John 4:38Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Let the Arians also hear that Christ sends the disciples as Lord and Master. He sends them to reap and to cut away from earthly things the Gentiles and Jews attached to them.

He sends them to carry these to the threshing floor, that is, into the Church. There, through threshing by oxen, that is, teachers, and through submission to them, they are ground down.

Being freed from every husk, from everything fleshly and fit for fire, they are stored as pure grains in the heavenly garner. Then they become food for God, who rejoices over their salvation.

Thus Paul reaped, cutting us away from the earth and teaching that our citizenship is in the heavens (Phil 3:20).

What does this mean? He sent reapers, not sowers. Where are reapers needed? Where others have already labored. For where the work has already been done, that is, where sowing has taken place, 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 whitened, 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).

(2) Who, then, are those who already labored? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Read of their labors. In all their labors there is prophecy of Christ, and therefore they are sowers. Moses and the other patriarchs, and all the prophets, did so much in those cold times when they sowed.

Thus in Judea the harvest had already been prepared. It was fitting that the crop there seemed to have ripened when so many thousands brought the price of their possessions and laid it at the apostles' feet. Freeing their shoulders from the burden of the world, 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 sowed 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 is now growing among the tares and waits to be cleansed at the end of the ages.

But that field, to which the disciples were first sent and where the prophets had labored, was already ripe. Yet see, brethren, what was said: "Both the sower and the reaper will rejoice together" (Jn 4:36). They performed their labors at different times, but they will equally enjoy joy. Together, as their reward, they will receive eternal life.

And he added, instructing him, "All this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: 'Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel'" (Mt 1:20-23; Is 7:14).

By the prophet's words he persuaded him and justified Mary, showing that Mary is the Virgin foretold by Isaiah, who was to bear Emmanuel.

Therefore Joseph, being undoubtedly convinced, received Mary. In all the rest of Christ's upbringing he showed obedience with joy, until he went into Egypt, returned from there, and settled in Nazareth.

Those who did not know the Scriptures, the promise of God, and the dispensation of Christ called him the child's father.

For this reason the Lord Himself in Capernaum read the prophecies of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me.

"He has sent Me to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind" (Lk 4:18; Is 61:1).

Pointing to Himself as the One foretold by the prophecy of Isaiah, He said to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21).

For this reason also Philip, when he found the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia reading the words of Scripture, "Like a sheep He was led to slaughter.

"And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away" (Is 53:7; Acts 8:27), and the rest that the prophet said about His Passion and coming in the flesh.

The prophet also said how He was dishonored by unbelievers. Philip easily persuaded him to believe that this is Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate and having suffered what the prophet foretold.

He also persuaded him that He is the Son of God, who grants men eternal life. Immediately after baptizing the eunuch, he departed from him.

For nothing else was lacking to him except baptism, since he had already been instructed beforehand by the prophets. He did not know God the Father or the rules of morality only, but the coming of the Son of God.

Having quickly recognized Him, he continued his journey with joy, to preach the coming of Christ in Ethiopia. Therefore Philip did not labor much over him, for he had already been prepared by the prophets in the fear of God.

Therefore the apostles too, gathering the lost sheep of the house of Israel, spoke with them from the Scriptures. They proved that the crucified Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

They persuaded a great multitude, which already had the fear of God. In one day three thousand were baptized, and then four and five thousand (Acts 2:41; Acts 4:4). Against Heresies, 4.23.

The seed they sowed was the prophetic books and the disposition they formed in the hearts of the Jews to receive faith in Christ.

See, then, how the Apostles entered into their labors and reaped the ears of those being saved. On what did the protomartyr Stephen base the teaching about Christ that he presented before the council? (Acts 7).

On the labors of the Patriarchs and Prophets. From where did Peter begin the preaching of Christ, by which in one day he converted about five thousand? (Acts 4:4).

From the proclamation of the Prophets. From what did Paul persuade the Jews in the synagogues that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that Christ is Himself that promised Messiah and God? (Acts 17:2-3).

From the divine Scripture. Through what did the Evangelists and all the other Apostles preach Christ among the Jews? On what did they establish their gospel preaching?

On the foundations of the prophetic seeds. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself also established His teaching on the prophetic writings. Therefore He said, "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me" (Jn 5:46).

Among the latter, the sower would be wronged and grieved if the reaper began gathering into his granaries grain which he had not sown. Or the reaper would not rejoice in the abundance of the harvest, but only the sower, whose granaries are filled with grain.

But the reaper in the spiritual field receives a reward for his labors. At the same time he gathers fruit for eternal life, which was precisely the final purpose of the sowing. Therefore the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.

For with regard to the spiritual field the saying is completely true, alethinos: one sows, and another reaps. I chose and called you to reap that over which you did not labor. You have entered into the labors of others.

In earthly relations, however, this is not fully true. There the sower is also the reaper, even if he does not perform this work himself, because the fruit is gathered into his granaries.

Jesus Christ said all this with the Samaritans in view, who were ready to believe in Him. Yet the thoughts expressed here, beginning with verse 36, are more general. In general, the apostles must labor on soil already prepared and 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 it refers, together with Him, to all the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist.

The labors of the apostles are, as it were, brought to nothing before the labor of the Lord, into which they only enter. Their future labors are presented as not their own, before the greatness of His labor.

He began by His word to accomplish the conversion of mankind. They must continue and complete His work. He began to cultivate and sow the field. They must cultivate it further and reap.

The labor and greatness of the apostles' work on this field are not thereby abolished or belittled. Yet in relation to the Lord's labor, they are presented as easier and more pleasant.

For it is easier and more joyful to reap, gathering the fruit, than to labor over the cultivation of the fruit. Thus the apostles themselves attributed everything, the whole work of their preaching, to their Lord; cf. 1 Cor 3:5ff.

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."