Can You See the Ripe Fields?

Judi Barrett

Beginning in the fourth chapter of the gospel of John we read how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was gaining more baptized disciples than John the Baptist had and so Jesus left Judea for Galilee.

Now in verse 4, it says that He had to go through Samaria. I don’t believe that Jesus had to do anything due to the physical requirements of this earth. He chose to live within the limits of other people during that time, methods of travel, etc. but I really believe the only thing that He had to do was his obligation to do the will of the Father. So in my mind, when it says that he had to go through Samaria, it must have been the will of the Father that He go through Samaria. The shortest route between Jerusalem and Galilee was the high road straight through Samaritan territory. Many Jews did not take that route between Judea and Galilee. They chose instead to cross the Jordan River and travel on a road that was there to get to Galilee. They chose to avoid going through Samaria due to the rift between the Jews and the Samaritans.

The Samaritans were considered by the Jews to be unclean. Any contact with them would defiling. The Assyrians had removed the Israelites from their land at the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. and had resettled it with people taken captive from other countries. These deposited peoples had brought the worship of their gods. Their worship and gotten mixed with the worship of Jehovah and of Baal in Samaria. When the Judean captives returned from Babylon in 539 B.C., they discovered that there were major differences between their worship of Jehovah and the religion of the inhabitants of Samaria. There were also political differences; the Samaritans had opposed rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls (see the fourth chapter of Nehemiah). The Samaritans had even dedicated their temple on Mount Gerizim to Zeus Xenios.

The high road between Judea and Galilee that passed through Samaria was more convenient than crossing the Jordan, but I don’t believe that convenience was a motivating factor in Jesus’ ministry. I believe that He chose that route for a particular reason.

Verses 5 -6 tell us that He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. This is where Jacob's well was. Jesus was tired from the journey and sat down by the well while His disciples went into town to get food.

Now it’s interesting that He sent them into town without Him and that He stayed at the well alone. Why not send one or two into town to buy food and let the rest of them rest? So the disciples walked a little further, about a half mile into Sychar, a town of “unclean” people to buy food. It’s noon time.

When Jesus asked a Samaritan woman, who had come to the well, for a drink of water, she was surprised because no Jew would drink from a Samaritan’s cup. Jesus’s remark, “If you knew” sparked her desire to know. Living water…. to her probably a fresh water spring that would keep supplying cool fresh water is shown in her response, “"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

But then Jesus says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Now the woman is still in the physical for she says, “Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

Instead of Jesus explaining that the water He was speaking of had nothing to do coming back to the well to draw drinking water, He spoke of the thing in her life that had been a problem, it kept her from being well thought of by society. It was the black mark on her life. “Bring your husband to the well.” When her reply was that she had no husband, Jesus went on to tell her that He knew all about that. BINGO! Her response was positive. She did not get angry that He made the remark about her having had five husbands and now living with a man that she was not married to. She didn’t ask Him how He knew these things. NO, she remarked that He must be a prophet…but she didn’t want to talk anymore about her sins. She did not turn away though. She moves the discussion into the difference in the ways that the Samaritans and the Jews worship.

When Jesus said that the Father was seeking worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth, that must have been an open door. GOD the Father was not just the GOD of the Jews but GOD the Father was seeking worshippers and worshippers that were more concerned with the spirit and truth in worship than exactly where they were going to worship Him. The woman then responded that she knew that messiah was coming and he would explain things to them (truth). What a mind blower for Jesus to say, “I who speak to you am he.”

Talk about excitement, she left her water jar at the well and ran back into town telling everyone about this man at the well. At about the same time that she left, the disciples returned. The Bible says that they were surprised to see Him to talking to the woman but they did not question Him on it. While His disciples are urging Him to eat some of the food that they brought to Him from the “unclean” Samaritans, there is a crowd making their way to the well from the town. They are hurrying to the well to see the man that told the woman “everything she ever did”! They want to know if He is the long awaited for Christ. The woman had said to them, “Could this be the Christ?” If it’s Him, they must hurry!

Jesus’ answer to their urging for Him to eat, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Doesn’t that strike joy and excitement down in your soul?? It does mine! Immediately they are trying to figure out if someone gave Him food to eat. They are in the “physical” and He is in the “spiritual”. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” Doesn’t that remind you of “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of GOD.”

I love this next part! Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. There are folks hurrying out to the them from the Samaritan town. These unclean folks are hungry and thirsty for GOD. Jesus says, “Open your eyes” “Look at the fields” “They are ripe for harvest.”

You cannot harvest until the crop is ready!! You cannot harvest green or unripe crops. When someone does not want to hear what you have to say about the LORD, they are not ready for harvest. You do not have to beat on people with Jesus, chase them down, force it on them. Jesus never chased people down and try to force them to accept Him as the Son of GOD. The harvest is not always where we think it will be. Sometimes it is a less than desirable person. Maybe they are a little “unclean”?? BUT are they hungry for GOD? Do they listen when you talk about Him?

The Samaritans left town and hurried to the well. John writes that many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. Enough that they urged Him to stay with them. They weren’t seeking a sign, or some great miracle. They heard the testimony, believed and wanted the Christ to stay with them. How exciting! He stayed with those unclean Samaritans for 2 days and because of His words, many more believed. Peter had said that Jesus had the words of eternal life. The Samaritans agreed with Peter.

Do we need to open our spiritual eyes and look at the fields? Are we missing the obvious? Is there someone that lives down the block that has the junkiest yard on the block and will always speak to you, even rather loudly when you come across them. Maybe they would always be at your house but you have discouraged them. Are they “unclean”? Maybe we just really do not want to be associated with them in other people’s minds. Maybe it’s the woman that has 5 husbands and now lives with a man that she is not married to? If you talk to them about Jesus, you’ll be able to tell from the reaction if the field is ripe.

The woman at the well became an evangelist. She spread the word. Many believed because of what she said, others believed Jesus after hearing for themselves but they were first introduced to Him by that scornful woman. A woman that was probably scorned by some people in town became one to help bring in the harvest because she met Jesus. This section of scripture ends with: “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."

Father GOD, I pray that my food would be do your will, that my spiritual eyes would fully open and that you would allow me to see the fields all around me. Please show me which ones are ripe that you want me to harvest and which ones I am to plant the seeds for someone else to reap later. I pray that I would not neglect to see opportunities for Your Kingdom just because the ones that I am looking at are not up to the world’s standards. Help me to not be judgmental and love with Your love, sharing the good news that Jesus paid the sacrifice for all of us to enter into your kingdom and be your children. I thank you for Jesus, for your plan or us, for his great sacrifice. I thank You for each and every day that we are given to live knowing You.

Amen