John 4:31. Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Master, eat now!?’
While the large crowd was moving from the city toward the well, My disciples urged Me to eat first, for although they knew that I am Christ, they still regarded My body as weak and frail, and therefore urged Me to eat.
John 4:32. But He says to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you know nothing.’
But I look at them with loving seriousness and say, ‘My dear friends, I now have food to eat of which you know nothing.’
John 4:33. Then the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone already brought Him something to eat?’
The disciples looked at one another, questioning each other, and said, ‘Has someone already brought Him something to eat from somewhere? What food can He have, and has He already eaten it? There is nothing to be seen anywhere except the pitcher, still completely full of water. Perhaps He has turned the water into wine?’
John 4:34. Jesus says to them, ‘Oh, do not make such foolish guesses! My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to complete His work.’
I say to them, ‘Oh, do not make such foolish guesses about what I have or have not eaten! You have seen often enough that I have never had Myself served separately when alongside you! But I am not now speaking to you of bodily food; I am speaking of a much higher and worthier food of the spirit. It consists in My doing the will of Him who sent Me and completing His great work. He who sent Me is the Father, of whom you say that He is your God, although you have never known Him. But I know Him and therefore do His word, and that is My true food, which you do not know. I tell you: not only bread, but every good deed or work is also food—if not for the body, then all the more for the spirit.’
John 4:35. Do you not say yourselves, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? But look, I tell you: lift up your eyes and look into the field; it is already white for harvest.
‘Many of you have fields at home, and you yourselves say, “Four more months, and the time of the full harvest will be here, and we shall have to go home and harvest!” But I tell you: lift up your eyes more carefully! All the fields are already white for harvest. But I do not mean these natural fields; I mean the great field that is the whole world, where people stand as ripened wheat that is to be gathered into God’s barns.’
John 4:36. And whoever reaps receives the reward and gathers the fruit for eternal life, so that both the one who sows and the one who reaps may share in the joy.
‘And look, this harvest is true work, and this work is true food, of which I, as well as you, shall have plenty to eat. Whoever is a true reaper in this field gathers the true fruit for eternal life, so that in the end He who has sown and likewise the one who has reaped may share in the joy.’
John 4:37. For here the saying is true: this one sows, and another reaps.
‘For after the harvest the sower and the reaper will eat of one and the same fruit, and one and the same bread of life. And then the old saying will become fully true: one sows and another harvests, but both will live equally from their work and eat one and the same food!
‘Look at the great multitude of those who have come to us from the city to see in Me the Promised One, and, as you see, still more keep coming. Look, these are all fully ripe ears of wheat that should have been reaped long ago! I tell you with much joy: the harvest is great, but there are still too few reapers; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send more reapers into His harvest.’
John 4:38. I have sent you to reap what you have not sown; others have sown, and you have now entered into their work.
‘I have taken you in, and in taking you in I have already sent you out in spirit to reap what you have not sown. For others have sown, and you have now entered into their work, and for this you may well count yourselves happy beyond measure! For the one who sows is still far from the harvest, but the one who reaps harvests at the same time and already has the new bread of life before him. Therefore be diligent reapers now, for your toil is more blessed than that of the sower.’
Most of the disciples understood this teaching well and immediately began to proclaim to the Samaritans My word of love for God and love for one’s neighbor, and that I truly am Christ.
But a few who were still rather dull in the understanding of the heart came to Me and asked Me very secretly and in confidence, ‘Lord, where shall we get sickles? And besides, today is the Sabbath!?’
I replied to them, ‘Did I say that you should reap these natural barley fields lying before us? Oh, you dull ones, how long shall I have to put up with you like this? Do you still understand nothing? Then listen and grasp it!
‘My word of the kingdom of God—first in your own hearts, and from there passing over your tongues to the ears and into the hearts of your fellow human beings and brothers—is the spiritual reaper’s sickle that I give you, to gather people, your brothers, into the kingdom of God, into the kingdom of the true knowledge of God and of eternal life in God!
‘Today is indeed the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is as stupid and senseless as your heart, and you pay heed to the Sabbath because your hearts are still very much like the Sabbath within. But I tell you, since I am also a Lord over the Sabbath: banish the Sabbath from your hearts as soon as possible if you want to be and remain My true disciples!
‘We are here to work equally on every day. Where the Lord of the Sabbath works, His servants should not put their hands in their pockets! Must the sun not rise and set on the Sabbath just as on a working day? But if the Lord of the sun and of the Sabbath rested on the Sabbath, would you be content with a pitch-dark Sabbath? Look, look, how dull you still are!
‘Therefore open yourselves and do what I am now doing and what your brothers are doing, and you will keep a truly living Sabbath observance that is pleasing to Me.’
After these words, the weaker disciples also went to the Samaritans, who had now come to Me from the city in great numbers, and taught them what they knew of Me.