27. The Samaritan Revival
27Just then his apostles came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”28So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Messiah?” 30They went out of the city and came unto him.
31Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32But he said unto them, “I have meat to eat that you know not of.”
33So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him food?”
34Jesus said to them: “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.a 35Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? I tell you, lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for the harvest. 36He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life; so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true: 'One sows and another reaps.' 38I send you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”b
39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
(Jn. 4:27–42)
a “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”—Here is revealed Jesus' one great purpose in life and the core of his personal religion, the doing of the Father's will. The center of the one prayer he taught his apostles (The Lord's Prayer) was, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” And he faced a cruel and unjust death with the triumphant prayer that had guided his life, “Not my will, but yours, be done.”
The work Jesus sought to accomplish in his earth life was the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth—the rule of God in the heart of every individual. To this end he preached the gospel of the kingdom, the good news that we are all the children of a loving heavenly Father, the sons and daughters of God. When we believe this “good news” and accept our sonship with God, his will becomes our will, and the kingdom of heaven is born in our hearts.
b “others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”—Here Jesus is referring to the work of John the Baptist.
Jn. 4:27 his apostles came. (Ch. 22, fn. a) / his disciples came. (RSV)
Jn. 4:29 the Messiah?” (Ch. 13, fn. c) / the Christ?” (RSV)
Jn. 4:30 (KJV)
Jn. 4:32 (KJV) • that you know / that ye know (KJV)
Jn. 4:34 My meat is (KJV) / My food is (RSV)
Jn. 4:35 months, and then / months, then (RSV) (143:5–6/1614–5)
