John 4:37Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So that no one, as I have said, might think that the prophets are deprived of reward, He says something strange and unexpected. It does not occur in visible affairs, but is proper to spiritual things.

In visible affairs, if one happened to sow and another to reap, both would not rejoice together. The sower would grieve that he had labored for others, and only the reaper would rejoice.

Here it is not so. Even those who do not reap what they sowed rejoice together with the reapers. From this it is clear that they too share in the reward.

Thus it will reap from service under the law those who still serve the law and cleave only to the letter. Like sheaves, it will transfer them into the gospel disposition and life.

It will also cut idolaters away from polytheistic error and transfer them to the knowledge of the true God. In brief, it will transfer all who still mind earthly things, through faith in Christ, to angelic life.

This, He says, is what the word of the reapers will accomplish. Yet it will not remain without reward. It will surely gather for them "fruit" that nourishes "unto eternal life."

Not only those who have received this fruit will rejoice. Those who have joined themselves to the labors of the prophets and reaped the sowing prepared by them will also keep one feast together with them.

With this in view, I think, the most wise Paul, who had perfectly learned the Old Testament types concerning future times, spoke of the holy Fathers and Prophets.

He said that "all these, having obtained witness through faith, did not receive the promise, since God had foreseen something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us" (Heb 11:39-40).

For the Savior was pleased that the reaper should rejoice together with the one who had sown before.

He sent reapers, not sowers. Where are reapers needed? Where others have already labored. Where the work has already been done, that is, where it has been sown, and what was sown has reached maturity, the sickle and threshing are needed.

Where, then, were the reapers to be sent? Where the prophets had already preached, for they are the sowers. If they had not been sowers, how could that woman have said, "I know that Messiah is coming" (Jn 4:25)?

That woman was already ripe fruit. The fields had become white, and the sickle was needed. Therefore, I sent you. Where? "To reap what you did not sow. Others sowed, and you have entered into their labor" (Jn 4:38).

Who, then, are those who had already labored? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Read of their labors: in all their labors the prophecy of Christ abides. Therefore they are sowers.

Moses and the other patriarchs and all the prophets did much in those cold times when they were sowing. Therefore in Judea the harvest had already been prepared.

It is fitting to say that the harvest ripened there when so many thousands brought the price of their possessions and laid it at the apostles' feet. Freed from the worldly burden on their shoulders, they followed Christ the Lord (Acts 4:35).

Truly, the harvest had ripened. What was done with it? Many grains from that harvest were scattered and sown throughout the whole circle of the lands.

Another harvest is growing, which will be gathered at the end of the age. Of this harvest it is said, "Those who sow with tears shall reap with joy" (Ps 125:5).

And to this harvest not the apostles, but the Angels, will be sent. "The reapers," He says, "are the Angels" (Mt 13:39).

This harvest grows among the tares and waits to be cleansed at the end of the ages. But the field to which the disciples were first sent, and where the prophets had labored, was already ripe.

Yet, brothers, see what was said: "Both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together" (Jn 4:36). They carried out their labors at different times, but they will enjoy the same joy.

Together, as their reward, they will receive eternal life.

His spirit contemplated the workings of divine truth in the soul of the woman, in the inhabitants of the city, in the land, and in the whole world.

He had in view the worldwide spread of that teaching whose beginnings He was now offering to a poor woman. He already saw before Him the harvest from the seeds He was now casting into the depths of the earth.

Therefore the Lord answered the disciples' astonishment: "I have another food of which you do not know." That which nourishes My spirit makes Me forget bodily food.

"My food is to fulfill the will of Him who sent Me, and I fulfill His work." I sow the seed from which the kingdom of God must spread through all mankind.

Then, in a parabolic comparison, He showed them what He meant by the work of God begun among the Samaritans.

Perhaps He was looking, on one side, at farmers scattered through the fields, occupied with sowing, or at the grain sprouting in the fields. On the other side He saw the crowds coming out to Him from the city at the woman's summons.

The Lord said: you say that the harvest will not be earlier than four months from now. In nature this is so. But now, in spiritual matters, it is otherwise.

When the time has come, the seed is only just being sown, and the harvest has already begun. Lift up your eyes, He said, pointing to the approaching crowds of Samaritans, and see how these fields are already ready for harvest.

At the same time, seeing in spirit that He would leave the earth before the full harvest began, He knew that He would have to entrust its completion to His disciples.

The Lord prophetically foretold that this present harvest lay before them. He would enjoy it together with them, for the sower and the reaper would rejoice. They would reap what had been sown.

