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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Prevrious Section - chapter 4:1 - 26 Next Section - chapter 4:39 - 42 The
Disciples Rejoin Jesus (ch. 4:27-38) In
verse 27, during this conversation with this woman the disciples
returned with food.
They saw Jesus talking to this woman and wondered why He would be
doing such a thing.
As we have already noted, talking with a Samaritan as well as a
Samaritan woman was not a normal thing for a male Jew to do.
Jewish men did not talk to women in public.
Jews never talked with Samaritans.
Jews literally hated Samaritans. In
verses 28 the woman was clearly excited about her talk with Jesus.
She was so excited that she left her water jar at the well and
went back to her town and told everyone that she had met a man who told
her everything she ever did.
She asked her friends if Jesus could indeed be the Messiah as He
claimed to be. It
seems to me that she thought that Jesus was the Messiah but she wondered
just how that could be true.
So, in verse 30 the towns people responded by coming out to the
well to meet Jesus. In
verse 31 the disciples encouraged Jesus to eat some of the food they had
brought from town, but He did not appear to be hungry any longer.
In verse 32 He told them that He had food that they didn’t know
of.
In
verse 33 the disciples thought that someone had given Jesus food while
they were in town and that is why He was no longer hungry, but that
wasn’t the case.
In verse 34 Jesus told them the food He was talking about was
doing the will of Him who sent Him and finishing His work. The
pronoun "Him" clearly refers to God the Father.
Jesus'
talk to this Samaritan woman must have been exhilarating enough that He
no longer felt hungry.
He was doing God's will by talking to this Samaritan woman.
This compensated for any hunger that Jesus once had.
I said earlier that some Bible teachers suggest that the reason
why Jesus didn't cross the Jordan River and go on its east side to Jesus
says an interesting thing in the sense that He needed to finish His
Father’s work. This means that His Father began this work and He would
finish it.
How did God the Father start the work?
I think God began the work at the fall of man. Pronouncing the
curse on man, giving them the sacrificial system to find temporary
forgiveness; choosing Abraham to be a father of a nation; giving the Law
of Moses; sending the prophets; all were the work of God.
Now Jesus would finish this work through His death, resurrection,
and ascension.
Not
feeling real hungry was not the only reason for Jesus’ response to His
disciples.
He uses an analogy to tell the disciples what He meant.
In verse 35 Jesus said that one would normally wait four months
after planting seed to harvest their crop.
He then said, but look, the harvest is now.
Then He goes on to say in verse 36 that both the sower and reaper
will be glad together.
Jesus is giving us a spiritual education here.
I believe He is saying that the time has now come the both the
sower and the reaper will work together.
One sows while the other reaps.
Both sowing and reaping people for Jesus go hand in hand.
They are both done together.
In
another sense Jesus might be saying that the seed of the gospel has
already been planted, maybe by John the Baptist and the Old Testament
prophets and is now ready to harvest.
Of course, the harvest refers to people finding salvation in
Jesus. People
may be thinking of Jesus as their Messiah who would free them from Roman
domination but by saying these things Jesus is saying the ministry of
Him and His disciples is to free individuals from sin, not Roman
domination.
Whatever
you may think of this, the work of sowing and reaping is considered to
be food for Jesus.
Yes, I’m sure Jesus ate well. He
didn’t starve, but doing the work of His Father was just as important,
if not more important, than eating.
In
verse 37 Jesus quotes an old saying. "One
sows and another reaps."
He says that is true saying.
In verse 38 He goes on to say that His disciples would soon reap
a harvest that they themselves did not work hard at sowing.
Once again, John the Baptist and the Prophets of old worked hard
in sowing the seed of the Word of God, and now the disciples would
simply pick the fruit.
And so they did after Pentecost.
It seemed that the pickings were great in those days.
Prevrious Section - ch. 4:1 - 26
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