The Fields are Ripe Unto Harvest

The Fields are White: John 4

John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.[1]

When we think about a field being white, we often think about a cotton field.

When you see a cotton field white, the cotton is ready to pick

We have had such a dry fall that I suspect much of the cotton has been picked by now…at least the fields that I have seen

When Jesus was talking about fields being white for harvest, he was talking about another kind of harvest, one that is always ready

And the produce from the harvest he was talking about was not grain or cotton, he was talking about a harvest of souls

When Jesus made the statement we just read from John 4, he and his disciples had been traveling, they were tired and hungry and thirsty, so Jesus rested by a well just outside the town of Sychar while the disciples went into town to buy food (v8)

V6 tells us it was about the sixth hour which would be around noon there was a Samaritan woman that came to the well

2 things that are significant here about it being noon and this woman coming to the well by herself

First off women never left town to come out to the well by themselves, they usually traveled with others, and they usually came early in the day while it was still cool

But this woman came at noon by herself. She didn’t want to be around the others probably because of the lifestyle she had been living.

It is likely that she was shunned and rejected by the other women

We’ll understand more about that in a few minutes

So, when this woman came up to draw water, Jesus asks her for a drink which surprised her

She wasn’t expecting anyone to be there, much less a Jewish man asking her for a drink.

You see she was a Samaritan and historically Samaritans and Jews didn’t have much to do with each other as you may know Jews referred to them as half-breeds

Jews who had mixed with other peoples because of Assyrians who had invaded their territory and carried them away and settled them among people that weren’t like them

Besides that, not only did the Jews avoid contact with the Samaritans but Jewish men avoided speaking with women in public—even their own wives![2]

So, this woman was amazed that this Jewish man asked her for a drink of water…

She asked how is it that you, a Jew, would ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

but Jesus had a point

He was about to begin what we call today, a gospel conversation

He used her amazement that he would ask her for a drink as a segway or transition to talk to her about who he was

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.[3]

Jesus had a gift for her taking if she wanted it: living water

She didn’t understand what he was talking about: living water?

That sounded great! Water that I could drink and then never be thirsty again!

Then she asked Jesus how he was going to give her that water when he didn’t even have a bucket to draw the water

She was mixed up like Nicodemus who thought to be born again he would have to reenter his mother’s womb

But Jesus often used physical things to talk about spiritual things

People can usually get their arms around an idea if it is associated with something they have physically seen or touched

But Jesus used the physical to get them to think about the spiritual

They were at a well. The woman knew about the well and what was in the well…she had been there many times

So, he used the illustration of well water to draw her to think about spiritual things

The well water was temporary…just like this life is temporary

But what Jesus has to give is permanent, it is eternal

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”[4]

Again like Nicodemus, she misunderstood

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” [5]

So then Jesus the Master, gets her to start thinking about her current situation and how that ties with the fact that she needs this living water

Because until a person understands why they need Jesus, they’re not going to make the connection

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”[6]

17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”[7]

I don’t believe Jesus was trying to condemn her or be cruel, rather to get her to understand that she is a sinner

For a person to understand that they need Jesus, they must first understand that they are a sinner

I am sure that she knew she was a sinner, but it needed to be pointed out

In order to make it possible for the woman to receive the living water about which Jesus spoke, it would be necessary for her to deal with the tragic nature of her sinful life.[8]

Sin is the problem that separates us from God

Jesus is the answer

Water from the well is temporary…your life here is temporary

Jesus is the living water…eternal life

Jesus spelled out her problem. She had had 5 husbands and the one she lived with now was not her husband

As some would say, Jesus was all up in her business

Some people would say today that the church needs to stay out of their business, but unless you deal with the business in your life that has you lost, you’ll never understand that you need to be saved

At this point, the woman from Samaria knew that Jesus was no ordinary Jewish man…she said that she perceived him to be a prophet

And then she started talking about worship and where one should worship it seems to avoid talking about herself

That’s what happens often when you are speaking to someone about Jesus…they try to change the subject to something else

Maybe someone would ask me and you, what is the right church to worship at or what is the true church

But Jesus wasn’t talking about church, he was talking about this woman’s soul!

Jesus told her that true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth

One who truly worships God is one who truly knows God, otherwise you are just going through the motions

But if you know God through a personal relationship with Jesus, then you are going to be worshipping the God who sent his Son to die on the cross in your stead, and you worship him because he saved your life!

Perhaps she finally understood:

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” [9]

Then the disciples came back with their bologna and crackers and marveled that Jesus was talking to a woman…but they never said anything

The woman dropped her water jar and ran into town

29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him. [10]

At the end of the story, we see an example of what everyone of us should do that have been saved: go and tell

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. [11]

I want you to notice something that happened in the town because this woman shared her knew faith in Jesus

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” [12]

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:35. [2]Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, vol. 25A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 202. [3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:10. [4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:13–14. [5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:15. [6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:16. [7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:17–18. [8]Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, vol. 25A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 205. [9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:25–26. [10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:29–30. [11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 1:16. [12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 4:39–42.