Homily 34 — John 4, verses 28 to 39

“The woman then left her water jar, and went away into the city, and says to the men, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Is this not the Christ?’” [a]

We need great fervor and a zeal that is fully roused, because without these it is impossible to obtain the blessings promised to us. To show this, Christ says at one time, “Unless a man takes up his cross and follows me, he is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10, verse 38); and at another, “I have come to send fire on the earth, and what do I want, if it is already kindled?” (Luke 12, verse 49). By both sayings he wants to picture for us a disciple full of heat and fire, and ready for every danger. This woman was such a disciple. She was so set on fire by his words that she left her water jar and the errand she had come for, ran into the city, and drew all the people to Jesus.

“Come,” she says, “see a man who told me everything I ever did.” Look at her zeal and her wisdom. She came to draw water, and once she had come upon the true Well, from then on she thought nothing of the material one. Even by this small detail she teaches us that when we are listening to spiritual things, we should overlook the things of this life and count them as nothing. What the apostles did, this woman also did, as far as she was able. When they were called, they left their nets; she, of her own accord, with no one commanding her, leaves her water jar and, given wings by joy, does the work of the evangelists. And she does not call one or two, as Andrew and Philip did. She rouses a whole city and its people, and so brings them to him.

Notice too how prudently she speaks. She did not say, “Come and see the Christ.” With the same stooping down to meet her hearers by which Christ had caught her in his net, she draws the men to him. “Come,” she says, “see a man who told me everything I ever did.” She was not ashamed to say that he “told me everything I ever did.” Yet she might have put it another way: “Come, see someone who prophesies.” But when the soul is on fire with holy fire, it no longer looks to anything earthly, neither to glory nor to shame. It belongs to one thing alone: the flame that fills it.

“Is this not the Christ?” Notice again here the woman’s great wisdom. She neither declared the fact outright nor kept silent. She did not want to bring them in on her own assertion, but to have them come to share this opinion by hearing him for themselves, and this made her words easier for them to accept. And yet he had not told her whole life to her; from what had been said, she was persuaded that he knew the rest as well. Nor did she say, “Come, believe,” but, “Come, see” — a gentler expression than the other, and one that drew them more. Do you see the woman’s wisdom? She knew, she knew for certain, that once they had only tasted that Well, they would feel just as she did. Anyone of a coarser sort would have hidden the reproof Jesus had given her. But she puts her own life on display and brings it out before everyone, so as to draw and capture them all.

Verse 31: “Meanwhile his disciples asked him, saying, ‘Teacher, eat.’” “Asked” here means “begged,” in their own way of speaking. They saw him worn out by the journey and the oppressive heat, and so they pleaded with him; for their request about food did not spring from rashness but from loving affection for their Teacher. What, then, does Christ say?

Verses 32 and 33: “I have food to eat that you do not know about. So” (says the evangelist) “the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought him anything to eat?’”

Why, then, are you surprised that the woman, when she heard of “water,” still imagined that plain water was meant, when even the disciples are in the same position? As yet they suppose nothing spiritual, and they are at a loss. Yet they still show their usual modesty and reverence toward their Teacher: they talk it over among themselves, but they do not dare to put any question to him. They do this in other places too, wanting to ask him and not asking. What, then, does Christ say?

Verse 34: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.”

Here he calls the salvation of human beings “food,” to show how eagerly he desires to provide for us. As we long for food, so he longs for us to be saved. And notice how everywhere he does not reveal everything straight off. He first throws the hearer into perplexity, so that the hearer begins to search for the meaning of what was said; then, being at a loss and in difficulty, he receives it more readily when what he was looking for comes to light, and he becomes more attentive in listening. Why did he not say at once, “My food is to do the will of my Father”? Even this would not have been clear, but it would have been clearer than the other. But what does he say? “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” For, as I said, he wants first to make them more attentive through their uncertainty, and by dark sayings like these to train them to listen to his words. But what is “the will of the Father”? He speaks of this next and explains it.

Verse 35: “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.”

See how once again he leads them up, by familiar words, to consider greater things. When he spoke of “food,” he meant nothing else than the salvation of the people who were about to come to him. And again, the “field” and the “harvest” mean the very same thing: the multitude of souls prepared to receive the preaching. The “eyes” he speaks of are both those of the mind and those of the body, for they could now see the crowd of Samaritans coming toward them. And the readiness of their will he calls “fields already white.” For just like ears of grain that have turned white and are ready for reaping, so these, he says, are prepared and fit for salvation. [f]

Why, instead of speaking of “fields” and “harvest,” did he not say plainly that they were coming to believe and were ready to receive the word, having been instructed by the prophets, and were now bearing fruit? What is the point of these figures of speech he uses? He does this not only here but all through the Gospel, and the prophets also use the same method, saying many things in metaphors. What, then, is the reason? The grace of the Spirit did not arrange it this way without a reason. Why, then, and for what purpose?

For two reasons. The first is so that the speech may be more vivid and bring what is said more clearly before our eyes. When the mind has taken hold of a familiar image of the things under discussion, it is more roused; seeing them as if in a picture, it is taken up with them all the more. That is one reason. The other is that the statement may be sweetened, and the memory of what is said may last longer. For a bare assertion does not win over and bring in an ordinary hearer so much as a story told through objects and a picture drawn from experience. And you can see this done most wisely here, in the parable.

Verse 36: “And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life.”

The fruit of an earthly harvest does no good toward eternal life, only toward this life, which lasts for a time; but the spiritual fruit leads to the life that knows neither old age nor death. Do you see that the expressions are drawn from the senses while the thoughts are spiritual, and that by the very words themselves he divides earthly things from heavenly ones? When he was speaking of water, he made it the special mark of the heavenly Water that “whoever drinks it will never thirst.” He does the same here, when he says that this fruit is gathered “for eternal life.”

“So that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.” Who is “the sower”? Who is “the reaper”? The prophets are the ones who sowed. They did not reap; the apostles did. “Yet they are not deprived, for that reason, of the pleasure and the reward of their labors. They rejoice and are glad with us, even though they do not reap with us. For harvesting is not the same kind of work as sowing. So I have kept you for the work in which the toil is less and the pleasure greater, and not for the sowing, because that involves much hardship and toil. In the harvest the return is large and the labor not so great; in fact, it comes very easily.” By these arguments he wants to prove here that “the wish of the prophets is that all people should come to me.” The Law too was busy bringing this about, and this is why the prophets sowed: to produce this fruit. He shows, moreover, that he had sent them too, and that there was a very close connection between the New Covenant and the Old. And he accomplishes all of this at once by this parable. He also mentions a proverbial saying that was going around everywhere.

Verse 37: “In this,” he says, “the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’”

Most people used these words whenever one party had supplied the toil and another had reaped the fruits. And he says: “The proverb is especially true in this case, for the prophets labored, and you reap the fruits of their labors.” He did not say “the rewards” (for their great labor did not go unrewarded either), but “the fruits.” Daniel did this too, for he also mentions a proverb: “Wickedness comes from the wicked.” And David, in his lament, mentions a similar proverb.

That is why he said beforehand, “so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.” He was about to declare that “one has sown and another reaps,” and so, that no one should think the prophets had been deprived of their reward, he states something strange and contrary to expectation — something that never happens in the things of the senses, but belongs to spiritual things alone. In the things of the senses, if it happens that one sows and another reaps, they do not “rejoice together.” Those who sowed are sad, since they labored for others, and only those who reap rejoice. But here it is not so. Those who do not reap what they sowed rejoice just as much as those who reap; and from this it is clear that they too share in the reward.

Verse 38: “I sent you to reap that on which you spent no labor. Others labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

By this he encourages them all the more. Going through the whole world and preaching the good news seemed a very hard task, so he shows them that it is actually very easy. The truly difficult work was the other kind, which required great labor: putting in the seed, and bringing a soul not yet initiated to the knowledge of God. But why does he say these things? So that when he sends them out to preach, they may not be thrown into confusion, as though they were being sent on a difficult task. He says: “The prophets’ work was the more difficult, and the facts bear witness to my word that you have come to what is easy. At harvest time the fruits are gathered with ease, and in a single moment the threshing floor is filled with sheaves, which do not wait for the turning of the seasons, for winter and spring and rain. So it is now. The facts proclaim it aloud.” While he was in the very middle of saying these things, the Samaritans came out, and the fruit was gathered in all at once. That is why he said, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white.” So he spoke, and the fact was plain, and the event proved the words true. For John says:

Verse 39: “Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’” They realized that the woman would not have admired, out of mere favor, one who had rebuked her sins, nor would she have put her own way of life on display to please someone else.

