Look Around You
Scripture: John 4:31-38 (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway)
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.” 33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other. 34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.” (John 4:31–38 NLT)
The “disciples” hadn’t quite got the memo yet that Jesus doesn’t get as worked up about the details as we usually do! It doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. Remember the prayer “Give us today our daily bread” and the words he spoke in Matthew 6:25-34. (See GraceNotes 02-01-23 “Worry”). It just means that he is looking at a bigger picture than what’s for lunch, that he is nourished by the flow of spirit-guided interaction with people and obedience to our Father, and that there’s a lot to be done and more opportunity for service than we can embrace in a lifetime. He does care about lunch, but he cares more about you and me and others!
The disciples saw Jesus, a foreign woman of questionable character, and a little Samaritan village they couldn’t wait to see in the rear-view mirror. Jesus saw fields ripe for harvest. He saw people he would one day die for, ready to hear, to believe, to respond, to be brought to eternal life! He saw generations of planters, he saw harvesters in training, and he saw redeemed people, all sharing joyful fellowship in the Kingdom of God.
So Jesus said, “Wake up, guys! Look around you! This woman you so quickly dismissed, these people you see rushing out here from the village, this is why we’re here. This is why we had to go through Samaria. Galilee will still be there when we get there. These people are the harvest Heaven rejoices over today! Look around you!”
Prayer:
Father, I’m so slow to get it. I miss so much. I want your priorities to be my priorities and your viewpoint to be my viewpoint. I will wake up! I will look around me! Amen!