John 4:27-42,

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 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.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 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. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

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.”

I want you to imagine yourself walking down a hard-packed, weather-worn trail. An arid wilderness of dry, cracked earth all round you, the heat of the midday sun upon your skin. And a group of twelve Jewish men walking alongside you whose faces seem to all-too-closely match that of their surroundings — they too appear worn, vacant, and tired.

You ask this group of 12 men where they’ve been traveling. They say they’ve been on a journey — one that had begun with a wedding up in Cana of Galilee — a most festive occasion, they say. From there, they’d traveled south to Jerusalem in Judea. After spending some time there, they’d begun their travel back up to Galilee, cutting through Samaria on their way.

Earlier that day they’d left their Rabbi back at Jacob’s well to rest while they headed into town to buy bread — much needed sustenance for the remaining miles in front of them. And now, with Jacob’s well just a few hundred yards out in front of them, and their master’s form seated beside that well now visible just off in the distance, they were growing more and more eager to, at last, sit down, eat their bread, and rest.

And then, they fall quiet. You assume it’s because they’re so sapped of strength. But a few minutes later, you look up, and discover their silence is owing to another reason. Before them stands their Rabbi, and he is no longer alone. A woman from Samaria is there as well. 

In this morning’s text, we’re going to cover the second half of this unexpected scene involving Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Last week, Pastor Marshall preached through part one involving the private conversation between Jesus and this woman. Today, we’re going to walk through part two, which will have us looking on at this scene mainly through the eyes of the disciples. Along the way, we’re going to see two ways Jesus uses this moment to invite his disciples — they and us included — to become even more like him. Let’s pray and ask the Lord for his help.

So, part two of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And we’re looking for two ways Jesus uses this moment to invite us to become even more like him. Let’s begin with the first one — Jesus invites us to see as he sees.

So, verse 27, the 12 disciples return to the well to find not Jesus alone, but Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And we shouldn’t think it incredible that they find the Samaritan woman there. They are, after all, in Samaria. And while its true, most of the townspeople would’ve gone earlier that morning to draw water from the well, it’s not unthinkable that at least one woman, especially one so socially despised and rejected as her, should’ve chosen to come to the well midday. 

However, what is unthinkable, is the fact that Jesus had not immediately turned his back to this woman upon her arrival. Jesus had not sneered at her, jumped to his feet, and stomped off in disgust. Instead, Jesus began conversing with her. He, a Jewish man, had turned his gaze upon her — a sin-stained, Samaritan woman.

And when his disciples see that, they’re stunned. Verse 27:

“Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman.”

They marveled. They wondered. They began thinking to themselves, “This is not a part of the plan. This is not the point of our travels. We are in Samaria, not because we’re wanting to linger here, much less engage the Samaritan people in conversation. We’re here to get in, get rest, and get out. Samaria is just a sidewalk to us — an unfortunate sidewalk, an unseemly sidewalk — but a sidewalk, nonetheless. And we mean to step over it as quickly as possible.” 

Well, you could imagine the awkward tension of that moment. I mean, the disciples are just standing there. Jesus and the Samaritan woman have wrapped up their conversation, and the disciples enter in, and just stand there. Silent. Stunned. Looking on in dislike and disbelief.

And the Samaritan woman notices. In fact, my guess is that she took one look at the twelve tense, standoffish disciples and thought, “My, how astonishingly different they are from their master.” She sets down her water jar, turns around, and hurries back into town.

Pause for a moment… How do we account for the disparity of that one moment? How do we explain the stark difference between Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman which had been so full of love and consideration and the disciples’ interaction with her which had been so cold and disinterested?

I mean, think about it, their entrance made the woman want to leave. Made her want to turn away. She took their arrival as her signal to exit the scene.

And for all they know, she’s headed right back to a life of shame, isolation, and unrelenting soul-level thirst. And the disciples don’t run after her. They don’t say, “Wait, come back, stay here with Jesus. You don’t need to leave. We want you to stay. We want you to linger before the one who can help you, save you, satisfy you. You’ve found Jesus, don’t walk away from him.” 

