Session 19 | John 4:31-44

John 4:31-42 | Jesus in Samaria, Part 2: The Fields are White

• Verse 31 –
  • During the time in which the woman had gone to town and before the men came to Jesus at the well (v. 30), his disciples wanted him to eat something.
  • The Hebrew word for Master is ῥαββί [rabbi]. In John 1:38 the author used the Hebrew (as here) but gave the translation of Master. Here the translators have chosen to go with the translation.
• Verses 32-34 –
  • This is not to say (in my estimation) that Jesus had a “secret stash,” but rather a figure of speech to say, “I have been nourished without food.”
  • I do not see nor interpret anything supernatural here. Rather, the excitement of the moment causes the body to physically not feel the need to eat.
  • The disciples took the phrase literally, but Jesus immediately corrected them in verse 34.
  • Of interest, the meatof Jesus was not doing and finishing his work, but to do and to finish, that is, to bring to completion. It was the joy of the completed act that was, for Jesus, meat to eat that ye know not of.
• Verse 35 –
  • Concerning the four months till harvest, Jesus must have been speaking a figure of speech. Since the feast of first fruits comes soon after Passover, the harvest was then in effect. The only other option is to have a large gap of time with Jesus in Judea, and this doesn’t seem to fit the context. It is easy to see how this saying could be a common proverb to communicate “nowness.”
  • What fields were white already to harvest? We almost always take this as a commentary on our present world and its readiness. However, we must remember that Jesus was talking about the readiness of national Israel to repent and receive her Kingdom. Today’s present world is a roller-coaster of readiness and rejection. The usage of the verse to describe today’s world is a “name it and claim it” approach to Scripture.
• Verse 36 –
  • Jesus speaks of two groups of people, the one who reaps and the one who sows. They rejoice together, but both involve labor and wages that are incompatible with the age of grace but fit nicely into the age of the law.
  • Notice that the reaper gathereth fruit unto life eternal. This is clearly _not_a grace message but is consistent with what we would expect coming from Jesus as a minister of the circumcision (Rom. 15:8).
• Verses 37-38 –
  • The disciples of Jesus were not sowers but reapers in this context.
  • The sowers must have been men like the Prophets and John the Baptist, or simply John the Baptist and his disciples. 
• Verse 39 –
  • The amazement of the woman that Jesus told me all that ever I did matches that of Nathanael under the fig tree, and she (along with those who heard her testimony) believed on him.
  • The belief is that He is the Messiah, and that the Messiah would save the world (see v. 42).
  • The fact that the woman andmany of the Samaritans of that city believed is a display that indeed the fields were white unto harvest.
• Verses 40-41 –
  • Jesus (almost surprisingly) agrees to stay in Samaria another two days.
  • During this time many more believed that He was Messiah, because of his own word. This tells us that what we know about Jesus only skims the surface of His full life and ministry.
• Verse 42 –
  • There were many who believed because of the testimony of the woman (v. 39) and many more because we have heardhimourselves.
  • From the testimony of Jesus (with presumably no miracles displayed), they knew that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
    • From this we can tell that the Samaritans had an expectation of a Christ (Messiah) and that His role would be Saviour of the world.
    • Notice that the saving role is earthy, using the word κόσμος [kosmos], the word in reference to the created order. This is not in error, for that is exactly what Messiah will do.
  • Note that while Nathanael declared Jesus as the King of Israel (Jn. 1:49), the Samaritans (not being nationally of Israel) recognized Jesus as Saviour of the world.
  • One can only speculate what these believing Samaritans did after this point.
    • Did they continue to worship at Garazim, and its fake altar of worship?
    • Did they convert to Judaism?
    • Did they…join the local Baptist church by “promise of a letter?”

      John 4:43-54 | Jesus in Galilee: /the Second Sign/

• Verses 43-44 –
  • They had been in Judea, then in Samaria, and now are returning to Galilee.
  • Verse 44, however, can be perplexing. The normal reading is that they returned to Galilee because a prophet hath no honour in his own country. But this makes no logical sense because Galilee was his own country. Furthermore, the next verse (45) declares that the Galilaeans received him, and did throughout His ministry. Almost all attempts to connect his own country with Galilee fail.
  • However, the logic of the grammar says “He left Judea because a prophet hath no honour…” Indeed, prophetically, Judea was His own country, for in Jerusalem He will reign.