When You Reap What You *Didn't* Sow

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Our Bible Study has been moved to Wednesday, February 26, due to inclement weather expected in Tulsa.

 

John 4:27-38

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 
 

The disciples encounter Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman and they are so shocked that they don’t say anything! She leaves and invites the townspeople to come and see Jesus. In the meantime, the disciples start talking to Jesus about food; He replies by talking about obedience, which He implies is satisfying:

34 My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work [John 4:34].

Then Jesus pivots and makes the point that there is a lot of spiritual work to be done, work that has been prepared for in the past:

38b Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor [John 4:38b].

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
That’s just a true statement, isn’t it? We are all beneficiaries of the work of those who have come before us.