No, they don’t say any of that to this woman, because they don’t care two cents about this woman. “She’s gone,” they think, “and so are our troubles. Now, Jesus, its time to eat.”

How do you explain the incredible gap between Jesus’ love for the Samaritan woman, and his disciples complete and total lack thereof? Well, I believe Jesus explains it for us in verse 35. We’re skipping over a few lines that we’ll get back to in a moment, but for now, take a look at verse 35. It is here, I believe, that Jesus exposes the problem:

“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.”

Notice all the sight-related language in that sentence…

• “Look”

• “Lift up your eyes”

• “See.”

Think about it… What is Jesus trying to teach here? What is Jesus trying to show? It’s this: the disciples have a problem with their vision. A problem with their sight. Though they have begun to follow him, it appears they have not yet begun to see like him. 

For them, all they saw in the Samaritan woman was a nobody. A nuisance. A being not worth their time, or effort, or attention. They failed to see her as Jesus saw her.

And so, now with the entire town of Samaria approaching — note how verse 30 says, they (the people of Samaria) went out of town and were coming to him. So we’ve got the entire town of Samaria approaching. And Jesus takes that as an opportunity to correct his disciples’ vision. Verse 35,

“Look, lift up your eyes, see that the fields are white for harvest.”

“I want you to see,” Jesus is saying, “These Samaritans are not nobodies. They’re not unimportant to me, or unimportant to my father. They’re not people I want you to dismiss, or ignore, or avoid. They’re the harvest. They’re the prize. They’re the yield we’re here to receive. The exact harvest I’ve led us here to find. The exact harvest I’ve led us here to reap. Samaria is not our sidewalk, it’s our mission field. Do you see? Look, lift up your eyes, can you see them, can you see them, how I see them?”

Cities Church, when we look out at the world, out at the multitude of non-Christians all around us, do we see what Jesus sees?

When we see our neighbors hanging out in the backyard together, or our co-workers typing on their laptops in the office, or our classmates walking by us in the hallway, or our family members seated next to us at the dinner table — do we see them, do we see those people, the way Jesus sees them?

What if Jesus we’re to say of us, friends — you’re missing the harvest. You’re ignoring the harvest. It’s ready, it’s ripe, I’ve prepared it, I’ve brought you here to find it and reap it — do you see it? Do you see it? 

Or, do you see a wasteland? An empty field? A sidewalk? A bunch of people who are quite simply not worth your time? 

If so, then we need to repent, and pray and commit to daily praying, “Jesus, make us to see the way you see. Help us to recognize the harvest field that is the world all around us. Help us to envision, if he were standing right beside us at work, or in the neighborhood, or at the dinner table, how you would care for, and speak to, and invite to drink and be satisfied. Help us to see as you see.” 

The first way Jesus invites us through this text to become even more like him — He invites us to begin seeing as he sees. See with eyes focused upon the harvest. Now, the second way Jesus invites us to become more like him. For this, we’ll back up in the story to verse 31.

These are the first words the disciples speak upon their return to the well, just as soon as the Samaritan woman has left them. Verse 31:

“Rabbi, eat.”

We’ve brought back the bread — let’s eat.

And Jesus’ response to them takes them a bit off guard. Verse 32:

“But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’”

You know, I said that to Amelia once. I had packed a lunch for work but then left it in the fridge — you guys ever do that? Well, my wife felt terrible about that because she assumed it meant me taking on a full days’ work on an empty stomach. I got home later that day and she said, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to run your lunch up to you.” And I said, “it’s okay, I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And it was true, I did. I had like half a dozen frozen burritos in the staff fridge at my disposal. I was good to go.

It’s a bit of a funny story, but I share it with you because when Jesus says this to his disciples, “I have food to eat that you do not know about,” his disciples assume something along the lines of burritos in the fridge. Like, perhaps he had an extra loaf of bread he’d been carrying around. Perhaps a passerby gave him some food while we were away. Or maybe one of the other disciples had given him something to eat prior to heading out into town. 

