John 4:31-38 - Homiletics

Jesus and his disciples.

The surprise of the disciples at our Lord's talking with the woman at the well did not break forth into question; they rather resolved to bide their time for an explanation.

I. THE SPIRITUAL MEAT OF THE SON OF GOD . "My meat is to do the will of my Father, and to finish his work."

1 . The disciples were naturally anxious to supply his bodily wants ; for they knew that he was both hungry and thirsty.

2 . The interview with the woman had for the time put his physical wants in abeyance ; for he was filled with an extraordinary elation of spiritual joy.

3 . The delight of success had brought a new strength to his spirit. "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." The disciples did not then understand the true virtue or efficacy of this meat.

4 . As meat is pleasant to the appetite and refreshing to the body of man, so was it to Jesus to do the will of his Father. The deeply suggestive phrase marks how natural and how easy was the obedience that Jesus rendered to the Divine will.

(a) exactly, with all faithfulness;

(b) with supreme wisdom and prudence;

(c) with constancy.

(a) in preaching the gospel;

(b) in working miracles of healing;

(c) in giving his life at last for his sheep.

II. THE RAPID RIPENING OF THE SPIRITUAL HARVEST . "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white to harvest."

1 . These words fix the time of this conversation. As harvest occurred in the end of April, it must then have been about the middle of December. Jesus must, therefore, have remained eight months in Judaea.

2 . The spiritual harvest, which was in our Lord ' s mind, was obvious in the large body of Samaritans, who were at that moment crossing the fields from Sychar to profess their faith in him. The thought of Jesus was the ripeness of the people to be gathered into the kingdom.

3 . This harvest is very rapid ; and the seed germinates and matures in an instant.

III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE SOWER AND THE REWARD OF THE REAPER . "And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

1 . The sowers are in this case John the Baptist and our Lord himself ; the reapers are the apostles, who are to receive these Samaritan disciples into the kingdom of God.

2 . The worker in this field has the prospect of reward ; for, besides being "a labourer worthy of his hire," he

3 . The sower does not always live to see the fruit of his labour. "And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth."