Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. (John 4:35b)

I was driving on Hwy 81 the other day and  I started to admire the beautiful farm fields that are waiting for harvest. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I do know that the color of the tassel helps a farmer determine if his crop is ready to be harvested. Grain, when ripe, turns from a green to a yellow or light color, indicating that it is time to reap it. 

In John chapter 4, Jesus was using a word picture to help us understand that there are thousands of people in the world ready to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The field represents the world and the grain pictures souls that are ready to hear the words of eternal life. In this context of John 4, Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman by a well. 

However there is a problem, Jesus wasn’t supposed to talk too a Samaritan, because the Samaritans were considered half-breeds and the outcasts of Jewish society. Let’s listen in to part of their conversation…. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink… Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.  Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water  (Jn 4:7-10).  

Jesus broke all the rules to talk with this Samaritan woman. He could have followed the crowd and kept to himself but thank God for us that he didn’t! We serve a Jesus that “must needs go thru Samaria”(Jn 4:4).

Later in this chapter, the Bible tells us that many of the Samaritans in this city believed in Christ for the saying of the woman which testified of him. 

Let me ask you a question: When was the last time you testified of Jesus Christ, and shared the Gospel with another person? The bible tells us in Proverbs 11:30 that he which winneth souls is wise. I believe that one of the first things we need to do is lift our eyes up and see that there is a desperate need now to share the Gospel with the world. First, we need to start in our own Jerusalem, our co-workers, neighbors, friends and family. Then we can use our resources to help spread the Gospel around the world thru missions.

The great commission commands every Christian to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Lets lift up our eyes and look at the great harvest field that is waiting for you and me to reap.

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.(Jn 4:35-36)

— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Matthew Spoonhour is pastor of First Baptist Church, Monroe.