John 4:27–38

THE RIPENED HARVEST

²⁷Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”^{al 30}They left the town and made their way to him.^am

³¹In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,^an eat something.”

³²But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

³⁴“My food is to do the will of him^a who sent me^b and to finish his work,”^c Jesus told them. ³⁵“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^C your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready^D for harvest. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^d so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{e 38}I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^A their labor.”