Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there yet four months then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
– John 4:34–38
Oh, there’s so much in this passage. As Jesus looks at his disciples right after he has spent time with a Samaritan woman at a well telling her that he’s come to bring living water that will well up to eternal life, and she is amazed. She is going back to her town to tell everyone that she’s met the Messiah, and in the meantime, the disciples come out of that town and are like, “Have you eaten anything? Do you want some food?” And Jesus looks at them and says, “I have food. My food is doing the will of the Father who sent me. I’ve been feasting in this conversation with this woman telling her about the good news of my father’s love for her.” That was Jesus’s food.
John 4:34–38 calls us to delight in obedience.
And then so get the scene, then he’s talking to his disciples about how the harvest is white. It’s ready to be reaped, and in the background, you can picture this woman bringing out people from this town where she lives to see the Messiah, and Jesus is saying, “Guys, you were just in this town. It’s white for harvest. There’s so many people ready to hear the good news of the father’s love.”
And so I just want to encourage you with that today. You will likely eat a meal or two or three today, maybe a snack along the way. I don’t know what your routine is, but I want to encourage you to feast on different food today. Feast today on doing the will of the Father and specifically feast on sharing the good news of his love with somebody else realizing, so look around you today, look around you tomorrow.
John 4:34–38 calls us to labor for the spread of the gospel.
There are fields white for harvest around you. Jesus says this multiple times. It’s not that people aren’t ready to hear about God’s love for them, it’s that the laborers are few. The people who are willing to do the will of the Father are few, so let’s step into the harvest field today. Let’s share the love of the Father. Let’s feast on doing his will, and let’s reap with joy the fruit of his Word as we share it with others.
Oh God, we pray for this perspective in our lives. Help us to see your will as our food, more important than breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Your Word, your will, sharing your words specifically with other people, sharing the good news of your love with them. God, we know we will have opportunities today. We pray for those opportunities and for sensitivity to them. And God, we pray that you would give us boldness to share the good news of your love in Jesus with somebody else today. And to trust, oh God, that we may be sowing seed, and we might see the fruit of that today, see reaping that seed, or it might be another person who comes along and joins in the labor we’ve started.
Prayer for the Tajik People
Help us to share the gospel confidently knowing that there’s joy in sowing and reaping. And God, we pray this specifically over the Tajik people of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for 11 million Tajik men, women, and children in Islam who don’t know the truth about who Jesus is and how much he loves them, how he’s the Messiah, who alone can save them from their sins. God, we pray that you would raise up laborers for the harvest field in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan among Tajik people, and we pray that there would be joyful harvest reaping, Tajik men, women, and children coming to know your love just like this Samaritan woman did. Oh God, we pray all of this according to your Word in John 4:34–38. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