That’s why in verse 33 they begin asking one another: “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” I mean, if Jesus says he has food, then he must’ve gotten it from somewhere.

But the truth is, Jesus had not gotten his fill of bread. In fact, he had not taken in any physical food whatsoever. His stomach was just as empty in that moment as those of his disciples. But his soul was full!

See, he had found sustenance at that well. He had found heart-enlivening provision while conversing with the Samaritan woman. He had enjoyed a feast — one that had satisfied his soul far more than any four-course dinner ever could. But what was that feast if not food?

Verse 34,

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

My food is the joy-giving recognition of God’s smile upon me as I carry out his will in the world. My food is to receive real, necessary sustenance through obedience to him.

For no, just as Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness after being tempted to turn a stone into a meal, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” He’s not trying to be cute in that moment. Not trying to be clever. In fact, he’s quoting there from Deuteronomy 8:3, not because he’s trying to be cute, or clever, but because he believes it! God designed us, you see, to crave a certain satisfaction that comes only from him and living for him, and crave it far more than we crave our bread and water. And security and rest.

Obedience to God, living for God, going out to gather the harvest for God is literally God-given food for the soul. Jesus had come upon one of his Father’s beloved — a woman dying of soul-level thirst. A woman who’d been drinking her entire life from wells that held no water. And he showed her where true life is found. He showed her where her thirst could be quenched. He made her alive! He made her to see! He saved her! He changed her life’s trajectory for eternity. And in that moment, it did not matter that his stomach was still empty. His heart was full. His soul was full. He was full and well-satisfied.

Do you believe that if you were to engage in the good work of the harvest — the good work of going out into the world to win people to Christ — that tiring as it may be, challenging as it could be, it would actually produce in you a sort of joy and fullness no amount of feasting and rest and relaxation ever could? Do you believe that?

If you don’t believe me, then take a stroll up and down Grand Avenue this afternoon, and meet the hundreds of people who walk these streets as men and woman living entirely for themselves and entirely for their comfort. They’re in the prime of life, and in the greatest of health, and have the fullest of wallets and the most comfortable lifestyles — and they’re empty, bored, and lifeless.

Afterwards, get on a plane, travel to the most poverty-stricken, war-torn most hellish places on earth and find Christian missionaries there who could’ve lived on Grand Avenue, and could’ve chosen a life of comfort, and who gave up all the money they had in order to become poor, and hungry, and friends to all the needy souls around them, and find them to be tired, a bit worn down, and yet radiating with joy!

Friends, have you been starving your souls of the much-needed sustenance found by those who seek after God’s harvest? Have you — in your hurry, in your self-focus — been skipping meal after meal of hearty, filling, joy-giving ministry to others? Have you been fasting from the experience of God’s smile upon those who do the work he prepared for you to do?

The disciples had bread in that moment, I doubt they felt full. 

The woman had left her water jar, I doubt she felt thirsty. 

Jesus says, I believe in reference to the Samaritan woman, verse 36:

“Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

Jesus saw those Samaritans, those fields ready for harvest, and, O, it made his heart to swell. The Samaritan woman led all her townspeople toward Jesus, and O, how it made her soul glad. 

See, joy is being had, my brothers and sisters, by those who have entered into the good work of the harvest. 

By those who are bringing others to Jesus to drink their fill of living water. 

Joy — soul-sustaining, heart-filling, spirit-enlivening joy is being had by those who are doing the will of him who sent us, which Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:

“Go and make disciples.”

Verse 36 states,

“Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.” 

Will you, today, get in on that joy as well? Will you, today, begin tasting the spiritual food of carrying out the Father’s will?

First way Jesus invites us through this text to become even more like him — He invites us to begin seeing as he sees. Second way, he invites us to be satisfied as he is satisfied.

