“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 4:37-38)
After Jesus’ disciples came back to the well with food, thus interrupting his conversation with the Samaritan woman, she went back to town to tell people she had met the Messiah. Her testimony was simple: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Messiah?” Based on that testimony, people from the town started going out to meet Jesus.
As the Samaritans trickled towards the well, Jesus told his disciples to look at the “harvest.” We can imagine Peter, James, John, and the rest shielding their eyes from the sun as they gazed at Samaritans walking to them, ready to meet Jesus. This was a moment when the disciples didn’t need to expend effort—the “catch” was jumping into boat. At that moment, Jesus quoted the proverb, “One sows and another reaps.” The disciples were reaping a harvest of souls that they didn’t have to plant; they got to share in the fruit and joy without doing the work.
Who did the sowing?
Was Jesus referring to the words of Scripture, or the voices of previous generations that prepared the people of this little village for the Messiah? Perhaps. Many seeds were planted before this moment, after all. But in the immediate context of John 4, the only sowing done was by the unnamed Samaritan woman. She planted her seed boldly—we can imagine her grabbing people in the market and saying, “I think I just met the Messiah!!”
To be fair, evangelism is rarely this easy. The disciples got to reap without working, because she planted the seed, and even her planting was just a simple, exuberant challenge to others to come meet Jesus. Most of the time, both sowing and reaping take more work than this.
But sometimes, when the Spirit moves, evangelism is this simple. Revivals tend to catch the Church by surprise, because the “cause” seems so insignificant. A single prayer meeting, an exuberant testimony, the decision to confess a hidden sin—the list of things that has sparked revivals over the centuries seems so ordinary. Sometimes the Spirit takes off, and the harvest grows way out of proportion to the planting, at least from our vantage point.
In Christ,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matt 3:2)
Jesus’ call to repentance has been the way he has called me closer to himself. I still freeze up a bit when asked to share my testimony: by the immense grace of God, I grew up a believing child of believing parents, knowing the Lord from before I can remember. As a teenager in a pentecostal church community my testimony was rejected: “If that’s all, are you really saved?” My testimony is not one of dramatic conversion, but instead of being drawn closer to his side, as I pray it will be until I die, and then – praise God! – for all eternity.
As a young teenager I remember reading Jesus’ parable (in Luke 7:41-47) of the people forgiven their debts by the moneylender. I was struck and saddened by his statement, “He who is forgiven little, loves little.” I could imagine Jesus standing beside me saying, “Come, give up all your pet sins, and follow me,” but I didn’t know how. I truly thought, and I quote, “How will I ever grow to love the Lord more when I have so little to repent of?” Again, at the end of my teen years, I was praying the Lord’s Prayer with my congregation in Sunday service. Coming to, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” I gave my heart as honest an examination as I could, and came up empty. Nothing to confess, nothing to forgive. Thankfully that was also when I turned to the Lord for help – this can’t be true, so how do I come to know the truth of my sin?
“But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” (2 Cor. 3:16) Praise God, but also how terrifying! If the Lord shines on us, our darkness will be exposed, for “when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible” (Eph. 5:13) – visible, undeniable, awful in its ugliness, impossible to continue holding onto without directly defying my God.
But both 2 Corinthians and Ephesians continue, heaping grace upon grace. Ephesians 5:13-14 says, “For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 continues, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
In his mercy, our Father exposed my sin when I turned to him, and showed me that truly I have much to be forgiven. But it has been a long, slow journey, learning to resist the temptation to turn away and hide again in darkness. Fear, shame, pride, and a desire to continue in my own way – these all hinder me again and again from looking to the Lord and allowing the sunshine of his face to expose my darkness. As I hide my sins away from the Lord’s prying eyes, though, Satan uses them to blackmail me, to threaten me with exposure and to name me: liar, thief, promiscuous, pervert, lazy, unable to learn. But when I bring the sins my Lord convicts me of into the light of his presence, he sets me free and gives me my true name: loved, known, forgiven. As Paul says at the beginning of the passage in 2 Corinthians (3:12), “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” Emboldened by our hope, may we repent, and repenting may we be forgiven, and being forgiven, may we grow in love for our great Lord.
Hannah
Confronting Temptation and the Devil
Why do we fast?
On Ash Wednesday, in the newsletter, I mentioned that all the “40s” in the Bible revolve around and participate in Jesus’ fasting. 40 is the period of time for waiting, preparation, and fasting, because each “40” (the desert wanderings, a woman’s pregnancy, Moses on the mountain with God, etc.) joins Jesus in his 40 days of fasting. We fast with Jesus when we go through one of these periods of preparation—he is with us and we are with him; we are a part of his life.
On Sunday, we listened to the account of Jesus being driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. His fasting was a strange form of preparation for that temptation—the whole world was stripped away, so that he could confront Satan in complete weakness. That may seem odd, but remember that “complete weakness” is simply another way of saying “with only faith in God remaining.” Jesus fasted before his confrontation with the devil so that the only thing he would have left is faith in the Father.
We fast with Jesus during Lent (not just copying him, but actually joining him). Our fasting—like his—is a means of learning to live with no strength other than faith in the Father. If the only weapon in our arsenal is dependence on God, we are finally ready to confront temptation and the devil. As long as we depend on ourselves, we are prone to fall. That is why Peter tells us to “resist” the devil “firm in your faith.” Faith clings to God, and God alone can deliver us from the tricks of the devil and our own selfish hearts.
This Lent, as you fast, remember that you are fasting to learn to cling to God. We fast so that we might have nothing left, and in having nothing left, that we might throw all our hope on God.
In Christ,
Steven+