Let us, then, imitate this woman too. When it comes to our own sins, let us not be ashamed before people, but fear God, as is right. He sees what is done now, and hereafter he punishes those who do not repent now. At present we do the opposite. We do not fear him who will judge us, but we shudder before those who do not hurt us in anything, and tremble at the shame that comes from them. And so in the very thing we fear, in that we are punished. For the one who now regards only the reproach of people, but is not ashamed to do anything shameful while God sees, and who will not repent and turn back, will on that day be made an example — not before one or two, but in the sight of the whole world. [h]

That a vast assembly is seated there to watch righteous deeds as well as those that are not, let the parable of the sheep and the goats teach you, and the blessed Paul too, when he says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (Second Corinthians 5, verse 10); and again, “who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness” (First Corinthians 4, verse 5).

Have you done or imagined something evil, and do you hide it from people? You do not hide it from God. But you care nothing for that; the eyes of people are what you fear. Think, then, that on that day you will not be able to escape even the sight of people. Everything will then be set before our very eyes, as in a picture, so that each will stand condemned by himself. This is clear even from the example of the rich man. The poor man he had neglected — Lazarus, I mean — he saw standing before his eyes, and the finger he had often found disgusting, he then begs may become a comfort to him.

So I urge you: even though no one sees what we do, let each of us enter into his own conscience, set up reason as his judge, and bring his offenses before it. And if he does not want them exposed to public view on that fearful day, let him heal his wounds now; let him apply the medicines of repentance to them. For it is possible — yes, it is possible — for one who is full of ten thousand wounds to go away from here whole. For “if you forgive,” he says, “your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 6, verse 14). Just as sins buried in baptism appear no more, so these too will disappear, if we are willing to repent.

And repentance is not doing the same things again. The one who sets his hand to the same things again is like the dog that returns to its own vomit, and like the man in the proverb who cards wool into the fire and draws water into a cask full of holes. So we must leave behind, both in deed and in thought, what we dared to do; and having left it, we must apply to the wounds the remedies that are the opposites of our sins. For example: have you been grasping and greedy? Stop robbing, and apply almsgiving to the wound. Have you been sexually immoral? Keep away from sexual immorality, and apply chastity to the wound. Have you spoken ill of your brother and injured him? Stop finding fault, and apply kindness. Let us act this way in every point in which we have offended, and let us not carelessly pass over our sins. For there awaits us hereafter — there awaits us — a time of reckoning.

That is why Paul said, “The Lord is near; do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4, verses 5 and 6). But perhaps we must add the opposite of this: “The Lord is near; be anxious.” They could rightly hear “Do not be anxious about anything,” living as they did amid affliction and labors and trials. But those who live by robbery or in luxury, and who will have a heavy account to give, should in all reason hear not this but the other: “The Lord is near; be anxious.”

For no long time now remains until the end of all things; the world is hurrying to its close. The wars declare it, the afflictions declare it, the earthquakes declare it, the love that has grown cold declares it. As the body, when it is at its last gasp and near death, draws ten thousand sufferings to itself, and as, when a house is about to fall, many pieces usually fall first from the roof and walls, so the end of the world is near and at the very doors, and that is why ten thousand woes are scattered everywhere. If the Lord was “near” then, much more is he “near” now. If three hundred years ago, when those words were spoken, Paul called that time “the fullness of time,” much more would he have called the present so.

But perhaps it is for this very reason that some do not believe. Yet for this reason they ought to believe all the more. For how do you know, my friend, that the end is not “near,” and that the words are not about to be fulfilled? We speak of the end of the year not only as its last day, but also as its last month, even though that has thirty days. In the same way, out of so many years, if I call even four hundred years “the end,” I will not be wrong. And so in his time Paul spoke of the end in anticipation.

So let us set ourselves in order; let us take delight in the fear of God. If we live here without fear of him, his coming will take us by surprise, suddenly, when we are neither anxious nor watching for him. Christ declared this when he said, “For as in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Lot, so will it be at the end of this world” (Matthew 24, verse 37). Paul declared it too, when he said, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains come upon a woman with child” (First Thessalonians 5, verse 3). What does “as labor pains come upon a woman with child” mean? Pregnant women have often been at play, or at their meals, or in the bath or the marketplace, foreseeing nothing of what was coming, and have been seized by their pains in a moment.

Since our situation is like theirs, let us always be prepared. We will not always hear these things; we will not always have the power to do them. “In the grave,” says David, “who will give you thanks?” (Psalm 6, verse 5). Let us, then, repent here, so that we may find God merciful to us on the day that is coming, and be able to enjoy abundant forgiveness. May we all obtain it, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.