Now, a word of application. Because many of you may be thinking: “I’m seeing it, I’m seeing my neighbors afresh, I’m seeing them with eyes of love and care rather than dismay and disinterest. And I’m wanting to be filled, I’m wanting to be satisfied by the kind of joy that comes from sowing and reaping of the harvest. But how do I do it? Where do I begin? What do I say?”

And really, there is no one way to answer that question. In fact, I encourage you, following the commission, to ask a few people around you how they’ve sought to answer that question. But for now, there is at least one way we can answer it, from this text. Look with me back up at verse 28: The woman goes back into town and says to the people, verse 29,

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

She gave them her personal testimony. She says, “Come, let me tell you what Jesus has done for me.” She didn’t offer an intellectual defense for Christianity — though it wouldn’t have been wrong for her to do so. Instead, she told her people what she knew. And that is that no one had ever treated her so kindly as this man. No one had ever spoken so directly to her as this man. No one had ever so known her faults, and yet loved her all the same, as this man. “Would you like to come with me to meet him for yourself? Would you like to come see for yourself if this be the Christ?”

Brothers and sisters, in a world of fake-news, and phony salesmen, and people who are more concerned about what’s on their phone than what’s on the heart of the person in front of them, there is incredible power in the genuine, humble, love-driven sharing of personal testimonies.

• Did Jesus rescue you out of a pit of depression? 

• Did Jesus cover the shame you felt was visible all over you? 

• Did Jesus guide you by a wisdom far greater than your own? 

• Did Jesus calm the mountains of anxiety that you’d been suffocating under? 

• Did Jesus save you from a life dedicated to the hollow approval of man? 

• Did Jesus heal the pain you experienced from growing up in a broken home?

• Did Jesus love you when you felt unlovable?

• Did Jesus care for you when you felt uncared for? 

• Did Jesus protect you when you felt fearful? 

• Did Jesus draw near to you when you felt all alone? 

• Did Jesus free you from judgment, assure you of his love, lead you to the Father, provide for you an inheritance, build a room for you in heaven, promise you what no human being (no mom, no dad, no husband, no wife, no friend, no confidant) could ever promise you — that “He would never leave you nor forsake you?”

Did Jesus save your life? Did Jesus satisfy your thirsty soul?

If so, you should tell someone. If so, you should share that story with another. 

No, our testimonies don’t always lead to others immediate salvation. That was the case for some upon first hearing of the Samaritan woman’s testimony. Verse 39 says,

“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”

Not all of them did though. Some remained skeptical. Some were not yet sold. But they were intrigued enough to travel to the well. Intrigued enough to go and check out Jesus for themselves. Intrigued enough to ask Jesus, verse 40, to stay in their town just a bit longer. And Jesus did. He, a Jewish man, expected to despise these Samaritans, gladly stayed two days later in their town, with the result that, verse 41:

“And many more believed because of his word.”

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.”

And just as John the Baptist, I trust the woman was all-too-glad for her and her testimony to fade into the background as her townspeople met Christ firsthand.

Picture it brothers and sisters: Your non-Christian neighbor, your non-Christian co-worker, your non-Christian family member coming to you, maybe months after you shared your testimony with them, saying, “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.” What joy would erupt within you? What soul-satisfying sustenance would you take in at such a moment. 

Cities Church, see as Jesus sees. Be satisfied as Jesus is satisfied. And go out into the harvest, with testimony ready upon your lips, and take joy in the work alongside the other sowers and reapers you meet there.

Well, what brings us to the table this morning is Jesus’ sacrifice of his body in death upon a cross for our sins. Without this ransom which he paid there so that we who trust in him might be forgiven of our sin, we’d have no good news to share. No harvest to reap. No joy to take in. No future feast in heaven at Jesus’ table to look forward to. 

Because that is what this table represents, it is for those who are presently trusting in Jesus. If this is you, please eat and drink with us. If this is not you, whether you have yet to receive Jesus and his life, death, and resurrection for you, or believe that you are presently living in disobedience and are in need of repentance, please allow the bread and the cup to pass by. The pastors will come, let us serve you.