The Gospel of John
John 4:27-45
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, part 2
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.
- Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
- The disciples are surprised to see Jesus speaking with a woman. This Samaritan then returns to her home and invites all to come with her and see a man who told her “all that she ever did.” She wonders if this could be the Christ.
- The disciples urge Jesus to eat only to hear Him say He has food to eat that they are not aware of.
- This “food,” they are told, is His doing the will of the one who sent Him, which is the “work” of bringing in a harvest.
- Indeed a harvest has begun among the Samaritans, starting with the woman and now more are on their way after they heard the woman’s testimony.
- There are sowers, and there are reapers. There had been sowers previously, apparently the words of the prophets as recorded in the Hebrew Bible. The sower and the reaper rejoice together.
- The reward of the “labor” of sower and reaper, their “wages,” is the actual gathering of the fruit—seeing people being drawn to the Messiah.
- John then reports that many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus, and not because of the woman’s testimony but by means of the words of Jesus Himself.
- These new believers suddenly recognize that Jesus is truly the Savior of the world, something that only the Holy Spirit can reveal.