How can I make a difference for eternity?

“Harvest”

(John 4:31-42, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 8, 2009)

John 4:31-42 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."

My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. (31-34)

There is an expression that the health insurance industry has come to use in order to speak about the limit that they are willing to pay a doctor or hospital for any given procedure. The phrase is “reasonable and customary charges.” We hardly ever think about the individual meaning of the words in this phrase. We know that the companies are trying to say that some people charge too much in their opinion, and that they will not pay these charges. These two words mean different things. At root, the word “reasonable” has something to do with what is right according to sound reasoning. “Customary” is what people tend to think of as normal in a given place and time, according to custom, even if it is not actually reasonable. It is possible that within the Lord’s church we could all get used to lives that are certainly customary, but are not at all reasonable ways of responding to the love of a great and holy God. In this passage we see Jesus doing just the opposite. He lives His life in way that is in accord with the highest standards of reason and truth, but the life that He lives is extremely unusual, different than what His disciples expect of Him, and not at all customary for the society in which He lives.

It is a very normal thing for people to order their lives around their need for food. The disciples are urging Jesus to eat, because they are on a journey. They know that he needs the nourishment that comes from partaking in daily bread. Jesus knows how to enjoy a good meal, but He is preoccupied with other matters, and these matters are more important to Him right now. “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” They can only think about what is customary. “Has anyone brought Him something to eat?” He speaks to them concerning the only reasonable way that a perfect Son could respond to a perfect Father. He says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

Jesus Christ has come to do the will of the Father in accord with the plan of the Father and the Son to bring about the fulfillment of our redemption. He is moving toward the accomplishment of the Father’s work, a work given to the Son, a work where Jesus will be the Lamb of God who dies for us. His cross is part of a larger plan of something the Bible calls “salvation.” This is a very big concept that involves the complete repair of the massive breach between heaven and earth caused by sin, a breach that cannot be repaired without the death of Jesus. The pathway to the cross has taken Him on this day through Samaria and has led Him to have a remarkable conversation with a woman of Samaria. Nothing about all of this is customary, but it is all perfectly reasonable.

It is not customary for a Jewish man to have a spiritual conversation with a Samaritan woman. It is not customary for Him to identify Himself so clearly as the expected Messiah. Especially, it is not customary for any father to send his son on a mission that means certain death. Yet this last point is very reasonable. The facts are plain for your consideration. Our salvation could only be accomplished by satisfying the just demands of a holy God. Only a perfect sacrifice would do. Only the Son of God could accomplish this mission. While all of this is completely unusual, it is not built on any system of lies, nor does it violate the dictates of reason, but upholds them. The cross is not unreasonable, but it is astoundingly generous. Jesus will accomplish His work for the Father and His service for you. This is His food, and He insists on talking about it to His disciples.

The fields are white for harvest. (35-38)

Jesus has some other things that He decides to tell His disciples, things about what He is doing and about what they will be doing very soon. He changes the subject to the idea of a harvest in order to teach one or two further lessons as a crowd of Samaritans walks toward Him. He is preparing His disciples to be engaged in a harvest of people, people who are to be a part of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is doing something of this harvesting of people as a sneak preview during this trip through Samaria, and He wants to make a point about timing. Those who grow crops know that it is a very ignorant farmer who has no concern about the timing of the harvest. To harvest the crops too early or too late is to seek financial ruin. It is a tremendous investment for someone to buy some land, till the soil, plant the seed, water the plants, and then finally harvest the crops. God has made an enormous investment in this plan of salvation. Everything since the fall of Adam is a step toward our full salvation. Jesus is saying to His disciples that the reason why He has been conversing with the Samaritan woman is because the harvest is now.

The final harvest is completed in the resurrection of the dead at the return of Christ, but the resurrection age is breaking in already in the New Testament era of the gospel. The time of preparation for resurrection life in the Law is coming to a speedy conclusion. Jesus will be sending His disciples out into the world with the message of resurrection life now. You and I are in the resurrected Jesus now. We have experienced the soul life of the resurrection now. We live by faith in the Son of God now. The facts of the system of salvation through the provision of the Son of God are opened up to us now.

Nonetheless, we are not living lives that are consistently reasonable concerning these matters. We imagine that it is possible to live customary lives. The customary life of the world is to live in denial of the fact of God. That kind of life is completely unreasonable. The customary life of a complacent church living in such a world is to care much more about our jobs than we care about our salvation. The customary life for almost everyone everywhere in our day is to live as if there is no harvest happening right now. The customary way for people to live is to imagine that death will never come, until it has caught them, sometimes very much by surprise. But this is not in line with the truth, and it is a completely unreasonable way to live. The harvest is now, and the church is a team of those sowing seed and reaping fruit, a team that is to be engaged in the harvest. Some will be sowing gospel seeds, and others will be gathering fruit for eternal life. No one should ignore the fact of the harvest.

This is indeed the Savior of the world. (39-42)

As if to prove the point that the harvest is now, a portion of that harvest is coming down the road to Jesus. This harvest started earlier when Jesus planted a seed in His conversation with a Samaritan woman. He had revealed Himself as the Messiah. Now the woman who had left her water jar at the well is returning with a crowd of her fellow-Samaritans. What follows is two days of ministry, where Jesus is able to present Himself to these outcasts as their Messiah. They have more than the testimony of the woman, although she certainly did her part. Now they have heard at length from Him. He has sown the seed of the Word among them, and many have believed.

They come to a very important conclusion stated in the final words of our passage. “This is indeed the Savior of the world.” There is much in this statement. It insists that the world is in great trouble, so much so that it needs a Savior. God has not simply provided a Savior, but He has come as the Savior in the person of Jesus Christ. Finally this Savior who has come from the Jews has come for more than the Jews, since He is given as the Savior of the world. This is nothing less than the coming of our complete salvation in Jesus Christ alone.

That is a massive truth for you and I to hold on to in the depths of our beings. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Do you believe this? If you are not sure whether or not you believe this, I wonder whether your confusion concerning Jesus is reasonable. Have you considered the fact that this world could not have sprung out of nothingness? Do you have some explanation for the many revelations of Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection that are contained in the Old Testament? If these passages are not about Jesus Christ, what is their possible meaning? Have you considered the consistent message of the Bible in the sovereign plan of God for the salvation of the world through His only-begotten Son? Have you adequately considered all the mercies of God that have caused you to hear the word of the Lord this day? Is there some other plan that you have for eternal life that is better than the one that God so clearly has presented in the Scriptures, a plan that cost Jesus His life? Are you really ready to reject the wonderful love of God for you, just to do what seems customary in the world around you? Is your confusion about Jesus reasonable? Take another look at Jesus. Read the Scriptures with me and I will pastor you back to health by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, for you who firmly hold to the truth of a complete salvation in Jesus Christ alone, I offer this modest question for your own consideration. Is your life a reasonable reflection of this overwhelming truth that you profess? Would it be fair to say that your life is very customary, but not reasonable enough? One way to think about the salvation that we call “heaven” is to remember that it is a place where we will finally live in complete conformity with the truth that we profess. Not only that, but all the residents will live in that kind of way. It will be a place where it will be completely customary to live your life in a way that is a perfectly reasonable reflection of the wonder of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let us live that life now. May our eyes be opened to the beauty of the cross, the power of the resurrection, and the opportunity of the harvest all around us, as followers of the One who said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. In what ways are Jesus’ words and actions in John 4 not customary?

2. Why is the cross reasonable?

3. What are the reasonable implications of the gospel for our life as a church?

4. How can a person make a difference for eternity?