Thus the Lord already hinted to them at His departure from them and at His near death. This was preceded by the still nearer death of His Forerunner.

Or the reaper would not rejoice over the abundance of the harvest, but only the sower, whose barns are being filled with grain. On the spiritual field, however, the reaper receives a reward for his own labors.

At the same time, he gathers fruit for eternal life, which was precisely the final goal of the sowing. Therefore the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.

For with regard to the spiritual field the saying is entirely true, alethinos: one sows, and another reaps.

I have chosen and called you to reap that for which you have not labored. You have entered into the labors of others.

In the realm of earthly relations this is not entirely true. There the sower is also the reaper, even if he does not perform this work himself, because the fruit is gathered into his barns.

Jesus Christ said all this with the Samaritans in view, who were ready to believe in Him. But the thoughts here, beginning with verse 36, are expressed more generally.

In general, the apostles have to labor on soil already prepared, already sown. For this reason, the plural "others" in verse 38 is understood in different ways.

Either it is used instead of the singular, in which case Jesus Christ is meant. Or together with Him all the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist are meant.

Now you see, to paraphrase the Lord's words, the truth of this in the present case. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others sowed the seed of the word, and the fruits of their labors fall to you.

Turning His gaze to the future, the Savior tells the disciples that they will yet enjoy the fruits of a harvest for which they did not labor at all. Others labored: the prophets, the Forerunner, and He Himself.

How will this be? The disciples are appointed to pass through the whole world with the message of the Savior of the world who has come.

Their teaching will not be a new teaching. They will set forth what they heard from the Teacher and what the Holy Spirit will explain to them according to the will of the Son of God.

New seeds have been sown by one Sower. These seeds will give fruit in due time. The disciples will be comforted in gathering the fruit into the heavenly garner (Mt 13:30).

In the distance we see the assembly of prophets, beginning with Enoch, Noah, the patriarchs, and Moses. They spoke words placed in their mouths by divine wisdom and providence.

We also see the creation of God's people in the wilderness: "The Lord found him," the people of Israel, "in the wilderness, in a sorrowful and wild waste" (Deut 32:10).

With this came an order and legislation to which, in greatness and humanity, there was not, and could not be, anything similar in the ancient world.

We cannot give here a survey of this divine legislation, but compare Deut 4 and see the commentaries on the Pentateuch.

After this rises, one after another, an assembly of leaders, God-inspired kings, singers, and prophets. They spoke of the coming Messiah, awaited Him, and "desired to see what the disciples saw, and to hear what they heard, but did not see and did not hear" (Mt 13:17).

Of these the Lord speaks to His disciples: "One is the sower, and another is the reaper," and "you have entered into their labor."

Indeed, let them remember how joylessly Moses and the later prophets labored among a stubborn and stiff-necked people, in view of the seeming barrenness of their rebukes.

Yet they put their whole soul into their thunderous rebukes under the influence of the Spirit of God. They only pointed from afar to the great event of the Messiah's appearance.

They were not counted worthy to see Him and rejoice. For "not to themselves, but to us they ministered the things which now have been announced to you by those who preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven" (1 Pet 1:12).

The joy of the reapers fell to the Apostles, though of course with many sorrows, sufferings, and labors. For every great work on earth can bear fruit only when it has been suffered.

Yet this was the great and holy joy of gathering fruits grown on God's field. It had been sown with the Word of God and bore fruit because it had been watered by the precious blood of the Lamb.

Let us remember here, however, that the Apostle Paul says of all who labor in God's field: all working men are comparatively nothing. "It is God who gives the increase" (1 Cor 3:5-7).

Yet no one among those who labor now or labored before will be deprived of his reward (1 Cor 3:8). For the Lord says: "that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together."

By these words the Lord reveals to us still greater and deeper mysteries, understood only after His bright and joyful Resurrection.

The holy sufferings of the Old Testament are joined in common joy with the holy preachers of the New Testament. For the preparation of mankind to receive the mysteries of salvation began when the Lord God uttered the promise concerning the "Seed of the woman" (Gen 3:15).

But when did the holy men of the Old Testament "enter into the joy of their Lord"? It was then, as the Apostle Peter said, when the Word descended to preach to "the spirits in prison" (1 Pet 3:18).

At the time when the most pure body was in the tomb, compare Athanasius the Great and chapter XIX, the world of spirits who had ended their earthly existence and awaited deliverance was illumined with light.

It resounded with the joyful cry: Christ is risen! "That both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together."