sychar to buy
food. Sychar was a city in Samaria that Jesus was passing through on His way to
Galilee from Judea. I am sure that most people are familiar with the
relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans as well as the cultural views
of women at this time so I won’t go into great detail on those areas. But we
find Jesus and his disciples here and in need of food. Verse 27 is where the
disciples reenter the story and they come upon Jesus and the woman. The NASB
uses the word amazed to describe their reaction to Jesus conversing with a
woman. The Greek work here (G2296) can also be translated as marvel which is how
the KJV puts it. Verse 30 we read that the people of the city were now coming
out of the city to be with Jesus. So what is there for us to discover here
about the disciples’ actions and the closing words of Jesus in verses 34 -38?
The first thing that is important
to notice is what the disciples were doing. They were going down into the town
to buy food. The main thing to notice here is that this is food for which they
did not labor, someone else did. Verse 27 confirms for us that they did succeed
in their task of acquiring physical sustenance which they were trying to give
to Jesus. Verse 34 begins the dialogue of Jesus which starts by answering the
question of the disciples in verse 33 about where Jesus acquired His food from.
The disciples were concerned about the physical, but Jesus was using this
opportunity to make a spiritual application. Jesus relates the Samaritans who
have come out of the city to a field white for harvest. What I find to be
interesting is that not that much before this statement the disciples were
themselves already in “the field white for harvest”. While they had gone down
to buy food they had unknowingly entered into this field and were in it, but
had no clue what they were experiencing. Since we have nothing from the Scripture
that indicates their motives entering Sychar were spiritually motivated, we
assume that their intentions were to simply buy food. How easily they could
have brought people from the town to Jesus so that they could believe. Instead
what we see is the woman is the one responsible for drawing the people out to
Jesus and it is by her testimony that many believed. In a sense Jesus got His
food as well from the city, just not in the same fashion that the disciples
were thinking. In verse 25 we confirm that this Samaritan woman was educated
about Jesus, the coming Messiah. Someone planted that “seed” of knowledge
within her. The Bible doesn't tell us specifically who does that, but we do
know that she knows a Savior is coming. In this way we see Jesus
“reaping”. Just as the disciples
acquired their physical food from the town of Sychar, so did Jesus also acquire
his spiritual food from Sychar as well.
The application for us today I
think is that we need to be aware that we live in fields that are white for
harvest. Often times it is easy for us to separate our responsibilities as
Christians from our physical responsibilities for survival. Many times we wait
for some sign or church sponsored event before we actively look for ways
to bring others to Christ. If we stopped and looked around we would see that we
are surrounded by people who are lost and often times we may appear to be right
there with them. We need to work to be more actively aware that everywhere we
go we are already surrounded by fields ready to be harvested.
We also can learn that often
times it may not always be us involved every step of the way in the process.
Christ died and was raised again and it is through this that we now have the
hope of eternal salvation if we repent of our sins and are baptized. But beyond
that we do not know the stories of everyone around us. Perhaps someone else has
already been discussing Christ with a person and planted the seed through that
discussion. It could be that the Holy Spirit is working on someone’s heart already.
Or it could even be that you planted a seed and didn't know it. The point is
that it is a team effort. Helping to bring others to Christ is not about who
does what. Some days you may be the sower, some days you may be the reaper, or
to paraphrase Jesus, entering into someone else’s labor. The end result is that
souls are won and in that we can rejoice together and one day rejoice in
heaven. I am sure the disciples rejoiced in some fashion when they bought the
physical food for which they did not labor. For them the food is not less
filing or less appetizing because they did not sow the seed, reap the crops,
make the food, and then eat it. But everyone in that process is happy as each
part of their step is completed and successfully gets passed off to the next
person. Once the food is sold everyone rejoices because everyone’s part was
successful and the end goal was achieved.
I also can’t help but picture
Jesus shaking His head and smiling when He sees the disciples coming back with
all of this food and then they turn around and see all of these people coming
out of Sychar. Not that He was upset or disappointed in them, but simply that
they forgot to bring back His food as well.
