The Harvest

In the previous post, we talked about the first half of John and the woman at the well. This week, I want to talk about the second half of John 4. I feel like we can equate the entirety of the story of John 4 to a restaurant experience. I know it sounds crazy, but bear with me. As we talked about previously, Jesus met the woman at the well and taught her about the living water and eternal life. It doesn’t end there, though. His disciples come back with food from the town and our lady friend runs off to share the gospel.

Now, here is where my analogy comes in. Think of Jesus as the waiter. He comes up to her and tells her about the water and eternal life. When in a restaurant, the waiter takes your drink order first. You receive the water first just as in salvation. We must accept Jesus as our Lord and savior first before we can receive the Holy Spirit and go out to gather the harvest. Second, we order and receive our food. Think of the food as the Holy Spirit entering our body and nourishing us in our faith. This is the best meal you have ever eaten in your life, and you want to tell everyone about this place! This is where the real work begins. We have drunk the water and ate the bread; we have had the ultimate experience. Now we must go out and spread the good news of our experience. We are to “reap the harvest.” This is what I want to talk about today and we will build on this in our next post as well.

We are called as followers of Christ to go out and share the gospel. I want to encourage you in this great commission. We live in a scary world today where no one wants to hear THE TRUTH. They want to hear THEIR TRUTH. They want to hear what makes them feel good not what IS good. Society has become more about tip toeing around people’s feelings and not about speaking to them in love and truth. Truth has been morphed into a false sense of hatred. If you speak life and truth, the world tries to twist it into something it is not or completely rejects it. How do we move forward? How do we reap the harvest if no one wants to hear the Truth? The short answer: we show them. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action. If I only married my husband on a feeling of love, I can promise you our marriage would not be a very good one because there are days I don’t “feel the love.” Instead, love is in our actions. I show my husband I love him even when I don’t feel it in different ways. This is the same for how we deal with a society who has a victim mentality and a “self” servitude. We show the world the truth through love in actions. Every day you encounter people who are lost or struggling in their faith. How are you ministering to them? When the person cuts you off in traffic? When the waiter gets your order wrong? When the clerk has an attitude with you? Are you showing them love through patience and kind words? Sometimes I find myself so caught up in the day-to-day that I forget other people are struggling too and maybe I can be a light for them. Maybe what I am struggling with is what the person I encounter that day is struggling with as well. If I would just get out of my head and show that person love and kindness maybe it is exactly what they need to give them that little push.

Sometimes the truth is hard to hear. I have been in plenty situations where it is not what I wanted to hear. Society has taught us to just tune out or ignore whatever doesn’t make us feel good. This is wrong. If there is no accountability or “hard feelings,” there is no growth. Sometimes, we must speak out in love knowing it will cause hurt feelings. Other times, we must show love through our actions and even our reactions with others. You never know when God is placing someone in your path for His purpose. At the end of John 4, you see where Jesus went through. The towns spreading the gospel and performing miracles. He not only shared the gospel through his words but through his actions. He reached people in any and every way possible. This is what we are called to do. We each have a testimony that will reach someone that others can’t. You are so valuable to God and worthy to share the gospel.

You can’t have a harvest without planting seeds. Have you planted any seeds today? Sometimes we are only meant to plant that seed so someone can come behind us to water, grow, nourish, and harvest the crop. You could be the seed Sower, or you could be the one who comes behind and waters. What if you are so caught up in “self,” miss that opportunity, and the crop withers? We are called to great things and the greatest is love. As we go further in our posts, we will discuss loving other people and especially those who are hard to love. I pray you come across someone this week who needs a touch from Jesus and you answer the call to reap the harvest.

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John 4:27-54

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life,so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” 43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. 46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. 48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,”Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” 49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. 54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.